V-Ray 1.50 SP4 and V-Ray RT 1.50 SP1 for Autodesk 3ds Max are released

October 31, 2009 at 11:08 am | Posted in 3ds max, renderer, VRay | Leave a comment
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On October 29th, Thursday, the newest builds of  V-Ray 1.50 Service Pack 4 and  V-Ray RT 1.50 Service Pack 1 are available from the download section of the Chaos Group site.

The upgrade is free of charge for all current V-Ray for 3ds Max customers of Chaos Group.

These builds are compatible with Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2008, 3ds Max 9, 3ds Max 2009, 3ds Max Design 2009, 3ds Max 2010, 3ds Max Design 2010. V-Ray 1.50 SP4 additionally supports Autodesk 3ds Max 8 as well.

The newest builds of  V-Ray 1.50 SP4 and  V-Ray RT 1.50 SP1
support both 32-bit and 64-bit OS.

V-Ray® 1.50 Service Pack 4

Added New Feature in V-Ray 1.50 SP4 is V-Ray Ambient Light.

It includes several modified features:

-  Improved multithreading on multi-core machines;
-  Ability to specify gizmo falloff for VRayEnvironmentFog;
-  Ability to use arbitrary meshes as gizmos for VRayEnvironmentFog;
-  Option to exclude the background from VRayEnvironmentFog;
-  Added CIE sky models to the VRaySun and VRaySky;
-  It is now possible to submit DR servers list for DR through backburner;
-  Added option to not use area speculars in the VRayIES light;
-  Added Kelvin temperature settings for the color of VRayLights;
-  VFB history is now turned off when 3ds Max is in slave mode;
-  Output .vrimg and split channel paths are listed in the Asset Tracker;
-  GI cache files (irradiance maps, light cache etc) are listed in the Asset Tracker;

V-Ray® RT 1.50 Service Pack 1

It includes the following new features:

- Support for the HSL/HSV controls of the ColorCorrect texture (as well as the map slots);
- Support for the “Additional bump” slot of the Normal bump texture;
- Some gamma workflows did not work well with the ActiveShade;
- Option to stop updating the ActiveShade window after a certain fixed amount of time;
- Support for region rendering in the ActiveShade window;
- The override material options from the standard V-Ray renderer to work properly;
- Support for environment override in VRayMtl;
- An option to manually restart V-Ray RT, without having to close & reopen the activeshade window/viewport;
- Option to pause the RT;
- Support for opacity maps of standard materials;
- Support for VRayEdgesTex in bump slot;
- Ability to directly export to a .vrscene from MaxScript without starting the ActiveShade (through the vrayExportRTScene() command);
- Access to the ActiveShade bitmap from MaxScript (through the vrayGetRTBitmap() command);
- Support for paletted PNG textures;
- Consider the “Hidden lights” switch from the standard V-Ray;
- Support for IFL file format for textures;
- Support the Shell Material in V-Ray RT;

In order to explore the rendering opportunities of V-Ray RT SP1 you must have installed V-Ray 1.50 SP4 or a later version.

The complete list of the new and improved features can be found in the changelog file, which is a part of the installation.

Compound map and material

June 20, 2009 at 11:27 am | Posted in 3ds max | 2 Comments
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Do you ever get confuse about what the different between some compound maps and or materials in 3ds max. For example, you may be get confuse about blend material with mix map, or maybe between mix map with mask map.

Well, in this little article we will see what the difference between some compound map and material. We will discuss about composite map, mask map, mix map, compound material and blend material.

Composite map is simply a map that combines multiple maps into one map. The map must already have alpha channel within it. This map is just like what you do when combining multiple pictures into one in image processing software.

Maybe you have separate picture about you, your friend, and scenery that you and your friend want to go someday. Well, you can have a picture of you and your friend in that scenery even before you go there. You just simply combine those pictures into one in software like Adobe Photoshop.

The ability from composite map to use blend mode is just like what layer mode does in photoshop. This ability will process between images RGB level to gain different effects.

You can use mask map to cover some part of image that you don’t want to appear in rendering result. This map can be compare to layer mask in adobe photoshop.

For example, if you have your picture and want it to be attached to a metal red plate, you can use mask map. First you must have mask map, which is a black and white image whereas the white part will appear in rendering. Then, you apply mask map to diffuse parameter in 3ds max.

You can also use a map with alpha channel achieve the same result. But, the different between mask map and a map with alpha channel is: you need a new image (mask image) for mask map while in map with alpha channel you apply alpha channel directly to the image. So, if you have mask image, use mask map. But if you have an image with alpha channel in it, use it directly. In conclusion, the use between these two techniques is depending on your image resources.

Next is mix map. This map combines two images into one with uses transparency as mixing tool. This map can be compared to mixing two layers in adobe photoshop and adjust the layer’s opacity level. The result is just like you combine two images directly.

Compound material is like mix map but each material can have different properties. You can set one material to have a strong reflection, another have a very strong refraction; another is just a normal material and so on. The result is just like what you get in mix map. But the different is, with mix map you can only use two images, while in compound material, you can use up to 10 materials. In mix map, you can only have single material properties to be used, but in compound material you can use up to 10 different material properties.

For example, you want to combine a metallic plate material with brick material and see what happened. If you use mix map, you can use a metal plate map and a brick map but you can only able to have single material properties. Metallic material has a very strong reflection and highlight, meanwhile brick do the opposite. Which one from these material properties that you going to use if you use mix map? In compound material, you can combine both properties into one.

