10/30/2017 3ds MAX and VRay Tutorial: Basic daylight interior visualization for beginners Render like a photographer

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for beginners Render like a photographer

3ds MAX and VRay Tutorial: Basic daylight interior

visualization for beginners Render like a
photographer
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This is Kanak and I want to explain you here exclusively on tonytextures.com how you can easily set up a
daylight interior scenery in 3ds MAX by using VRay rendering engine with a bit of Photoshop correction of - PS Tutorial: Create a Cutout Tree
the RAW rendering afterwards. - PS Tutorial: Tileable Texture
- Download Free Cutout Tree
I would love to call my approach rendering through the eye of a photographer. I think this is the best way Categories
for you to learn how to render without knowing a thousand of parameter. I will go through following steps
to explain my method: Free Download
General
1. Modeling the scene
Inspiration
2. Creating the materials for the scene
3. Select your camera view Tools
4. Set up the lighting day or night. Remember: Because of we are using the photographic way we do not Tutorials
need to change the lights default parameters a lot. Instead we can manage it with the camera.
Uncategorized
5. Choose the correct camera exposer. This is really important because with right exposer I mean right
shutter speed, F-number and ISO (parameters that determine photos in real live) It is important to
understand that a physical camera in VRay needs to be set up just like the real worlds DSLR cameras
6. The post production is the last step but it is a really important one! Every photographer tries to get
the most out of his photos in Photoshop, so do we. Therefore I save my rendering in RAW format to
have full control in Photoshop afterwards.

Before we start I want to give a small shoutout to our free openArchiVIZpack we use for a lot of our archi
viz tutorials. We put together here 60 archiviz graphics like cutout trees, plants and people as well as

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10/30/2017 3ds MAX and VRay Tutorial: Basic daylight interior visualization for beginners Render like a photographer tonytextures.com
tileable textures and sky background images. And you are even allowed to use it for commercial projects
so no excuse anymore to grab it now:

3D Model of a Standard O ce Room

OK so lets get started:

1_the-room-that-we-will-work-with

I have created a standard 3d office room that should be used for this interior daylight rendering tutorial. I
also put in some basic 3D furniture low polygonal models nothing special.

2_3d-Models-for-VRay-interior-architectural-scenery

Because the light should fall through the window I also imported very simple vertical blind as window
curtain to create some nice effects with the daylight.

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3_Vertical blinds for window

Enable Gamma/LUT Correction in 3DS MAX

The first step is to Enable Gamma/LUT Correction. You will find it via Customize>Preferences on the
Gamma tab.

4_GammaLUT-Correction-in-3DS-MAX

Basically, gamma is the relationship between the brightness of a pixel as it appears on the screen, and the
numerical value of that pixel in the rendering. Because we want to to render a RAW image (physically
correct) we deactivate with this step the increase of brightness which will normally automatically be
created because the screen itself will reduce the brightness again.

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Background information for geeks: Almost every computer monitor has one thing in common. They all
have an intensity to voltage response curve which is roughly a 2.5 power function. Dont be afraid, this just
means that if you send your computer monitor a message that a certain pixel should have intensity equal
to x, it will actually display a pixel which has intensity equal to x ^ 2.5 Because the range of voltages sent to
the monitor is between 0 and 1, this means that the intensity value displayed will be less than what you
wanted it to be, but we want the real values because we export the result as RAW and correct it in
Photoshop afterwards.

OK, if you understood this part you made the hardest part, if not it does not really matter

Lets go back to the 3d model. It is a complete level of an office building but for this tutorial we only
concentrate on one single office room.

5_Room-without-furniture

Setting up VRay Materials in 3DS MAX

First I create some VRay materials for the main elements. Open the material editor (shortcut M) and pick
an unused material. For the dining table top I created an easy marble material, but you can use also
another texture of your choise.

Tileable marble texture image as Diffuse Map

Change the color of the reflection to white

Reflection Glossiness: 0.9

Subdivs: 25

6_Creating-a-marble-VRay-material

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For the chair I created two different VRay materials. One is a SS Stell metal material and the other one
looks just like simple white plastic. See the settings I made in the screenshot:

7_SS-Stell-Material-for-chair

8_White-glossy-plastic-material-for-chair

For the other table I also used a marble texture like for the other table as well:

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9_marble-material-table-top

Afterwards we create also a VRay material for the basin

Choose a white for the diffuse color

Choose a grey color for the reflection color

Activate Fresnel reflections

Refl. Glossiness value: 0.9

10_Create-3ds-MAX-Material-for-ceramic-besin-glossy-look

High Resolution Wooden Strip Parquet

Texture for the 3D Floor
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For the floor I use this high resolution tileable strip parquet texture:

tileable-strip-parquet-floor-texture-with-high-
resolution-free-download

You can download it for free at tonytextures here for free. You are even allowed to use the texture for your
commercial projects!

Free Download: High Resolution and Seamlessly Tileable Strip-Parquet Floor Texture

I use the texture also as diffuse map in 3ds MAX and add afterwards some glossiness and reflections:

Set reflection color to light white

Activate Fresnel reflections

Refl. Glossiness value: 0.9

Subdivs: 10

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11_Strip-Parquet-Wood-Tileable-Texture-in-3ds-MAX

Create a VRay Physical Camera

Next we will create a VRay physical camera. To do so, select Create>Camera>VRay (from drop down menu)
>physical camera.

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12_Setup-Vray-physical-camera

Afterwards press c to activate your camera view. Then choose a nice camera position.

