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Compositing V-ray Render Layers in Photoshopby Ahmed Fathi 15 Jul 2011 79 Comments

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In this tutorial Ahmed Fathi takes a look at how to composite together V-ray render layers using blending-modes and masks in

Photoshop. Once completed, this process allows you to change or tweak any aspect of your image in seconds without having to re-

render a thing! Ahmed also covers a few extra post production techniques such as Chromatic Aberration and Depth Of Field, as well as

how to emulate a Cross-processed look.

Republished Tutorial

Every few weeks, we revisit some of our reader's favorite posts from throughout the history of the site. This tutorial was first published in July of 2010.

Additional Files/ Plugins:

Download the Project Files for this tutorial

Step 1As this is a compositing tutorial, not a lighting/rendering tutorial, I'll assume that you have at least a basic knowledge of V-ray, and that

you are able to render out your own scenes already. We're going jump straight ahead into setting up the different render elements for

the compositing process.

In order to make V-ray render out the different layers, we first have to enable them in the V-ray Render Elements tab within the Render

Settings window. Once in the tab, we want to enable the following render elements as shown :

VrayDiffuseFilter

VrayMtlID

VrayObjectID

VrayRawGlobalIllumination

VrayRawLighting

VrayRawShadow

VrayReflection

VrayRefraction

VraySpecular

and VrayZDepth.


http://cdn.tutsplus.com/cg/uploads/legacy/184_VrayMaxPS_ArchVis/Assets.zip



Most of these elements dont need much work to get them right, but we are going to need to take a few steps to set up the VrayMtlID,

VrayObjectID and VrayZDepth layers.

Step 2We'll start with the VRayZDepth element. The ZDepth layer is a black and white map that is used to tell Photoshop how far each object

in our scene sits away from the render camera - the further the object is from the camera, the darker it will appear in the Zdepth layer.

Typically the Min value is used to tell the compositor which objects will be in focus.

In order to correctly setup a Zdepth map, we have to adjust the Min & Max distances that V-ray should calculate, and therefore what

appears as white (the Min value) and black (the Max value) within our scene. Select the VRayZDepth item in the elements list. At the

bottom you'll see the zdepth min and zdepth max values we need to adjust.




Step 3To get a sense of what values you should use for the min and max values, you should use a tape helper object to measure the distance

between the camera and your closest and furthest objects.

To simplify things, lets say sphere #2 in the image below is the closest sphere we want to be in focus, whilst Sphere #6 should be

slightly out of focus. We would use two tapes to measure those distances and put them in as your Min & Max Values.




Step 4Here's what the VRayZdepth render for this composite looked like after setting the Min to 20 and Max to 70 meters




Step 5The VrayMtlID render layer creates an image with a different solid colour for each material in your scene, and to use it, we need to

adjust your material IDs. In your material editor you will find an icon with the number 0 on it (as shown below.) If you click the 0, a

grid of numbers from 0 to 15 will appear - this is your material ID. Go through your scene and apply a different number to each

material you want to have a different color in your MtlID element. As we have 16 numbers, we can have 16 different materials

appearing in our MtlID render layer.

Step 6Here's how your VRayMtlID element would look like after setting up the ID's for each required material. Your result may have different

colors, but the important thing is that they are separate from one another.




Step 7VRayObjectID element is just like material IDs element mentioned above, but it outputs a different colour based on the different objects

in your scene - the Materials are irrelevant to it. To set this up, right click your desired object, select Object Properties and give each

object a different number in the Object ID field in the G-Buffer section.




Step 8I only needed to use the VRayObjectID element in order to make selecting the cars and the surrounding buildings easier in post. Here's

how it looks after rendering.




Step 9The last element we need to add in is the ambient occlusion layer, but as you'll remember, this wasn't added to our render elements list

in V-ray. We actually need to render it separately after your initial render has been completed, but don't worry, there is an easy, fast way

to do it!