Blend material acts like compound material but limited to only two materials and don’t have ability to blend each material with addition, subtraction or mixing option. You can use blend material to make an effect like a broken wall where some part of the wall paint already gone and reveal its brick component. Or maybe you want to use a grass material with ground material.

Blend material parameters looks like mix map parameters, but both of them do different thing. If you want to create a puddle of water on the ground, you must use blend material than mix map, because water and ground has different material properties.

The image below shows you the difference between each compound map and material.

material, maps, compound, 3ds max

material, maps, compound, 3ds max

The most left, I use composite map from a sky and a tiff image of superman. The second left is for mask map. I use yellow diffuse color, an image of superman and a mask for superman. The middle one will show you about mix map. I use a brick and a flower image.

The last two in the right is for compound material and blend material. Compound material that I use is from a dull brick and a reflective blue material. The last one in the right most is to describe you the blend material. I use a brick material and a reflective blue material with custom mask map.

I hope now you can see the difference between this compound maps and materials.

Accurate Material’s Secret Reveal

June 13, 2009 at 11:18 am | Posted in 3ds max, Design Visualization | Leave a comment
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It is looks like that has become a demand to create a physically correct material in design visualization industry these days. Especially if you use mental ray in 3ds max design 2009 or radiosity.

A physically accurate material is a material that behaves like the material will behaves in real world. There are some factors that influence how the material will physically correct.

  1. Material’s color must be as close as possible with what we see in the real world.
  2. Size and strength from highlight.
  3. Transparency.

In this article we will take a closer look at material’s color. Why this is become our primary subject? Because this is often become a hidden problem that cause burnout in rendering result. Beside that, color is a subject that rarely discussed even in outstanding tutorials. The third reason is, color that we see and then we applied in 3ds max very often does not produce a physically correct material. Last reason is because highlight and transparency are matter that can be learned by directly investigating the material.

Now we will begin to reveal the biggest secret behind a physically correct material.

The main secret is in reflectance factor from the material. This has a direct relationship with material’s color.

Like what we know, when photons from the light hits an object, there are some energy that will be absorb and there are some that will be reflected. White usually will reflect almost all light energy it receives. Black, in contrarily, will absorb most light energy and only reflect a small amount energy. The darkness from color is the one that must become our main attention when designing a physically correct material.

The mistake that beginner often done is adjustment for white color. In most of case, beginner make white identical with RGB value 255, 255, 255. This is completely a big mistake. If white has RGB value 255, then there is no energy that will absorbed which is in return will be make the rendering result become burnout. Actually white is very various in whiteness and very rare has RGB value 255.

So, what is the good value for white?

Before answer that question, we must know a simple term first. The term, which is already stated above, is reflectance factor or often said as reflectance scale. This term refer to how big a material will reflects light energy it receives.

For white, a good reflectance factor is 70% to 80%. If you enter that value to RGB, then the value will be about 178 to 204.

Below is a list that you can use as a reference to adjust color’s reflectance factor.

  • Very dark color: 10%
  • Dark color: 30% – 40%
  • Light color: 50% – 60%
  • White: 70% – 80%

Beside color, material type also has influence against reflectance color. A ceramic material has different reflectance factor than a concrete.

This is a list that you can use to adjust reflectance factor for material.

  • Aluminum, highly seculars: 80% – 85%
  • Aluminum, anodized, matt finish: 75% – 85%
  • Aluminum, matt finish: 50% – 75%
  • Brick, red: 10% – 20%
  • Ceramic: 20% – 70%
  • Chrome, polished: 60%- 70%
  • Concrete: 30% – 50%
  • Copper, polished: 60% – 70%
  • Enamel, White: 60% -70%
  • Fabric: 20% – 70%
  • Glass, clear: 5% – 10%
  • Granite: 10% -30%
  • Gypsum: 70% – 80%
  • Masonry: 20% – 50%
  • Metal: 30% – 90%
  • Mortar, light: 40% – 50%
  • Paint: 30% – 95%
  • Paper: 30% – 70%
  • Plaster, white: 70% -85%
  • Plastic: 20% – 80%
  • Silver, polished: 90%
  • Steel, polished: 60% -70%
  • Stone: 20% – 70%
  • Wood: 20% -50%

Beside that, material position can be a consideration in your design. For plafond, reflectance factor that is usually taken is around 60% – 80%. Value for wall is around 30% – 50%. Meanwhile for floor is around 15% – 20%. And for furniture is around 20% – 50%. But if you work for another person design, this value can be ignored because the material has been defined by the designer and you can not alter it.

By using the list above, hopefully you can create a physically correct material so your rendering will be looks like what you expected in real world.

Rahasia Material yang Akurat

June 13, 2009 at 11:08 am | Posted in 3ds max, Design Visualization | Leave a comment
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Sepertinya telah menjadi tuntutan untuk industri visualisasi disain untuk menggunakan material yang secara fisik akurat. Apalagi bila Anda menggunakan mental ray pada 3ds max design 2009 atau radiosity.

Yang dimaksud dengan material yang secara fisik akurat adalah material tersebut akan bersikap persis dengan material aslinya di dunia nyata. Ada beberapa faktor yang mempengaruhi agar material tampak seperti aslinya.

  1. Warna material harus dibuat semirip mungkin dengan aslinya.
  2. Besaran dan kuat higlight.
  3. Ketransparanan dari material.

