THE ULTIMATE MAYA AND MENTAL RAY ARCHVIZ GUIDE

#81

amazing work alex, thank you! :slight_smile:

#82

Is there a difference between the book and the class done for gnomon master class
http://www.gnomonschool.com/master/2011/

#83

Thanks Alex.

#84

Looks amazing! Thanks again for sharing your knowledge Alex.

#85

Many Thanks downloading right now can’t wait to start reading it and again many thanks Alex for sharing this knowledge

#86

Alex, why did you say that these assets are just a small portion of the main “Ultimate Maya and Mental Ray Archviz Guide” assets?

#87

Thanks for your words guys… Really appreciated and from now on will go freestyle with my “Broccolino” slang… No more spell check, thesaurus or translators, free at last…!:scream:

Eshta… Yes indeed there is a difference since that the recording for the Master Class 2011 was based mainly on the fifth part of the Tutorial, with just a few excerpts from the fourth part…:curious:

You will notice that there are a few repetitions here and there “just a few…:blush:” and an extensive use of quotes, from the main Autodesk Online Help Docs…

In my opinion the most important part of the Tutorial are the “step by step” Maya and Mental Ray instructions, which btw makes 90% of the Guide and should be used in conjunction to the Maya production scenes.

Ciao…
Alex

PS. Ooops I forgot… Use the bookmarks embedded on the left hand side of the main .pdf docs, to jump from one section to another and don’t underestimate the informative Acrobat Pro X Portfolios.pdf…

“I rather die young then die old and broke, that’s why I stay drunk and I constantly smoke”

#88

Hey you did a great job. And thanks for giving credits to me. :slight_smile: But honestly, I dont know if I am the only one but the doc format is horrorable to read. :frowning:

#89

Hi J.H thanks for the feedback and if you mean that the text formatting used for the first 4 PARTS.pdf is “horrible”, by reading the whole thing over and over I just get used to it and start to love this weird format…

I choosed to use the “UPPER” case format for most of the “conversational” text in the main docs, to draw the attention and to emphasize the Maya and Mental Ray features and nodes names, which are also enclosed with quotes.

I agree that might be quite annoying at the start but once you get use to it, hope you will find out that this kind of format engages you to read more carefully and slower the info provided…

Btw… I can assure you that the “naming covention” used for the Maya and Mental Ray features and nodes, is way more annoying…!

After all this is not a novel but a quite tight set of instructions that requires constant attention and btw… You will notice that the fifth PART is formatted in the standard “lowercase” format.

Since that the fifth PART was created for a Presentation at the CGOverdrive event, held in Singapore last year.

Because as I said already, the whole assets are more than (5) Giga after compression…

If thanks to your feedback this huge project will turnout to be somehow useful for the 3d Maya and Mental Ray green users, like for example Migel Gorospe a very brilliant 15 years old Maya artist from the Philippines…

And if this thread receives a bit more attention I will soon upload a few more Maya 2009, 2011 and 2012 versions of the 3D Characters scene to which I applied some of the more elaborate shaders in the Tutorial, as well as the required Plug-ins and Mel Scripts.

Like the “misss_fast_skin_maya” material connected to the “Additional Color” field attribute of the “mia_material_x” material, in the elaborate Mental Ray Clearcoat “CAR PAINT” shading network.

As well as the “mia_material_x” and the “misss_fast_skin_maya” materials used in conjunction to the Mental Ray “mib_twosided1”, “Sample Compositing” node…

In the very elaborate shading network assigned to the 3D Characters skin in these simple scenes, as well as the “3D vegetation” in the more complex Maya production scenes.

Rendered in the Maya 2012 version, using “iray” as well as the new Mental Ray “Unified Sampling” feature and will also post the resulting multilayer exr files as well.

Please note that the main 3d characters texturing and UV mapping is not very accurate, since that I had to replace “on the fly” the previous “Rocketbox Libraries” low poly 3d characters…

I will appreciate if some of the guys that greatly contributed to the creation of this Guide like for example Tostao Wayne, Hamburger, Dagon and Bitter Just to name a few…

Will drop by as well and live a little feedback, positive or negative really doesn’t matter…

Cheers…
Alex

“I rather die young then die old and broke, that’s why I stay drunk and I constantly smoke”

#90

Because as I said already, the whole assets are more than (5) Giga after compression…

Sorry, but I don’t cleary understand some things… The chapters, that you share are consists of full information about techniques and methods of rendering with mental ray or not? Or it is something else? Will you share a scene files (whole assets I mean) later?
Thanks.