Apply a VrayLightMtl to your entire scene, and then add a VrayDirt map into the color channel. You'll then need to go in and tweak the

dirt map settings until you get a good, clean result result. For this scene, I got a nice looking AO map with a Radius of 2 in my dirt map

settings.

Note: if you use a V-ray Physical Camera in your scene, (which I highly recommend,) you will need to turn off your Exposure and

Vignette options in your camera settings in order to render the AO pass properly.

Step 10After a couple of trials with the dirt map radius, I ended up with the following AO element. I also increased the dirt map subdivs from 8

to about 64 which helped to smooth out the final render, and it still rendered out relatively fast.




Step 11Just a couple more steps and we'll be ready to fire up Photoshop and start compositing! But first, how do we get all of these elements

out of V-ray? For starters, there is the obvious way of saving them to file one at a time, however there are infact two techniques used

for saving the different channels to disk and we'll cover both of them in the next few steps.

The first method is really helpful, especially for those who use a Linear Workflow, and that is saving all the render elements out into a

single .EXR file. To do that you should first select Enable built-in Frame Bufferfrom the V-Ray::Frame buffer menu, and then turn on the

Render to V-Ray Raw image file option below. With that done, we can click browse.

Step 12




Browse to the place where you want to save your file, and enter your file name making sure to add the .EXR extension onto the end of

it. Then select All Files(*.*) as your file type. This will allow you to save your render as a single .EXR file that contains all your different

render layers.

If, however, you try to open your new .EXR file in Photoshop, you will only see the first render layer. To see the others, you'll need to

install a commercial Photoshop plug-in called ProEXR, and that is why I prefer the next method!

Note: EXR files burn in any gamma correction as it assumes you'll be using a linear workflow. If your image appears washed out in

Photoshop, go to Image > Adjustments > Exposure, and set your Gamma to 0.454, which is the inverse of 2.2 (calculated by dividing

1.0 by 2.2).

Step 13The second method (my preferred one) is to save all your elements out manually as .TGA files. I prefer TGAs to JPGs as they are 32-

Bit, and can hold much more color Information than the normal 8-Bit JPG file. Another bonus is that they support having a built-in

alpha channe.

Note: if you have never used the V-Ray Frame Buffer to render out elements before, you can find all of your elements in the top left

drop down menu that says Diffuse by default.




Step 14Now that you have finished our 3Ds Max and V-Ray Part, fire up Photoshop and lets start playing! First a small tip to help you get all of

the different files into layers in one Photoshop document. It is a script built into Photoshop that will stack your files as layers and

arrange them in alphabetical order. Go to File > Scripts > Load Scripts as Stack, and then browse for your files, select them all and click

Ok. Some people prefer bringing in the elements one at a time, however I do prefer this method myself.

Step 15This is actually your first step in compositing! We'll start by turning off the visibility on all layers except for the Z-Depth. Select all of the

contents of this layer (Ctrl+A), copy them (Ctrl+C) and then switch to your Channels tab.

Some people prefer adding a little bit of Gaussian blur to their Z-Depth before using it, however as most of my clients hate DOF,




thinking that it's a needless loss of detail, I do not do this! In the end it is a matter of personal preference.

Step 16Once in the Channels tab, first check to see that your original A lpha layer is present. If it isn't, open up the Diff.tga file seperately, switch

to it's Channels tab, and drag and drop the Alpha channel from there onto our Z-depth image - an Alpha1 channel should appear. You

can then close the Diff.tga file.

Now, click the Create New Channel and paste your Zdepth render into it. You can then switch back to the Layers tab and delete your Z-

Depth layer as we dont need it anymore.




Step 17To follow along with me in the next few steps, first arrange your layers in the order shown. The RGB layer at the top of the stack is the

raw render, straight out of V-ray. I've kept it there so that we have something to compare to at the end.

Step 18First, duplicate your Diffuse layer by right clicking it and choosing the Duplicate option, and then move the copy under your RawLight

layer as shown.

Step 19Turn on visibility for your Diffuse layer and your RawGI layer. Set your Raw GI blending mode to Multiply.