Pada artikel ini kita akan melihat khususnya pada warna dari material. Mengapa ini merupakan hal yang dibahas? Sebab hal ini sering menjadi masalah tersembunyi yang sering menyebabkan hasil rendering umumnya terlalu terang. Selain itu, penataan warna ini merupakan hal yang jarang dibahas bahkan dalam tutorial-tutorial yang keren sekalipun. Alasan ketiga adalah karena warna yang kita lihat dan kemudian diaplikasikan pada 3ds max, sering kali tidak menghasilkan material yang tepat secara fisik bila diaplikasikan ke dalam mental ray atau radiosity. Alasan terakhir adalah karena tentang highlight dan ketransparanan dari material dapat dipelajari dengan mengamati langsung pada bendanya.

Sekarang kita akan mulai mengungkapkan apa sebetulnya rahasia besar di balik material yang secara fisik benar.

Rahasia utamanya adalah pada faktor refleksi dari material tersebut. Ini berkaitan langsung dengan warna dari material.

Seperti yang kita tahu, saat photon-photon dari cahaya membentur sebuah objek, akan ada sejumlah energi yang diserap dan sebagian lagi dipantulkan. Warna putih umumnya akan memantulkan hampir seluruh energi cahaya yang diterimanya. Sebaliknya warna hitam akan menyerap banyak sekali energi cahaya. Tingkat kegelapan dari warna inilah yang harus jadi perhatian utama kita bila ingin menghasilkan material yang secara fisik akurat.

Kesalahan yang paling umum terjadi adalah pengaturan untuk warna putih. Warna putih sangat identik dengan nilai RGB 255, 255, 255. Namun bila warna putih diseting seperti ini, maka tidak akan ada energi cahaya yang diserap sehingga tingkat pemantulan energi menjadi sangat tinggi. Sebetulnya warna putih itu beragam dan hampir selalu tidak pernah mencapai nilai maksimum.

Jadi berapa kisaran angka yang tepat untuk warna putih?

Sebelum menjawab hal tersebut, kita harus tiba dulu di sebuah istilah. Istilah tersebut adalah faktor refleksi atau sering disebut sebagai reflectance scale atau reflectance factor. Istilah ini mengacu pada berapa besar tingkat refleksi dari sebuah material.

Untuk warna putih, faktor refleksi yang disarankan adalah sebesar 70% hingga 80%. Bila Anda akan menset sebuah warna putih, maka nilai RGB yang disarankan untuk nilai maksimumnya adalah 204.

Berikut ini adalah daftar yang dapat Anda jadikan acuan untuk mengatur faktor refleksi untuk warna.

  • warna tua sekali: 10%
  • warna tua: 30% – 40%
  • warna sedang: 50% – 60%
  • warna putih: 70% – 80%

Selain warna, jenis material juga mempengaruhi faktor refleksi dari sebuah material. Material keramik akan memantulkan jumlah energi yang berbeda dengan material beton.

Berikut ini adalah daftar yang dapat Anda jadikan acuan untuk faktor refleksi dari beragam material:

  • Aluminium, highly specular: 80% – 85%
  • Aluminium, anodised, matt finish: 75% – 85%
  • Aluminium, matt finish: 50% – 75%
  • Brick, red: 10% – 20%
  • Ceramic: 20% – 70%
  • Chrome, polished: 60%- 70%
  • Concreate: 30% – 50%
  • Copper, polished: 60% – 70%
  • Enamel, White: 60% -70%
  • Fabric: 20% – 70%
  • Glass, clear: 5% – 10%
  • Granite: 10% -30%
  • Gypsum: 70% – 80%
  • Masonry: 20% – 50%
  • Metal: 30% – 90%
  • Mortar, light: 40% – 50%
  • Paint: 30% – 95%
  • Paper: 30% – 70%
  • Plaster, white: 70% -85%
  • Plastic: 20% – 80%
  • Silver, polished: 90%
  • Steel, polished: 60% -70%
  • Stone: 20% – 70%
  • Wood: 20% -50%

Selain itu posisi dari material tersebut juga bisa Anda jadikan pertimbangan dalam disain. Untuk plafond umumunya faktor refleksinya sebesar 60% – 80%. Nilai yang disarankan untuk dinding sebesar 30% – 50%. Sedangkan untuk lantai 15% – 20%. Dan untuk furniture sebesar 20% – 50%. Namun bila Anda hanya merender disain orang lain, hal ini bisa diabaikan karena material untuk proyek tersebut telah ditentukan oleh disainer dan tidak mungkin Anda kotak-katik.

Dengan berpatokan pada daftar di atas, diharapkan Anda bisa membuat material yang secara fisik akurat sehingga hasil rendering Anda pun akurat seperti aslinya.

RC5 – First technology preview

May 23, 2009 at 11:54 am | Posted in 3ds max, fryrender, renderer | Leave a comment
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A new improvement from fryrender has just been made. At 2009-05-20 they announced the release of first RC5 preview. You can see it at:

Vimeo (high quality):   http://vimeo.com/4709390
Youtube (medium quality):   http://youtube.com/watch?v=dn3r_aecBew

All frames were output at 640×480 at a framerate ranging between 15 and 25 frames per second in a standard computer featuring a ATI Radeon 4850.

Some of the RC5 features which can be seen in action in this video are:

  • Full Global Illumination (as precomputed by fryrender RT)
  • Depth Of Field (as configured in fryrender)
  • Fullscreen Anti-Alias
  • Interpreted fryrender physical materials
  • Real-time tonemapping / fryrender-like quality (FP32 HDR)
  • Camera vignetting
  • Camera animation

This all means that the video was rendered in an effective time of just a few seconds.  In fact, other videos of the same scene could be recorded without the need to precompute again, just by exporting a new camera path.

