Page 1 Cinema 4D Training Introducing VRay A short guide to the settings of VRayForC4D Stuart Lynch e C4D Vault presents Page 2 Page 3 ZIP ARCHIVE PASSWORD SherbetLemon case sensitive Project les can be found at http://www.thec4dvault.com/down/vrayguide.zip Page 4 Page 5 eC4DVault(.com) eC4DVault.com was created by Stuart Lynch and provides Cinema 4D training, resources and sample les for the C4D community. Stuart is a veteran Cinema 4D user with over 10 years of professional expe- rience in the industry and several years providing instructional information to intermediate users. is rst in a series of new short instructional pdf ’s is aimed at providing the user with enough informa- tion to digest without becoming overwhelmed. It highlights the backend of VRay and relates the impor- tance of understanding the settings that make VRayForC4D one of the best render engines around. Over the coming months, eC4DVault pdf booklets will cover a wide variety of topics, providing a free and reliable way to learn Cinema 4D. “I hope you enjoy this rst addition and learn a thing or two about VRay in the process. anks for reading.” Stuart Lynch http://www.project1media.com Please make a minimal donation to keep the resource alive. *See Donate section at www.thec4dvault.com Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 It’s time to turn our C4D shot into a VRay scene. First activate VRay in the Render Settings - gure 1.4 gure 1.4 You’ll notice now a new VRay Bridge Option gure 1.5 has appeared for VRay on the le hand side gure 1.5 Clicking the VRayBridge option will reveal the many VRay bridge parameters geared towards the nal rendering setup. Next click on the tab that says IndirectIllumination gure 1.6 and check the rst box that says GI ON gure 1.7 gure 1.6 You’ve now successfully activated VRay and and activated GI. Feel free to test the render. gure 1.7 gure 1.8 Now that you’ve witnessed the true power of VRay, you might want to take it to the next level. Right click the light object in the Object Manager and scroll down to the VRay tags. From the list, you’ll want to add a VRayLight tag. gure 1.8. gure 1.9 e information required to manipulate VRay lights specically is now contained in the VRay light tag for future reference. gure 1.9 You can double click this tag at any time to retrieve this set of parameters. If you were to search images.google with the term ‘VRay’, one of the rst thing you’ll notice is the abundant usage of the Physical Sun/Sky setup. It’s a practical solution for lighting interiors and will serve as our rst demonstration of the VRay engine at work. In gure 1.1 we have the Sun light parameters which allow us to make changes to the Sun’s intensity and it’s physical properties. For this example we’re simply going to acti- vate the Sun/Sky and become familiar with the lighting it provides for the scene. gure 1.1 In gure 1.2 I’ve created a primitive cube with 2 segments on each side. e geometry has been edited and 2 simple openings have been extruded on the most distant polygons. e editor camera has been positioned in the center of the screen and I’ve exaggerated the eld of view slightly to include both open- ings. gure 1.2 gure 1.3 To complete this portion of the setup, I’ve added a simple target light gure 1.3. Chapter 1: Introducing VRay - e Sun and Sky Page 10 Page 11 Color mapping To make a point stick with his students, my college instructor would occasionally use profanity. So let me say that using Color Mapping in your workow will oen save your ASS! ere are plenty of headaches to come, trust me, but with this simple workow you’ll avoid blown out light sources that can make or break a render. It’s a straight forward concept to understand when illustrated with this amazing set of renders. In gure 1.13 e area light in this simple room appears to give o the correct light intensity and illuminates the portion of the room closest to camera. But at the source, the light appears ‘nuked’ In gure 1.14 If we dial back the lighting intensity a little, the light at the source appears to have corrected itself, but at the expense of less light reaching the back of the room. gure 1.15 gure 1.13 gure 1.14 In gure 1.15 the light intensity is restored to the brightness of gure 1.13, color mapping is applied and the light adequately reaches the entire space. Balance is accomplished. e VRayLight tag contains a lot of impor- tant functionality and we’ll become familiar with all of the options as we progress. For