Step 20Next hold down the Alt key and click between you RawGI layer and your Diffuse layer (the cursor will change into this two circles and

an arrow icon when you're in the correct place). This little bent arrow that appears indicates that this layer (RawGI) is only affecting the

Diffuse layer. This is called a clipping mask, and you can find out more about it using a simple online search. There are tons of tutorials

out there!

Step 21Using the same technique that you learned in the last two steps. Enable visibility for both Diffuse Copy and RawLight. Set the blending

mode for the RawLight Layer to Multiply then use it to only affect Diffuse Copy layer (Alt+click between the two layers).




Step 22For the sake of better organization, group both the Diffuse & RawGI layers into a group, and the Diffuse Copy & RawLight layers into a

different group. To create a group you can click on the small folder icon at the bottom right of your layers (I should say sorry for people

who actually know all this basic stuff. I am just trying not to let anything pass by for beginners too!)

Step 23Change the blending mode the of Diffuse + Raw Light Group to Linear dodge (Add). This adds the information contained in this group

to the information contained in the group below. The image should start looking more natural now.




Step 24At this point things look much better, but you may be asking yourself - why is my glass black? Well, most of the glass information in the

final render is contained in the reflection and refraction passes, and we havent composed them just yet.

So, enable visibility for your Reflection Layer and set it's blending mode to Linear Dodge (Add) and see the difference. One of the main

benefits of having a composite like this is that, for example, on this reflection layer you can paint/paste in any reflection you want to

appear in the windows.

Note: I should explain a little bit what linear Dodge (Add) blending mode does. It adds the color information of the pixels to each other.

We know that for example Pure White is 255 and Pure Black is 0. So adding pure black adds 0 whilst adding pure white adds 255.

Therefore, pure black (0) + pure white (255) = Pure white (255), Mid grey (125) + Mid grey (125) = White (250) and so on. That is

why when you use this mode you no longer see any of your black, because its a zero-value color.




Step 25To illustrate how easy it is to edit any of your elements (color correct it, adjust exposure, etc) I will assume that I now want to change

the reddish color of my stone texture. If we hadn't used this multi-pass compositing method, we would have two options:

1. Adjust the texture itself in Photoshop and then re-render, perhaps completing a dozen test renders before you were satisfied with

the result, and could render a HQ render. This obviously takes a lot of time and patience!

2. Using selection tools in Photoshop, we could select the texture and apply the desired corrections to it. The first problem with this

is that selection is really a very tedious job, and when you come to add color corrections, you'll be affecting all of the image - your

shadows and highlights will look odd and overall things won't look that good.




Step 26Well, remember that element called MtlID that we rendered out? It is time to enable that layer. The only use for this layer is to create

MUCH faster selections with only a couple of mouse clicks. Using this layer we will easily select our stone texture in no time at all.

Step 27With the layer selected, go to Select > Color Range. Then use the eye dropper tool to sample the magenta color on our materials layer

that represents the ID of the stone texture. With that done, press OK and you have your selection.

Step 28Now turn off the visibility of your MtlID layer. Then while keeping that selection active, add an Exposure adjustment layer. This will




create the adjustment layer and automatically add a mask so that it only affects your Stone. It doesnt matter where you have this layer

now, we will move it later on.

Step 29In the Exposure adjustment layer's settings, set your Exposure to +0.80 to brighten it up a bit.

Step 30As we want this layer to affect our diffuse only, you will have to place it right above the Diffuse layer (remember that one inside the

group?) Move it into position as shown and remember to Alt-click between the layers to make it only affect your Diffuse channels.




Just as a side note; whether you add it to your Diffuse layer or your Diffuse Copy Layer shouldnt make a difference at all. Some

corrections might require you to place them on both Diffuse layers though, and its just a matter of trial and errors until till you fully

understand it all.