Conclusion: Once you precompute a scene with fryrender RT you can navigate it interactively.  But, interestingly enough, you can also regard RC5Player as a very high-quality ‘GPU-based’ render engine.  With RC5Player you can record as many videos of your scene as you want at rates ranging from several to many frames per second at the expense of a preliminary precomputation phase, which is roughly equivalent to a still frame render in fryrender (about 1 hour for this scene).

They also announced that plug in for SketchUp 7 has been release at 12th May 2009, meanwhile for 3ds max 2010 has been released at 5th May 2009.

V-Ray RT for 3dsMax – official release announcement

May 23, 2009 at 11:37 am | Posted in 3ds max, renderer, VRay | Leave a comment
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An email just arrived at my in box a few days before. It is from Chaos Group, VRay developer. They announced the new release of V-Ray RT for 3dsMax. What is this thing?

V-Ray RT for 3dsMax is t he first interactive renderer of this kind for 3dsMax that will be available for immediate purchase on June 1st, 2009.

Overview
Created with the busy and rigorous 3D artist in mind, this topnotch raytracing technology allows immediate interaction between the user and the virtual environment.  V-Ray RT follows the user’s actions while working on the scene and automatically and progressively generates a photorealistic preview of the scene. Designed to improve and fasten the artist’s work on the Texturing and Lightening stage.

General
The V-Ray RT interactive rendering system has many advanced features; here only some of them are listed. Note that all features are subject to change without special notice.

Currently it is CPU-based. Does NOT require special graphics cards
Currently the V-Ray RT technology is based on CPUs – it does NOT require any special or expensive graphics cards. All V-Ray RT needs is CPUs. As usual – we will use ALL of your CPUs and cores at no extra license cost.
However, the V-Ray RT architecture is very robust and if needed – it can seemlessly be implemented to allow new hardware acceleration technologies in the future.

Distributed rendering
V-Ray RT supports distributed rendering across multiple machines in the local network.

Integration with 3ds Max
V-Ray RT is an ActiveShade renderer in 3ds Max, separate from the production V-Ray renderer. V-Ray RT does not introduce new plugins other than the interactive renderer itself. Instead, the existing 3ds Max and V-Ray materials, textures, lights, cameras etc. are used.

V-Ray RT consists of two major components:

  • V-Ray RT interactive renderer in 3ds Max;
  • One or more V-Ray RT render servers.

V-Ray RT performs the actual rendering outside of 3ds Max itself, with the help of the V-Ray RT render server(s), which can run either locally on the same machine, or on other machine(s) in the local network. The renderer plugin in 3ds Max only relays the scene changes to the render servers and displays the final result.

Interactivity
A major feature of V-Ray RT is its ability to track changes to the scene performed by the user and automatically update the ActiveShade preview. The following scene changes are supported:

  • Create/delete objects (geometry, lights, cameras, etc.);
  • Modify object parameters;
  • Move/rotate/scale objects;
  • Apply/remove/edit object modifiers;
  • Hide/unhide objects;
  • Apply materials on objects;
  • Modify material properties like textures, colors etc;
  • Modify light properties (like position, color, etc.)
  • Animation of cameras, objects, lights and materials (scrubbing the time slider);
  • Render settings change;
  • Camera/view orientation change;
  • Modify camera/view parameters;
  • Environment change (color, texture etc).

Geometry
The following geometric objects are supported by V-Ray RT:

  • Triangle meshes;
  • All other primitives that are convertible to triangle meshes (NURBS surfaces, patches, etc.);
  • VRayPlane objects.

Materials
The following materials are supported by V-Ray RT

  • V-Ray materials: VRayMtl, VRayBlendMtl, VRayOverrideMtl, VRayLightMtl and VRay2SidedMtl;
  • 3ds Max materials: Multi/sub-object, Standard, Shellac and Blend;
  • VRayWrapperMtl material is only partially supported.

Textures
The following textures are supported by V-Ray RT:

  • Bitmap textures: PNG, BMP, TGA, JPG, EXR, HDR, SGI, PIC and TIFF file formats;
  • Procedural textures: Checker, Noise, Falloff, Speckle, Cellular, Gradient Ramp, Tiles etc;
  • Utility textures: Output, Normal bump, Mix, Mask, RGB Multiply, RGB Tint etc;
  • V-Ray textures: VRayColor, VRayCompTex, VRayEdgesTex, VRayHDRI, VRaySky and VRayBmpFilter;
  • 3rd party textures: the ColorCorrect texture is partially supported (the Gamma and Source parameters).

Illumination
The following methods for illumination are supported by V-Ray RT:

  • Indirect (global) illumination:
    • Progressive path tracing as global illumination solution.
  • Direct illumination:
    • Standard lights: Spot, Omni and Direct;
      • VRayShadow shadow type for hard and soft shadows;
    • Photometric lights;
    • V-Ray lights: VRayLight (Plane, Sphere and Dome types), VRaySun and VRayIES.
  • Environment illumination and image-based lighting (IBL):
    • Either through GI or
    • with a VRayLight in Dome mode with a texture map.