now, our intention is change the target spotlight to become a Sun light with a PhysicalSky In the option Light type gure 1.4 Change from a Spot light to an Innite light. Also check Enable shadows gure 1.10 e light now is as it suggests, an innite light and not yet a Sun Light. In order for the light to become a Sun Light we must click the Sun Light tag and make a few adjust- ments gure 1.11 In gure 1.11 I have checked the boxes Physical Sun and Physical Sky. A test render gure 1.12 will now reveal a room illuminated by the physical qualities of the sun and sky together. Focussing on the details of the render, it’s possible to notice that there’s a slight aw in the accuracy of the lighting. e sunlight that enters the room looks overexposed, yet the subsequent light fall- o is too dramatic and occurs too quickly. Meaning, the rest of the room is too dark when compared to the intensity of the sun. Maybe it’s that the scene needs a ll light or perhaps we’ve missed the more GI ‘bounces’ option, aer all it’s an interior scene. Not so fast! e solution in Color Mapping gure 1.12 Page 12 Page 13 It wouldn’t be fair to oer you this solution without some idea of what’s happening behind the scenes. Aer all, you did buy the book from a desire to learn. So if we apply the ‘Indoor’ settings from the guidelines on the previous page, we can draw comparison to the original Sun/Sky render. gure 1.17 is the original without color map- ping applied (Gamma 1.0) gure 1.18 in exponential mode with the guide- line values (3.6/1.8/2.0) (Gamma 2.0) gure 1.17 gure 1.18 In gure 1.17 we have the issue where the sun- light is not illuminating the scene correctly. In gure 1.18 the samples illuminate the shot correctly and the light intensity is well bal- anced. e dierence lies in the mode Exponen- tial, this prevents colors from becoming too burned out and bright. It’ll saturate the colors as they reach too high of an intensity. e darkness multiplier value increase to 3.6 indicates that the original output of grey/ blue will have be multiplied by 3.6, giving rise to the additional light and brightness in the scene. e brightness multiplier is increased to 1.8 Which indicates that although the exponen- tial value has reduced overall brightness, it can still be multiplied to compensate for the dip you see in gure 1.19. You can consider it a compromise. In gure gure 1.19 the brightness multiplier is being le at its default value of 1.0 and the sunlight would be too low in its intensity. gure 1.19 FOR INDOOR SHOTS. Type: Exponential (some prefer HSV exponential) Dark Multiplier: 3.6 Brightness Multiplier: 1.8 Gamma: Between 1.8 - 2.2 LinearWorkFlow - Check to ON FOR OUTDOOR SCENES. Type: Reinhard Multiplier: 1.5 Burn Value: 0.5 Gamma: Between 1.8 - 2.2 LinearWorkFlow - Check to ON If you’re not already aware of the implications of using a LWF - See the following PDF http://www.pixsim.co.uk/downloads/e_Beginners_Explanation_of_Gamma_Correction_and_Linear_Workow.pdf By default VRay uses the ‘Color Mapping’ type (menu option Type) Linear Multiply with default Dark and Bright Multiplier values set to 1 You will notice several other Types in this drop down menu. Exponential HSV Exponential Intesity Exponential Gamma Correction Intesity Gamma Reinhard e most practical color mapping Type for interior rendering is Exponential mode (or HSV Exponential) For exterior shots, it is recommended to use Reinhard e following settings are a general guideline for what these numbers should look like. You can use nd this function in VRay settings under Color Mapping. gure 1.16 gure 1.16 Page 14 Page 15 Switch to the point tool and from the attributes manager uncheck ‘Only select Vis- ible Elements’ gure 2.5 In the Top viewport select the polygons that make up the front window and rear wall. Drag to the le as in gure 2.6 Repeat the process for the Right window as shown in gure 2.7 gure 2.6 In VRay it’s important to use as accurate a measurements as possible. is basic cube is 500cm x 200cm x 800cm and represents our small bedroom. gure 2.1 Chapter 2: e test scene In this chapter we’ll begin with a quick scene and will introduce the Physical Camera. gure 2.1 In figure 2.2 I’ve added 5 segments to the X side of the model. Edit the model (hotkey C) and move the editor camera inside of the model. gure 2.2 With the camera inside the model, select all polygons and reverse normals so that they’re facing inwards. (hotkeys U~R) gure 2.3 Selecting two faces as shown below gure 2.4 