Step 31Take your Refraction layer one step down so that it sits right above your Reflection layer. Enable both and set their blending modes to

Linear Dodge (Add). I've added another Exposure adjustment, with the Exposure value set to +0.80, to my Refraction layer as I wanted

it to appear a little brighter.

Note: Editing the Refraction layer is one of the best ways to adjust the tint of clear glass in interior renders.




Step 32Enable your Specular layer and once again change its blending mode to Linear Dodge (Add).

Step 33Duplicate your Specular layer (Ctrl+J) - notice it still has Linear dodge (Add) as its blending mode - and then with the copy selected,

goto Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur.

Step 34Set your Gaussian Blur Radius to around 2.5 pixels and press OK. Set your layer Opacity to around 65%. This should help create a




specular bloom effect around your specular highlights.

Note: These values are not constant numbers as they depend on your resolution, and of course your taste. Just dont over-do it!

Step 35Enable your RawShadow Layer and invert it (Ctrl + I).

Step 36You might be surprised that your shadows are bluish but this is in fact normal, they always are during the day because V-ray's GI has a

bright blue sky. Set your RawShadow layer's blending mode to Multiply and it's Opacity to around 20%.




Step 37This step is not a must but I like enhancing my shadows a bit as it gives the image a bit more contrast. Add a Color Balance adjustment

layer, making it only affect the RawShadow layer, and with the Tones value set to Shadows, give your shadows a reddish tint. Set the

opacity for this adjustment layer down to around 20%, although again, this is just a matter of personal preference.

In other scenes when I find my shadows a little too sharp for my taste, I add a small radius Gaussian blur filter to the shadow layer,

which helps smooth out those hard edged shadows a lot.

Step 38




Now enable your Ambient Occlusion layer. Set its blending mode to Multiply and its Opacity to around 10%. Ambient Occlusion

shouldn't be too obvious in your final render, as it just helps you enhance the look of the little details in your final image.

Step 39At this point, we are pretty much done with the compositing! To sum it all up here's a simple equation that I used until I memorised the

different blending modes. If you follow it through, you'll see it exactly matches what we've done in this tutorial!

Step 40The only thing missing now is a sky with a few clouds, and that's what we are going to add next. You can also use a bluish gradient or,

if you prefer, you can cut out the V-ray sky from your original render and paste it behind this image. To do any of these things however,

we first need to access our alpha information.

Go to the Channels pane and Ctrl-click on your main alpha channel's thumbnail. This will make an automatic selection of your image

ignoring any transparent pieces so that we can easily add in a background image.




Step 41Invert your selection (Ctrl + Shift + I) so that we only have the sky background selected.

In my original render I used a cyan-ish gradient with some stock clouds. However as I dont have the rights to redistribute those we will

have to find another image. Using Google images search the words sky field or clouds field or something similar. Set your search

options to Large Images only so you get high resolution pictures only. I found this one on the first page.

Step 42Save the image and open it in Photoshop. Select all of its contents (Ctrl + A), copy them (Ctrl + C), and as we still have that selection

we made using our alpha, use Photoshop's command Paste Into (Ctrl + Shift + V) command. This should automatically add a mask to




our new sky layer. Rename this new layer something like Sky BG

.

Note: In Photoshop CS5 this shortcut changed to (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + V).

Step 43Using Free transform (Ctrl + T) adjust the size of your sky until it fits the image. Remember to hold Shift while resizing to uniformly

scale.

Then add a Color Balance adjustment layer over your sky BG only (again using the clipping mask method) and play with the settings

until you're happy with the result. I liked mine with a bit of a cyan tint to it.




Step 44We are now done with the compositing! Now I'm going to cover some post production tips like adding motion blur to cars, adding DOF

using ZDepth, and adding chromatic aberration. You have come a really long way, so let's compare our composite to the original V-ray

output (the RGB layer).

As you can see, apart from the skies, they both look extremely similar, the only difference being that in our composite, anything can be

changed or tweaked without having to re-render anything.

Step 45Now begins the fun part - post production! There are many different workflows for this part, it all just depends on your own personal

preferences. I will be showing you some of the techniques I use, to help you get started.