Shading
The following shading effects are supported by V-Ray RT:

  • Diffuse materials;
  • Bump and normal mapping;
  • Transparency;
  • Clear reflections and refractions;
  • Blurry reflections/refractions:
    • Phong, Blinn and Ward reflection models;
    • Anisotropy;
  • Absorption (fog) for refractive materials;
  • Layered materials;
  • Two-sided (translucent) materials;
  • Self-illuminated materials.

Camera effects
V-Ray RT supports the following camera types and camera effects:

  • Camera types:
    • Perspective views;
    • Standard cameras;
    • VRayPhysicalCamera.
  • Camera effects:
    • Depth-of-field with bokeh effects;
    • Exposure settings and vignetting.
    • Camera distortion

Animation
V-Ray RT supports and reacts to the following animation types:

  • Camera animation;
  • Object animation (move/rotate/scale; deformations);
  • Material animation;
  • Lights animation.

Render settings from V-Ray Production
V-Ray RT takes some of the render settings from the production V-Ray renderer, if present:

  • Color mapping;
  • Override material;
  • Camera settings for depth of field (when using perspective views or standard cameras);
  • Environment overrides.

Conclusion

This feature is not something new in renderer software. Fryrender already able to do this kind technique before VRay did. But, anyhow, this is gonna be a great improvement for VRay. This feature will improve an artist speed in rendering. Got to have it!

By the way, how the price?

Suggested end-user Price (does not include any local taxes):

EU Countries: EUR 499(price does not include VAT)
World-wide: USD 599

For a limited time only, during the V-Ray RT promotion stage, all users will be able to experience the speed and interactivity of our new product at the special prices below:

EU Countries: EUR 249(price does not include VAT)
World-wide: USD 299

Order it right now? I guest yes!

Menghilangkan Bercak Cahaya Pada Plafond

April 25, 2009 at 11:07 am | Posted in 3ds max, Design Visualization | 2 Comments
Tags:

Apakah Anda pernah mengalami hasil rendering 3ds max di mana pada plafond muncul lingkaran cahaya seperti pada gambar di bawah?

indoviz-3ds_max

indoviz-3ds_max

Kondisi di atas sangatlah mengganggu dan tidak diinginkan untuk hasil rendering yang bagus apa lagi untuk rendering visualisasi disain. Pada artikel ini kita akan menginspeksi apa penyebabnya dan bagaimana mengatasinya.

Penyebab bercak cahaya

Pada dunia nyata sebetulnya kondisi munculnya bercak cahaya tersebut pada plafond adalah hal yang wajar terjadi. Bila Anda mengawasi pencahayaan dari sebuah lampu pijar yang tidak ditanam pada plafond, biasanya dirumah-rumah jaman dulu di mana lampu langsung dipasang pada soketnya, biasanya bercak cahaya tersebut akan sangat terlihat. Jadi, karena ini hal yang wajar terjadi di dunia nyata, harusnya tidak ada komplain pada industri visualisasi disain. Namun nyatanya bercak cahaya tersebut sangat mengganggu.

Apa penyebab dari munculnya bercak cahaya tersebut pada hasil rendering 3ds max? Ini bisa kita lihat juga pada penyebabnya pada dunia nyata.

  1. Pertama adalah intensitas lampu. Semakin tinggi intensitas lampu, semakin besar kemungkinan dan ukuran bercak cahaya yang muncul di plafond.
  2. Kedua adalah jarak dari lampu ke plafond. Semakin dekat jarak lampu ke plafond, semakin kecil ukuran bercak tersebut tapi semakin jelas. Semakin jauh jarak lampu ke plafond, semakin besar ukuran bercak tersebut tapi semakin tidak jelas.

Anda bisa melakukan eksperimen tentang hal ini dengan membuat sebuah scene sederhana pada 3ds max. Buatlah sebuah ruangan tertutup berukuran kira-kira 3 meter x 3 meter x 3 meter. Kemudian letakkan sebuah lampu omni atau photometeric free point. Geser-geser lampu tersebut mendekati atau menjauhi plafond. Perbesar dan perkecil pula multipliernya.

Affect Specular?

Sewaktu menghadapi masalah seperti ini saya pernah disarankan untuk mematikan pilihan Specular dari lampu yang bermasalah itu. Namun setelah dicoba ternyata hal tersebut tidak berhasil sama sekali. Mengapa demikian?

Ini karena fungsi dari fasilitas tersebut adalah untuk membuat lampu tidak dapat menghasilkan specular highlight. Sedangkan apa yang terjadi pada bercak cahaya di plafond adalah bukan karena specular highlight sebagaimana dengan apa yang saya utarakan di atas. Jadi langkah ini percuma saja.

Bila Anda tidak percaya, Anda bisa mencobanya sendiri dengan mematikan Specular pada lampu di percobaan di atas. Hasilnya akan tidak berubah. Coba sekarang Anda tambahkan sebuah objek di dalam ruangan lalu beri material yang memiliki specular level cukup tinggi dan glossiness yang tidak terlalu besar atau kecil. Atur tampak agar Anda bisa melihat highlight dari objek tersebut. Kini hidup matikan fasilitas Specular dari lampu sambil merender scene. Anda akan mengerti apa gunanya fasilitas tersebut.

Material membantu?

Hal lain yang saya pernah pikir akan membantu adalah memainkan specular level adan glossiness dari material. Specular level mengatur tingkat kekuatan highlight. Semakin tinggi, semakin menyilaukan highlight objek tersebut. Glossiness mengatur ukuran dari highlight tersebut. Semakin tinggi nilainya semakin kecil ukurannya. Nah! Agar menghilangkan specular sama sekali maka tentunya specular levelnya harus dikecilnya dan glossinessnya harus dibesarkan sama sekali.