#91

Hi Fomen…

Did you start to read the main docs I shared here, as well as my previous posts in this thread…?

Well if the answer is yes you already understand that these are “compressed” copies of the main docs which comprise most of the written part of the Tutorial, that should be used in conjunction to the Maya production scenes.

To answer your second question… Yes of course I will share the whole thing with the Maya and Mental Ray comunity as promised, but I will just do it in a few steps.

Considering the size and the complexity of this Guide I will bring you gradually to get acquainted to the [color=white]lighting, texturing and rendering techniques discussed in the Tutorial… [/color]
[color=white][/color]
[color=white]Using first the light and simple 3D characters Maya 2009, Maya 2011 and Maya 2012 scenes.[/color]

I will start to upload some of the Maya 2009, 2011 and 2012 versions of the 3D Characters scenes, as well as the required Plug-ins and Mel Scripts as soon as tonight or tmwr.

But before to release the whole thing, I just want to be sure that this project get the attention (that in my opinion) it deserves and most of all…

Considering that after a lot of “Gnomon here and Gnomon there” announcements the Tutorial failed to be published for copyright related issues, just want to make sure that you don’t underestimate its value.

Last but not least… Once you will get familiar to the techniques discussed, I will be happy to share the username and password details required to download the whole thing from my web…

With some of the brilliant 3D guys mentioned and quoted in the Tutorial, such as David Johnson “djx” that with his very informative Maya and Mental Ray Blog:

http://www.djx.com.au/blog/

Is already sharing a wealth of infos with the entire 3D community, since years now.

Considering that I just cannot share those details online, hopefully some of the guys will help me to spread the Tutorial over the net…

Cheers.
Alex

“The message I stress: to make it stop, study your lessons… Don’t settle for less, even a genius asks questions… Be grateful for blessings and don’t ever change, keep your essence…”

#92

Thank you for the detailed reply, Alex. It’s everything clear for me now. :slight_smile: I will be learn mental with pleasure due to your guide. :beer:

#93

Ok guys, I finally figure it out and to avoid flooding CGTalk with my threads…:argh:

Will not open a new thread and just to make it more easy for the green users, will go on to gradually release the “Ultimate Maya and Mental Ray Archviz Guide” assets here.

Using the experience gained creating and recording the “Environment Lighting & Progressive Rendering” Master Class, for the Master Classes 2011 event.

Will also provide you with some feedback, as I did for the guys who attended the “Environment Lighting & Progressive Rendering” Master Class.

So to start with this huge Maya and Mental Ray Master Class… Assuming that you already downloaded the previous assets, located in the “Docs” folder:

http://www.samui3d.com/Docs.rar

Go on and download the new assets, right here:

http://www.samui3d.com/Docs_New.rar

In the “Docs_New” folder I have enclosed a few simple Maya 2011 3D Stereo Playblast “.avi” Animations, created using the Maya “Playblast” utility.

Located in the “Maya_2011_Stereo_Camera_Motion_Path_Playblast_Animations” folder and please note that to view these “.avi” Animations correctly…

You should use the “Stereoscopic Player” Player, located in the “StereoscopicPlayer166_en” folder under the “Programs_and_Utilities_2011” folder.

Will share the Maya 2011 scenes used to create these 3D Stereo animations later in this thread, but first would like you to concentrate on the 3D characters Maya 2009, Maya 2011 and Maya 2012 scenes…

Located in the main “Docs_New” folder as well as the required Plug-ins and Mel Scripts, which are located in the “Mr_Custom_Shaders_and_Scripts_2009_SP1A/2011/2012” and “Programs_and_Utilities_2009_SP1A/2011” folders.