First make sure you have the look of your render exactly how you want it. If you want to increase reflections or refractions, add more

specular highlights, now is the time!

Now merge all your visible layers into one single layer by selecting the top-most visible layer and pressing Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E. This

will paste a merged copy of all your layers into a new layer called Layer 1.




Step 46Making sure you've got the new Layer 1 selected, use the same select color range technique we learned earlier (steps 26 & 27) but this

time on the Object ID layer, to select the cars.

Step 47We want to create a new layer containing only the cars, and to do this we press Ctrl + J. Rename the new layer (initially called Layer 2)

to Cars Motion Blur then delete the merged Layer 1.




Step 48With the Cars Motion Blur layer selected, go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur.

Step 49Alter the direction of motion so that it matches the direction of the cars, and then choose a medium Distance (I used around 25 pixels).

Click OK to finalise.




Step 50Lower the Opacity of this layer to around 30%. The motion blur is complete!

Step 51Now to add some chromatic aberration. Please be advised that CA is an effect that should be used as little as possible, as too much can

cause your renders to look blurry and ugly. Before attempting to use this effect on your own renders I suggest you read more about this

phenomenon, so that you know where and when CA should appear. When done right however, this effect can really enhance the realism

of your picture.

Use the same shortcut as before (step 45) to merge your visible layers together, and rename this new layer Merge.




Step 52Making sure the Merge layer is selected, go to Filter > Distort > Lens Correction. We will use this filter again in a moment to add a

vignette, so remember where to find it!

Step 53Deselect Show Grid and then experiment with the values for Fix Red/Cyan Fringe and Fix Blue/Yellow Fringe (I used +5 & -5) until you

get a suitable, subtle effect. Then set your Edge mode to Edge Extension to prevent your picture from having transparent edges,

although if this issue is visible, you've likely set your values too high already!

Although this is the native way of adding CA in Photoshop, There are many other ways people use. Some people use three different




layers with the red, green and blue data and shift them manually, other people use plug-ins. I decided to show you the native way as

almost all the plug-ins are commercial.

Some of the greatest commercial plug-ins for photoshop post-production are Magic Bullet Photolooks, 55 mm Digital Film Tools and

Knoll Light Factory . One of my favorites is Nik Software: Color Efex Pro. If you can afford these then by all means they are worth it, but

if you can't you now know how to add the effect manually!

Step 54Now that you have completed your CA effect, it's time to add some DOF. Remember that we pasted our ZDepth render element into a

new channel? We will use that now! Start by going to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur.




Step 55In Source choose your Zdepth channel (in my case Alpha 2) and enable the Invert checkbox. Radius controls the amount of blurriness,

so experiment with that although dont over-do it! I chose a radius of 4 and then pressed OK.

As a rule of thumb if a filter/effect is really noticeable, it is too much! (Unless of course it is some kind of an artistic approach). Maybe

take some time to surf around in the CG forums and see how the pros use DOF in their images. Try to learn the best ways to add it in

without hurting your own visualization. Also, remember that some clients hate DOF, so be careful with it!

Step 56Another effect that looks really good on some pictures (and awful on others) is cross processing. Cross processing is basically playing

with your color curves to achieve a more dramatic look. So add a Curves adjustment layer on top of your Merge layer.




Step 57Go to the Channel drop down menu in the adjustment layer, and adjust your curves individually by selecting them one at a time. Here's

the Red channel curve that I used.

Step 58Here's the Green channel curve.




Step 59Finally, here's the Blue channel curve. Remember that this is just an example; hundreds of looks can be achieved with this method, and

your curves will very likely vary from one shot to another depending on the look you're after.

Step 60I felt the final effect of this adjustment was too much for my taste, so I decreased the Opacity of the adjustment layer to around 65%.




Step 61The final step is to add a vignette to your render. Some people prefer adding a black layer with an oval shaped soft mask, however I

actually prefer adding it using Magic Bullet Photolooks. For this tutorial, we'll stick with the built-in tools, so lets add it using the Lens

Correction Filter.