Namun ini juga ternyata tidak benar sama sekali. Masalahnya ada pada lampu dan bukan pada material.

Sekali lagi Anda bisa mencoba hal ini pada scene sederhana yang Anda buat.

Solusi?

Ada beberapa solusi yang menolong.

  1. Apa tipe pencahayaan Anda?
    Pertama Anda harus menyadari lebih dahulu apa jenis pencahayaan yang akan Anda terapkan pada disain. Bila Anda memang ingin agar lampu tersebut langsung menenpel pada plafond dan bukan ditanam di dalamnya, jangan marah bila bercak cahaya tersebut muncul. Justru harapkan hal tersebut muncul karena memang itu yang harusnya terjadi pada dunia nyata. Bila klien atau bos Anda tidak setuju dengan mengatakan tidak nyata, katakan pada mereka bahwa apa yang mereka lihat adalah kenyataan yang akan mereka lihat pada disain tersebut. Bila tidak percaya juga, buktikan saja dengan memasang lampu langsung diplafond. Kalau mereka bilang jelek, katakan saja memang jelek karena disain yang mereka minta seperti itu. Jadi kalau mau bagus, ganti disain pencahayaannya.
  2. Buat objek yang mensimulasikan armatur
    Sepertinya hal di atas sedikit profokatif untuk menyulut pertengkaran dan beresiko Anda kehilangan klien. Tapi apa mau dikata, memang benar demikian kenyataanya.
    Langkah yang agak aman adalah Anda membuat objek yang menirukan armatur dari lampu tersebut. Buat lubang pada objek peniru tersebut dengan edit poly atau edit mesh agar aman. Letakkan objek ini tepat di bawah plafond. Kemudian letakkan lampu tersebut di dalam lubang yang menirukan armatur tersebut.
    Keunggulan dari cara ini adalah scene Anda akan lebih tanpak nyata dengan adanya objek yang menirukan armatur. Namun kekurangannya adalah tidak terlalu membantu pada masalah yang kita hadapi. Tergantung dari intensitas lampu, bercak cahaya bisa hilang sama sekali atau tidak terpengaruh sama sekali.
  3. Buat lubang lampu di plafond
    Cara ini mungkin satu yang paling aman. Dengan langkah ini Anda membuat lubang-lubang di plafond di mana Anda akan meletakkan lampu tersebut. Bila Anda mengerjakan dari gambar CAD, ada baiknya Anda melakukan pembolongan semenjak pada tahap objek tersebut masih berupa spline. Attach outline dari plafond tersebut dengan lingkaran-lingkaran yang mewakili lubang di plafond lalu extrude. Langkah ini lebih baik dari pada Anda beresiko mengalami crash bila menggunakan boolean. Bila Anda menggunakan 3ds max 2008 ke atas, fasilitas proboolean boleh dijadikan alternatif. Setelah Anda bolongkan plafond tersebut, letakkan lampu Anda di dalam bolongan tersebut.
    Langkah ini sangat membantu sekali dalam mengatasi masalah bercak cahaya. Apa lagi bila Anda tambah dengan membuat objek yang menirukan armatur pada lubang tersebut hingga menambah nilai kerealistisan dari scene tersebut.
    Namun ada kekurangannya. Bila Anda mengaktifkan bayangan dan meletakkan lampu terlalu dalam pada lubang tersebut, Anda akan memperoleh daerah gelap pada dinding karena cahaya yang terhalang oleh dinding lubang. Anda bisa mengakalinya dengan meletakkan lampu di sekitar mulut dari lubang tapi tetap di dalam lubang tersebut. Atau bila Anda menggunakan plug in global illumination seperti mental ray, vray atau radiosity, Anda tidak perlu terlalu kuatir untuk hal ini.
  4. Letakkan tengah lampu tepat di bawah plafond.
    Langkah ini juga layak untuk Anda coba. Anda dapat meminimalisir bercak cahaya tersebut menjadi hanya berupa titik putih kecil di plafond.
  5. Photoshop donk!
    Langkah terakhir adalah menggunakan photoshop. Bagaimana pun juga hasil rendering Anda harus masuk ke dalam photoshop bukan? Mengapa tidak menggunakan photoshop untuk menghilangkan bercak-bercak tersebut. Namun ini kalau Anda mahir photoshop. Bila tidak, mungkin nanti hasilnya malah jadi aneh dan berantakan.

V-Ray Joins BOXX 3D Rendering Solutions

April 7, 2009 at 1:49 pm | Posted in 3ds max, Announcement, renderer, VRay | Leave a comment
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SOFIA, BULGARIA and AUSTIN, TEXAS, April 1st, 2009 —Chaos Software, an international leader in advanced rendering technology, and BOXX Technologies, an innovator in high-performance computing systems for visual effects (VFX), design professionals, and advanced visualization, today announced that V-Ray has joined the BOXX line of bundled professional software applications and utilities. V-Ray is a rendering system originally developed as a renderer plug-in for creative software applications like Autodesk 3ds Max (also available from BOXX) and Maxon Cinema 4D.

“The performance and outstanding features found in V-Ray make it a welcome addition to our stellar lineup of bundled software options available to creative professionals,” said Shoaib Mohammad, Director of Marketing and Business Development at BOXX.