A screenshot from the “3D_PEOPLE_POSED_CAR_PAINT_MAYA_2009_SP1A” scene, of the main 3d characters final render image output…

Link to the high rez version:

http://www.samui3d.com/3D_PEOPLE_POSED_CAR_PAINT_MAYA_2009.jpg

A screenshot from the"3D_PEOPLE_POSED_LOW_TRANS_CAR_PAINT_MAYA_2011" scene, of the main 3d characters final render image output…

Link to the high rez version:

http://www.samui3d.com/3D_PEOPLE_POSED_CAR_PAINT_MAYA_2011.jpg

A screenshot from the “3D_PEOPLE_POSED_SKY_IRAY_CAR_PAINT_MAYA_2012” scene, of the main 3d characters final render image output…

Link to the high rez version:

http://www.samui3d.com/3D_PEOPLE_POSED_SKY_CAR_PAINT_IRAY_MAYA_2012.jpg

A screenshot from the “3D_PEOPLE_POSED_IBL_IRAY_CAR_PAINT_MAYA_2012” scene, of the main 3d characters final render image output…

Link to the high rez version:

http://www.samui3d.com/3D_PEOPLE_POSED_IBL_CAR_PAINT_IRAY_MAYA_2012.jpg

A screenshot from the “3D_PEOPLE_POSED_UNIFIED_SAMPLING_LOW_TRANS_CAR_PAINT_MAYA_2012” scene, of the main 3d characters final render image output…

Link to the high rez version:

http://www.samui3d.com/3D_PEOPLE_POSED_UNIFIED_SAMPLING_CAR_PAINT_MAYA_2012.jpg

In the “Docs_New” folder, I have enclosed the “diagnostic_3D_PEOPLE_POSED_UNIFIED_SAMPLING_LOW_TRANS_CAR_PAINT_MAYA_2012” multilayer exr file as well…

Rendered using the “3D_PEOPLE_POSED_UNIFIED_SAMPLING_LOW_TRANS_CAR_PAINT_MAYA_2012” Maya 2012 scene, which should be viewed using the Mental Ray “imf_disp” utility.

Once downloaded the “Docs_New” folder extract the new assets to the previously downloaded “Docs” folder, which will be the main folder for this Master Class…

And replace the previous “SPONZAMAPFILES2009” file textures folder, with the updated version located in the “Docs_New” folder.

To avoid you the “hassle” of setting up “by hand” the custom Mental Ray shaders and scripts provided with the “Docs_New” folder, depending on which Maya version you are using…

Go on and replace the original “2009-x64”, “2011-x64” or the “2012-x64” folders located in the “C:\Users…\Documents\maya” directory on your hard drive, with the corresponding folders located in the “My_Documents_maya_folders” zip folder:

http://www.samui3d.com/My_Documents_maya_folders.rar

And you should be fine… Just in case, back up the original folders located in the “C:\Users…\Documents\maya” directory on your hard drive, before replacing it
!

Please remember that depending on which Maya version you are using, you still must “copy and paste” the “dll’s” files located in the “Iray_dll_Maya_2011_2012_bin_folder” zip folder:

http://www.samui3d.com/Iray_dll_Maya_2011_2012_bin_folder.rar

To the “bin” folder located in the “Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2011/bin” as well as in the “Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2012/bin” directories, on your hard drive…

Required to enable the Mental Ray “iray” render engine algorithm and assuming that you already installed, the Autodesk Mental Ray Standalone…

These “dll’s” files can also be found in the “Program Files/Autodesk/mrstand-adsk2011/bin”, as well as in the “Program Files/Autodesk/mrstand3.9.1-adsk2012/bin” folder.

Please note that you can download the Mental Ray Standalone version best suited for the Maya version you are using, from the main Autodesk website:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/index?siteID=123112&id=2334435&linkID=9242259#section2

A last note to remind you that the “3D_PEOPLE_POSED_CAR_PAINT_MAYA_2009_SP1A” Maya 2009_SP1A scene, should be used exclusively in conjunction to the Maya 2009 “SP1AX64.bit” version.

Considering the different Mental Ray 3.8 and 3.9 shaders integration in Maya 2011 and Maya 2012, compared to the previous Mental Ray 3.7 version shipped with Maya 2009 “SP1AX64.bit”.

The same goes for the “3D_PEOPLE_POSED_LOW_TRANS_CAR_PAINT_MAYA_2011” Maya 2011 scene which should be used in conjunction to the Maya 2011 version.

As well as the Maya 2012 scenes that should be used in conjunction to the latest Maya 2012 version, even if you still can open scenes created using different Maya versions…

Simply by enabling the “Ignore Version” option located in the “General Options” tab of the “Open Options” panel, under the main Maya toolbar “File” drop down menu.

Cheers…

Alex

“The message I stress: to make it stop, study your lessons… Don’t settle for less, even a genius asks questions… Be grateful for blessings and don’t ever change, keep your essence…”

#94

I’m not recommending you make it easier on “green” users, but it may be preferential to at least post all of your files back on the start of the thread as a running list of links. Pretty much all the developers posting files and updates do that on CGTalk. Just a recommendation to make it easier for you and others to view your infomration.