First we have to merge our Merge layer with the Curves adjustment layer. To do that use the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E as before,

and then, with the new layer selected, go to Filter > Distort > Lens Correction.




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Step 62I used an Amount of -20 for this render, however it's important that you don't over-do the vignette, as it just won't look that good!

Step 63With that, your image is complete! I really hope you enjoyed this tutorial and learned at least a new trick or two. If you have any

comments, questions or criticisms please go ahead and post in the comments below, and I'll be more than happy to answer you.




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About Ahmed Fathi

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Hi I'm Ahmed Fathi, an architect and freelance CG artist from Cairo, Egypt. I have been into CG for nearly 4 years now, and I specialize in architecturalvisualizations and simple walkthrough animations. I learned most of what I know from online tutorials on sites like this one, so I would like to thank everyonewho has helped me with anything along the way!


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Benito • 4 years

ago

Ahmed, the amount of time, effort and clarity you have put into this tutorial is unbelievable. I have gained a level of insight in post work whichI simply did not realise before.

From me and everyone else who has benefitted from this tut, thank you.

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• Reply •

From me and everyone else who has benefitted from this tut, thank you. 15

• Reply •

Fernando • 2 years

ago

This has to be THE best post on vray EVER! Thank you so much for this! 2

• Reply •

Giz • 2 years

ago

TGA vs. JPG: You should never use JPGs for render elements because of compression artefacts. Bitdepth per channel is the same - as wasalready mentioned. I prefer 16 Bit PSD files.

There is one important option in Photoshop when using gamma corrected render elements. It is in the Color Settings and named "Blend RGBColors using Gamma: 1.0". Enable it if your elements have the Gammaa

Seeing this looong tutorial reminds me how much time it safes to use psd-manager http://www.cebas.com/psdmanage...

Thanks for posting it. 2

• Reply •

Arq Poso • 4 years

ago

Great tutorial, just a few comments.

You can not use any color mapping like exponential or any gamma correction. To make the composition equals the RGB you must use LinearMultiply with gamma 1.0.

If you use LWF, you must save files in gamma 1.0 with exr (not TGA because looses information) and make the composition in linear space.You cannot print gamma correction in color mapping (choosing gamma 2.2)

Regards,

Arq. Poso

• Reply •

Ahmed Fathi • 4 years

ago Arq Poso

Hi Arq Poso,

Thanks for your comment. I guess you're talking about Leonardo's problem? If so his problem was that he applied Gamma Correctiontwice to his elements which resulted in an overly bright image (maybe once in the output gamma in Gamma/LUT tab in 3Ds max itselfand again in saving out EXR. I am not exactly sure.). however, It is resolved now.

As for TGAs and EXRs i did mention both methods to make sure everyone follows what he likes more, I happen to like this way more,maybe it's a matter of habit. I have seen so many people with different workflows for using LWF, that is why i didn't discuss anyrender settings or color mapping settings in the main tutorial. it's a whole different matter.

Thanks again for your comment and i am glad you liked the tutorial.

• Reply •

Arq Poso • 4 years

ago Ahmed Fathi

It is explained in many tutorials like the one below:

http://vray.info/tutorials/bas... (second paragraph)

You need to work always in linear space. If not then the composition doesnt match the RGB.

This is also mentioned in the book Vray: the complete guide.

You can try yourself out, use exponential color mapping and try to get the same result as the RGB. You cant!

Nevertheless, this tutorial is awesome!

Craigory Johnson • 7 months

ago

You are a god, I have been looking for a tutorial like this forever. If I could give you money I would

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• Reply •

You are a god, I have been looking for a tutorial like this forever. If I could give you money I would

• Reply •

BZman • a year

ago

are you able to share what render elements relate to mental ray? Some are obviously named the same, however some are not.

• Reply •

Cg-newbie • a year

ago

Best free compositing tut I've found in the web) May God bless you, pal!