The use of advanced techniques and shaders makes V-Ray preferable to conventional raytrace renderers. Because lighting presets and controls realistically emulate actual lighting, artists can quickly design scenes that appear photo-realistic to the human eye. In addition, V-Ray’s region rendering allows for preview renderings that enable the artist to fine tune materials, lights, and geometry before committing to a final render. V-Ray is highly favored by architects and architectural designers for its ability to quickly and flexibly render realistic interior and exterior images.

“The capabilities of V-Ray are truly enhanced by the proven performance of BOXX Workstations and render farms. Powered by a 3DBOXX or renderBOXX 10200, V-Ray offers remarkably fast 3D rendering and output for the world’s most demanding digital artists.” said Peter Mitev, CEO, Chaos Software.

Designed for creative professionals in film, television, video games, and architectural visualization, BOXX Solutions bundled with V-Ray are system engineered by BOXXlabs, the research and development arm of BOXX Technologies, and backed by BOXX Technical Support.

For further information, contact a BOXX Sales Consultant in the US at 1-877-877-2699. Learn more about bundled software options, BOXX Finance options, and how to contact one of our worldwide resellers, by visiting our website at http://www.boxxtech.com .

About Chaos Software
Established in 1997, Chaos Software Ltd. – part of Chaos Group, began as a provider of 3D design and animation services for local and international studios in Bulgaria. After intensive experimentation and research, our team of talented programmers launched the V-Ray rendering engine, the flagship of our products.

About BOXX Technologies
BOXX Technologies provides high-performance solutions that empower digital artists to create at the speed of thought. Since 1998, we’ve provided state-of-the-art desktop and mobile workstations and render farms for entertainment media, architecture, research, and defense. BOXX is located in Austin, Texas, with devoted customers worldwide.

Make It Right for Line

March 31, 2009 at 1:33 pm | Posted in 3ds max | Leave a comment
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Do you ever get difficulties to draw a perfect horizontal or vertical line in 3ds max? Or when you want to to draw a line with specific angle? If you answer yes to both pervious questions, you have arrive in perfect place. You will find what you’re looking for in this article. Do not need to looking everywhere anymore.

This article will tells you about tools that will help you to make a good straight line both horizontally or vertically and even if the line has a particular angle in 3ds max.

The first tool that you can use is Keyboard Entry rollout. This tool is available when you create a line object. This facility is not too easy to be used because it is very depends on your knowledge about coordinate for every line endpoint that you will create. One big advantage from this tool is you can create a line with precise dimension. If you want to make a six units long line horizontally, then you just need to put number six at field for parameter X and then press Create button. Of course you must create a first endpoint at coordinate 0, 0.

Tips: To make your life easier with this tool, make your line’s first endpoint at coordinate 0, 0.

What becomes a problem for this tool is when you want to create a line with a coordinate that need calculation process such as 28.35, 45.36. If you just want to create a six units long line, it will not be a big problem. But, how if you want to create a 6.3421 units long line? Take your calculator? Or the fastest way is with using Numerical Expression Evaluator. Another disadvantage from this tool is this tool can not create a specific long line with a particular angle.

Other tool that you can use is Grid and Snap. But unfortunately, this tools combination is not practical to be used. You have to count how many grid that you will need to create a line. For example if you want to create a 25 units long line and your grid is set up at 1 unit, you will need to count 25 grids from the line’s beginning. Change your grid to 25 units? Well, it can temporary solve the problem. It almost can be sure that you will need a lot of different line with different long. Will you change the grid dimension for every line that you will create? If you use User Grid, you also can create a line with an angle and also can create a line not only at XY, XZ, or YZ plane.

More tools for this problem are the used of Ortho Snap and Polar Snap. The disadvantage is this tool can not create a precise long line. We will explore this tool a little deeper.

You may be don’t know about this facility ever though you are an advance 3ds max user. This is can be understood because this tool is rarely discussed and has a hidden place in 3ds max. Do you know that these tools are old enough at 3ds max? At least these tools already exist at 3ds max 7. Beside that old 3ds max version help is also not discuss about Ortho Snap or Polar Snap at all.

The function from ortho snap is to create a line that is straight horizontally or vertically. Polar snap function is to create a straight line in a particular angle.

How to activate ortho snap and polar snap in 3ds max? You can use it with two different ways which is with the use of a button or a shortcut. Both button and shortcut must be set up first from customize user interface dialog box. If you open the dialog box, you can browse from Action list for ortho snap and or polar snap. If you want to use ortho snap and or polar snap as a button, you just need to click and drag the button to a toolbar. If you want to use ortho snap and or polar snap as shortcut, you just need to give them shortcut. It is advisable that you use shortcut if you plan to use both ortho snap and polar snap in the same time. The shortcut will make it is easier to switch from one to another since both function can’t work at the same time.

Now it is the time to try these new facilities that you find from 3ds max. Why don’t you create a line with otho snap or polar snap activated?

You can directly notice that when you use ortho snap you line will be directed to 0, 90, 180 or 270 degree in angle.

And when you use polar snap you can see that the angle that is pointed by this toll is a constant incremental such as every 5 degree. This incremental is set up in the same place where you adjust increment for Angular Snap.

Another way that is the most perfect way to solve out problem is the use of Auto CAD. You can easily create the line like you want in Auto CAD, and then import it to 3ds max. But please remember to use the same unit for both Auto CAD and 3ds max. How if you don’t have any CAD program? Well, you can either install one, or use one from tips above, or use another creative way.