13_Position-your-camera

Use a VRay plane light for your interior

architectural scenery
The light should be generated by a light emitting plane that we place in the window. To do so create a VRay
plane light by selecting Create>Light>VRay>VRay Light. Afterwards modify the parameters like shown in the
screenshot:

14_VRay-Plane-Light-for-Interior-Architectural-Scene

It is important to activate Cast Shadows to ensure that shadows will be generated and also activate
Invisible because the plane itself should not be visible in the final rendering.

Add a VRay sun to the scenery

In addition we need a VRay sun. To do so select Create>Light>VRay>VRaySun and set the target inside of
the window. When you are going to create a sun you need to confirm the upcoming dialogue (Would you
like to automatically add a VRaySky environment map) to automatically add a VRaySky environmental
map.

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15_Setup-Vray-sun-and-sky

Parameters for VRay Physical Camera for

Interior Scenery

16_Physical-camera-setup

For the camera setup I first changed the custom balance to white. If you want to make your image brighter
then you have two possibilities (like you would have with your DSLR-camera as well):

You can lower the f-number

You can change the shutter speed for the camera

Four Most Important Parameters of a Physical

Vray Camera
Let me explain the four most important parameters of a physical Vray Camera:

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1. Shutter speed: Stutter speed can control the brightness of your scene. A lower shutter speed lets
more light reach the photo chip of a DSLR. More light = brighter image. Or the other way around a
faster shutter speed give less light pass the image becomes darker. In real life your image can have
blur effects when the shutter speed is too long and your scenery is in motion. But in 3ds MAX it will
not have an blur effect because nothing is moving.
2. F-Number: F-number is the parameter of your cameras aperture. A lower f-number mean wider
aperture and thus more light = brighnter image. A higher f-number means a narrow aperture and
thus less light = darker image. It is important that it affects the depth of field but in VRay if you are
not using the depth of field effect then that also doesnt matter.
3. ISO: ISO is the film speed. Higher ISO = bright image, lower ISO = dark image. In real life a higher ISO
can cause a noisy image but not in a VRay physical camera.
4. White balance: It means to identify the right white color for camera. You can make it neutral in VRay

So finally you see that the physical VRay is even more powerfull as a real world DSR camera and does not
have some major disadvantages.

Render Setup for VRay and Indirect Lightning

After this short detailed description I change some parameters in the Render Setup to achieve a fast, but
also realistic result.

Common Settings: Set Output Size to HDTV (video)

VRay Settings:

Activate: Frame buffer/Enable built-in Frame Buffer

Activate: Global switches/Lights and Global switches/Shadows

Select: Image sampler (Antialiasing)/ Type: Adaptive DMC

Activate Image sampler (Antialiasing)/Antialiasing filter: on and select VRayTriangleFilter

Select: Color mapping/Type: Exponential and make settings like shown in the screenshot blow

Indirect Illumination:

Activate VRay Indirect Illumination

Select Irradiance map as GI engine under Primary bounces

Select Light chache as GI engine under Secondary bounces

Set parameters at Detail enhancement

Set Subdiv to 1500 at Calculation parameters

Activate Store direct light at Calculation parameters

Activate Pre-filter under Reconstruction parameters and also Use light cache for glossy rays with a
Retrace threshold of 1.0

Settings:

Set Min samples to 15

Set noise threshold to 0.005

Set Dynamic memory limit to 7000 MB

And finally activate Low thread priority

See the complete parameter setup shown below:

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17_Render-set-up

Render a RAW image with VRay in 3DS MAX

and Optimize Lightning in Photoshop
Now it is finally time to start rendering and get results. Here we go!

18_Raw-out-put

This is my raw output its a bit dark from my point of view but thats okay. Ill love to handle this at
Photoshop. But of course you can also make additional enhancements by changing the shutter speed and
f-number at you VRay physical camera directly.

Okay here we are in Photoshop. Go to Filter>Camera raw filter:

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19_Import-to-photoshop-and-edit-RAW-rendering

And just play around for your right exposer and with the color. It is self explaining and you will get a feeling
for the parameters just by testing these out by yourself. See my parameters I ended up with here:

20_Parameters-in-Photoshop-to-edit-RAW-image

So this is basically it and I am pretty happy with the result:

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21_Final-rendering-of-3d-interior-architectural-visualization-with-VRay

I know there are quite a lot of settings to be made, but I would recommend you to set up your dummy
scenery and use it for your future project as well.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

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Related posts:

1. Tutorial Leather Texture in Photoshop

2. Photoshop Tutorial: How to create a tileable building texture
3. Photoshop Tutorial: Turning a scene from day to night

Comments
10 Comments on "3ds MAX and VRay Tutorial: Basic daylight interior
visualization for beginners Render like a photographer"

lina April 7, 2014 at 8:17 am

Great work,thank you

Reply

bashir August 24, 2014 at 12:33 pm

Vary nice and unique tutorail and short and sweet tutorial-

Reply

RAJAK September 2, 2014 at 9:24 am

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10/30/2017 3ds MAX and VRay Tutorial: Basic daylight interior visualization for beginners Render like a photographer tonytextures.com
Vary nice and unique tutorail and short and sweet tutoria

Reply

JOS LUIS September 29, 2014 at 8:32 pm

Muy Bueno, el acabado en Vray, es grandioso, ademas en este tutorial aprende hasta el
mas despistao, Suerte y Gracias por tal desprendimiento

Reply

grosir vimax September 5, 2015 at 3:40 pm

nice tutorial tony, very helpful for us. Great job

Reply

pizza meilleraye de bretagne January 11, 2017 at 2:45 am

Hello, this weekend is nice for me, as this time i am reading this impressive educational
paragraph here at my residence.

Reply

Trackbacks for this post

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3. 3ds Max Render | says:

February 26, 2016 at 5:59 pm

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4. Interior Lighting In Vray , 3DS Max computer 3D BLOG says:

October 23, 2016 at 5:08 pm

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