• Reply •

siej • a year

ago

great....Thanx

• Reply •

ali • a year

ago

thank a lot

• Reply •

dulldr • 2 years

ago

Fantastic and useful tutorial. Thanks for sharing such a precious step by step tutorial .

• Reply •

MUHAMMAD AQEEL • 2 years

ago

GREATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.GOD BLESS YOU.

• Reply •

angelo • 2 years

ago

great work indeed and good compositing tutorial just adding some that i think it's missing.

• Reply •

angelo • 2 years

ago

fyi: its better to turn off the lights and secondary bounce then put vray dome light.in material editor uncheck diffuse make it in white color just enable bump map with material on it. hit render and you will get an ao pass withbump mapping.

• Reply •


ago angelo

this can be useful, will try it soon, thanks =)

• Reply •

angelo • 2 years

ago

i salute with the composition only about bump mapping when you create your ao pass please include your bump maps because if you place itabove all passes it covers the bump. and there is no bump pass in this tutorial the stones dosn't have depth.

there are so many tutorials about ao pass but i've never seen with bumps included so the rendering gets flat.

Reply

saeed • 2 years

ago

that is very great tutorial.thanks alot.

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• Reply •

• Reply •

Sebastian Otarola • 2 years

ago

This, my friend, is the shit! Amazing skills and knowledge combined! Thank you for this one!

• Reply •

bukowski1936 • 2 years

ago

Excellent! I've learned a lot reading your post. Thank you very much.

• Reply •

totoymachine • 2 years

ago

This is very great tutorial....

great effort.. dude, its very useful to me post more ....tnx a lot

• Reply •

Tina • 2 years

ago

Really GREATTTTTTTTTThank you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo MUCH

:)

• Reply •

tota katkota • 2 years

ago

thanks ahmed very much really Ineed this lesson .. I used proexr and I found the pic burnt in photoshop but when I saw this lesson andchanged the gamma value to .454 the pic became correct really thanks alot and I will try these useful steps

• Reply •

Dario Tonzuso • 2 years

ago

Thx man..big respect

• Reply •

Shoby • 2 years

ago

As salam-o-alikum brother,

I am working for long time with max & PS but yeah i wannalearn about doing things with different ways ! i use my own way to work, but it seems interesting to see your way.

Thanks a lot for this great effort ! very useful to me ~

do you have your personal website ? for tutorials or ur portfolio ?i will be glad if you share more info about it !

Regards,Shoby


ago Shoby

Alikom As salam brother,

Sadly I don't currently have a website up, I am currently focusing on my career as an architect/ construction engineer more, so CGand architectural viz haven't been in my focus that much lately, I haven't even updated my CG portfolio since more than a yearago...

As for tutorials, this can be considered my only long tutorial published, most other stuff were just simple Photoshop tips and stuff, butI will be glad to help you with any questions if I can, you can e-mail me here for that, or for if you still want to see my (old) portfolio:

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• Reply •

I will be glad to help you with any questions if I can, you can e-mail me here for that, or for if you still want to see my (old) portfolio:

[email protected]

Glad the tutorial has been of use

best regards,Ahmed

• Reply •

Iker • 2 years

ago

Difficulty: Beginners/Intermediate???

• Reply •

João Santos • 3 years

ago

The tutorial is great but I'm having a problem that's "killing" my Image. Wonder if it might be a post-production problem or a render problem.

Everything worked fine but my RAW REFLECTION layer is getting a bunch of artifacts on the walls. I believe its because the plaster materialI've used has a bit of bump and a small amount of reflection that works fine in the Final Render but when i add it to Photoshop as a renderelement and make it Linear Dodge (Add) it looks like the image gets full of little black dots all over the walls. It only seems correct when i putits opacity around 10% but then the metal materials get very dark since they require most of the reflection.

I'm trying to go around it by removing most of the walls from the RAW Reflection layer with the help of the MtlID one, but something iswrong here..

Any TIP?