Alat Bantu Line

March 31, 2009 at 1:31 pm | Posted in 3ds max | Leave a comment
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Pernahkah Anda kesulitan mengambar line yang lurus pada 3ds max? Atau mungkin kesulitan saat membuat garis bersudut tertentu pada 3ds max? Bila ya, maka Anda telah tiba di tempat yang tepat. Tidak perlu mencari ke mana-mana lagi, di sini Anda akan temukan jawabannya.

Artikel ini akan membahas alat-alat yang akan membantu Anda untuk membuat line yang tepat lurus baik secara mendatar maupun vertikal atau juga memiliki sudut tertentu pada 3ds max.

Alat yang pertama yang dapat Anda gunakan adalah rollout Keyboard Entry. Alat ini tersedia saat Anda membuat objek line. Fasilitas in tidak terlalu mudah untuk digunakan karena sangat tergantung pada pengetahuan Anda akan koordinat dari setiap titik ujung dari line yang Anda buat. Agar mudah, buatlah titik awal dari garis dari titik 0,0. kelebihan dari alat ini adalah Anda bisa memasukkan ukuran yang pasti untuk panjang dari line. Misalnya saja Anda ingin membuat line sepanjang 6 unit yang mendatar maka Anda hanya perlu masukkan 6 pada kotak isian X lalu tekan Create. Tentunya pada awalnya Anda sudah harus membuat sebuah titik awal di koordinat 0,0. Yang jadi masalah adalah bila Anda mau membuat garis mendatar tersebut pada koordinat yang butuh hitung-hitungan, misalnya dari koordinat 28.35, 45.36. Kalau baru 6 unit sih tidak apa-apa, tapi kalau sudah 6.3421? ambil kalkulator dulu mungkin? Atau paling cepat menggunakan Numerical Expression Evaluator. Kelemahan lain dari alat ini adalah tidak bisanya membuat garis yang berukuran bila sudutnya tidak tepat vertikal atau horisontal.

Alat lain yang dapat digunakan adalah perpaduan antara Grid dan Snap. Namun sayangnya ini juga tidak praktis. Anda harus menhitung jumlah grid yang dibutuhkan untuk membuat sebuah line. Misalkan saja dibutuhkan garis sepanjang 25 satuan dan grid diatur pada besaran setiap 1 unit. Ini artinya Anda perlu memghitung sebanyak 25 buah grid dari titik awal line. Bisa saja grid diubah menjadi 25 satuan, tapi tetap saja tidak praktis. Ukuran line yang akan dibuat biasanya beragam dan bila Anda ingin menggunakan cara ini, artinya Anda harus sering-sering mengubah ukuran grid. Bila diterapkan dengan menggunakan User Grid dari 3ds max, maka kemungkinan pembuatan linenya semakin bertambah. Anda bisa membuat line dengan ukuran yang tepat untuk sudut berapa saja bahkan tidak harus pada bidang XY, XZ atau YZ saja.

Cara lainnya adalah menggunakan bantuan Ortho snap dan Polar Snap. Kelemahannya, adalah tidak bisa akuratnya ukuran dari line yang dibuat. Kita akan membahas lebih jauh fasilitas ini.

Anda mungkin tidak tahu keberadaan dari fasilitas ini karena jarang-jarang dibahas dan letaknya yang tersembunyi. Padahal fasilitas ini sudah cukup tua berada di 3ds max paling tidak sudah ada pada versi 3ds max 7. Selain itu pada help 3ds max versi lama juga tidak ada yang membahas tentang fasilitas ortho snap dan polar snap ini.

Fungsi dari ortho snap adalah untuk membuat line yang tepat lurus horisontal atau vertikal. Sedangkan polar snap berguna untuk membuat line yang lurus pada sudut tertentu.

Bagaimana mengaktifkan fasilitas ortho snap dan polar snap ini pada 3ds max? Anda bisa melakukannya dengan dua cara yaitu dengan menggunakan tombol atau dengan shortcut. Keduanya Anda akses melalui kotak dialog costumize user interface. Pada daftar Action, cari ortho snap dan atau polar snap. Bila Anda ingin menambahkan tombol ortho snap dan atau polar snap, klik drag tombol tersebut ke toolbar. Bila Anda ingin menggunakan shortcut, berikan shortcut pada kedua perintah tersebut.

Selanjutnya Anda bisa mencoba menggunakan kedua fasilitas 3ds max tersebut. Coba aktifkan salah satu dari ortho snap atau polar snap lalu buat objek line.

Anda bisa lihat bahwa saat menggunakan ortho snap line pasti mengarah ke sudut-sudut 0, 90, 180, dan 270 derajat.

Bisa Anda perhatikan saat menggunakan polar snap, sudut yang ditunjuk oleh fasilitas ini merupakan pertambahan yang konstant misalnya setiap lima derajat. Ini diatur pada tempat yang sama dengan pengaturan untuk Angular Snap.

Selain itu Anda juga tidak bisa menggunakan ortho snap dan polar snap pada saat yang bersamaan. Hanya satu saja yang bisa aktif pada satu waktu.

Cara lain yang paling sempurna adalah menggunakan bantuan Auto CAD. Anda buat linenya di Auto CAD, kemudian export ke dalam 3ds max. Hanya saja harap diingat tentang unit dari kedua program ini harus sama. Tapi kalau tidak punya Auto CAD atau program CAD lainnya? Hmmm, Anda bisa instal, gunakan cara di atas atau gunakan cara kreatif lainnya.

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