#95

Hi Alex,
I just finished downloading the Docs.rar and I must say I’m totally amazed by the amount of stuff you’ve managed to cram in there. As you have already said, this will take months to work through. Thanks also for giving me some credit, although I think my contribution is a bit less than you have given me credit for. I don’t know how you found the time to put something this big together - and trust me when I say, I know how long it takes.

You asked for some feedback, so here are a few thoughts (remember I have only just skimmed through a few of the pds’f).

I agree with one of the previous posters, that CAPs are difficult to absorb when they fill the page like that. PART5.pdf is so much easier on the eye. I know you said you got used to it. I don’t think many people are going to like it.

I sometimes think that “less is more” and some editing by someone who specializes in technical documentation could actually take this massive collection of knowledge to an even higher level. From what I’ve seen so far this is a collection of notes, test renders and analysis, external links and tutorials, but they seem to be all mixed together and presented almost as one continuous document (broken into 5+ parts). Once you catch your breath I think you should reconsider your other publishing options. You could make several smaller books out of this knowledge. Keep them focused on specific subjects (there could still be overlap) and get some help with the editing and make them a bit easier to digest.

Please take these comments as encouragement. I don’t want to sound like I’m being negative. I think you should be really proud of what you’ve achieved. :applause:

David

#96

Wow! i’m going to enjoy this.
Nice work dude. Thanks for giving us this detailed tut/guide/lectures/everything!
Hope autodesk picks this up and shoves it into the next maya help !
Great work!

#97

Thanks for the suggestion pix3lm0nk, just bumped the links at the start of the thread…!:thumbsup:

David thanks for your valuable feedback, for the suggestions and finally for calling me with my given name…:applause:

I agree that the whole thing could be somehow difficult to digest, but I can assure you that this extensive collection of notes, test renders and analysis as well as external links and tutorials are not mixed up randomly…

Instead… The main contents are listed in a quite logical and consistent time frame pattern, or at least it does seem consistent to me…!:rolleyes:

Plus… The “step by step instructions” should not be edited, since they should be used in conjunction to the main Maya production scenes.

Also considering that this is a “solo” project and that it took me more than two years to complete the Tutorial, which spans 3 different Maya versions.

Sadly I’m not in touch with any technical documentation expert and if any “Word” processor guru, has access to a “Macro” that could re-format thousand pages of text…

From the “Upper Case” to the “lower case” format, still retaining the main docs formatting and without altering the the Maya and Mental Ray features names enclosed with quotes…

I will be happy to share the original and quite “huge” Word 2010 docs with them, PART1.doc alone is more than 200 MB…!:banghead:

Btw… David sorry for the late reply but since this thread seems to be a little “idle” at the moment, as a former fashion photographer I’m following up with another personal project…

Focused on the human aspect of the past, present and upcoming events…:eek:

Thks Raptoreagle… Not everything, just a little “warm-up”…:wavey:
Cheers…

Alex

“The message I stress: to make it stop, study your lessons… Don’t settle for less, even a genius asks questions… Be grateful for blessings and don’t ever change, keep your essence…”

#98

Actually I wrote “mixed together”, but english is funny when you see it from someone elses point of view. Foget that I wrote “mixed”. I just meant that each doc I’ve opened so far seemed to contain several different types of info. They may be in a logical order but the format you have chosen makes it hard to distinguish one type from the other. There are various page layout styles and tecniques that can be used to make it more obvious to the reader, what is a step-by-step tutorial and what is an opinion or an analysis and so on. I think this improves comprehension.

However, I am not an expert in this field, so I’m really just comparing with what I have observed in other publications.

And, as I already said, I hope you do not confuse my comments (intended as constructive feedback) with my appreciation for what you are sharing with us all.

David

#99

withego i’ve gone thru the first pdf and i cant seem to find the scene files for the tuts in any of the zipped doc files u uploaded. or did u post the links for the scene files somewhere else? i keep seeing open the “sponzasimulations folder” but i cant find it anywhere.
thanks

u said we should call u alex…heheheehhe

#100

Hi Alex,

right now I’m at 147 page and let me say that all seems perfect logic for me. And is true, at some point we get used to the Upper Case. Thanks for this great tut. I’m gonna try in another scene your tips and post here any doubt.

Thanks,

Ciro