• Reply •


ago João Santos

well, an easy solution would be for you to separate the reflections like you said, you can use a Multi-Matte element for you metalmaterials if you would like too, so that your element would be filtered (affected by Anti-Aliasing) ... If you need more help you canemail me at: [email protected] with more details about your issue, see if I can help you further...

• Reply •

Toondek • 3 years

ago

Thanks a lot!Great tutorial!Good Job!!

• Reply •

Chas • 3 years

ago

The info in step 13 has some inaccuracy. TGA's and jpeg's carry the same amount of color information, as they are both 8-bits per channel.

The description "32-bit targa" refers to a targa that carries 8 bits per channel, and that there are 4 channels (RGB+A, 8+8+8+8=32). Youcould also save it as a "24-bit targa", which would mean that the image did not include an alpha channel, but only RGB information.

TGA's will not hold floating point color information like an EXR will, and you have an exponentially increased amount of color headroom in anEXR.

I admit that it is a bit confusing that TGA's get the special treatment of being referred to as 32-bit, but that's total bits, not bits-per-channel,and that's just the way they are described.

• Reply •


ago Chas

hey, that's good to know, thanks =)

str9led • 3 years

ago

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• Reply •

str9led ago

Great tutorial. thanks

• Reply •

gd77 • 3 years

ago

sucks deep man, no light reflection no GI only compositing and the end result far from being close to reality..Even reflection in the glass is not related to the environment.....if it was for the sake of compositing it passes but if for rendering... am sorry

• Reply •

Nikul Patel • 3 years

ago

Great TUTS ..... It will help me lot .... Thanks for Share

• Reply •

adanedhel • 3 years

ago

GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!! from your own experience you know how much we appreciate you made this tut. thanks bro...

• Reply •

erenminareci • 3 years

ago

very handy tutorial.thnks for it.but i got a problem with vrayrawlighting.it is always dark.i use target direct for sun maybe that is why?andcause of this my compositing looks very different and i am not happy with it

• Reply •


ago erenminareci

This probelm mught have to do with your render settings , light settings and values or even your way of handling LWF if you use LWFso I cant give you a certain answer knowing where the problem is but as for a quick solution if you save out 32bit images you aneasily use exposure adjustment layer on it to brighten up your dark layers, I hope this helps...

• Reply •

kropped • 3 years

ago

Love the results you can get with Vray and Max, it's a very powerful tool and one you have explained very clearly here!

• Reply •

Chetan Bhandari • 3 years

ago

How can i use the MtrID or ObjID for changing color or selection in After Effect.....?

thanks in advance

• Reply •

baqer • 3 years

ago

thank u very very much.sir can i say some thing on my bottom of heart THANK u very much for this tips

• Reply •

LLD • 3 years

ago

Thank you so much for this tutorial! You've definitely opened my eyes to a better and more productive workflow. Do you have any moretutorials? I'd love to study them.

• Reply •

jamz • 3 years

ago

this is an enormous tutorial with detail example, it is undeniable fact that this tutorial enriches my knowledge about vray rendering pass.

• 3 years

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• Reply •

max • 3 years

ago

realy realy good..............any other archviz tutorial?

thanks a lot

• Reply •

Alexei • 3 years

ago

Brilliant! You have opened my eyes. Thank you very much!

• Reply •

jamz • 3 years

ago

it is a very useful tutorial. thanks a lot for your tutorial. with this knowledge we can't save much time in rendering within 3ds maxenvironment.

• Reply •

Hamish • 3 years

ago

Thanks for a great tut! Explained a very confusing process in a way that makes a lot of sense. Thanks again!

• Reply •

Choudry Arif Saeed • 4 years

ago

Great Article! I wonder how much its making would have taken?

• Reply •

ghostfeda • 4 years

ago

thx bro ,,,,,,it is perfect ,, i've been looking for such a tutorial for monthes,, thx again

• Reply •

.pep • 4 years

ago

Really great stuff man, perfectly explained

thank you very much for sharing!!

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