Use inner extrude (hotkey I) and extrude (hotkey D) to create two window openings. Here you could split the glass geometry for later (hotkeys U~S) or simply delete the two polygons. gure 2.4 gure 2.7 Returning to the editor view, raise the lowest portion of the windows up slightly. gure 2.8 gure 2.8 Select all the polygons on the oor plane and extrude down slightly to create room for a thin moulding feature gure 2.9 Select all ceiling polygons, perform a slight inner extrude and then a regular extrude upwards. gure 2.10 gure 2.9 gure 2.10 Page 16 Page 17 gure 2.12 In gure 2.12, extrude the ceiling polygons to match the moulding extrusion. Perform a simple select loop command with the polygon tool (hotkey U~L) gure 2.13 and Extrude slightly at 91° Don’t be concerned if your shot is nothing like mine. If your scene has two openings I’ll forgive you. Moving on. gure 2.14 - ‘Test render for illustration purposes only’ Find a place where you’re happy with the viewport representation of your scene and add a regular Camera. gure 2.14 ‘Roughing out’ the lights Add a Target Light and position yourself in the top view, try to nd a placement for the target light where you would like the Sun to exist. gure 2.15 gure 2.15 Select VRay as your primary render engine in RenderSettings and as in the earlier ex- ample, check GI on in the IndirectIllumina- tion tab. Add a VRay Light tag to your Target light, check enable shadows, change from spot light to innite light. In the SunLight tab activate the Physical sun and Physical Sky. Returning again to the editor view and ensuring you have you camera selected. Run your rst render. gure 2.16 gure 2.16 Clearly not enough light entering the room on this angle. is issue of balance is more prominent than in my initial examples. It’s time to apply Color Mapping to bring the room to life. gure 2.16 gure 2.17 REMINDER FOR INDOOR SHOTS. Type: Exponential (some prefer HSV exponential) Dark Multiplier: 3.6 Brightness Multiplier: 1.8 Gamma: Between 1.8 - 2.2 LinearWorkFlow - Check to ON A small improvement. Select the wall polygons in between the win- dows and extrude. gure 2.11 gure 2.11 gure 2.13 Page 18 Page 19 Bringing the shot to life. From the Material Manager add a new VRay Advanced Material to the scene. gure 2.18 So far we haven’t included any materials in our scene. VRay responds to color change quite dramatically, as does color in the real world. If we add a tiled wood texture to the oor, the bounced light from the wood and its color values will have an aect on the scene. Let’s explore further gure 2.18 Assign the new VRay Ad- vanced Material to your cube object in the OM (object manager). gure 2.19 I’ve named my material ‘base’ gure 2.19 Double click the Material ‘Wood’ In the Diuse Layer - Texture map slot. Load a wood tile texture gure 2.21 Create a second VRay Advanced Material and change the name to ‘wood’ Select all oor polygons and drag the ‘wood’ material over the polygon selection gure 2.20 gure 2.20 gure 2.21 In the OM select (click) the wood material tag. In the Attributes Manager, change the projection mode from Spherical to Cubic Using the texture axis tool and the scale tool gure 2.22 Scale the wood texture to t your scene. gure 2.22 Running a new test render, notice how the wooden oor is aecting the lighting in the rest of the scene. gure 2.23 gure 2.23 Make a few adjustments to your camera po- sition and to the SunLight and try to balance both lighting direction and composition. gure 2.24 gure 2.24 In this next phase of scene creation, we’ll start blocking out some objects with simple geometry to get a better feel for composition. Place Cube primitive objects and position them where the bed, side tables and cabinet would potentially be. e presence of more white objects has changed the dynamic lighting of the scene once again. gure 2.25 gure 2.25 Adding some additional materials with variations in color (preferably chosen to represent how you imagine your scene) we’re able to improve upon the overall feel of the shot. gure 2.26 gure 2.26 With all of these geometry additions you may have noticed that the light in the room has taken a signicant dip in brightness. On the next page we’ll discuss the Physical Camera and how to implement photographic values in order to restore the balance. [...]... Advanced material to make a semi accurate portrayal of a marble floor ‘VrayAdvancedMaterial’ and ‘VRayFastSSS2 Material’ SSS calculated as part of the refraction layer (as shown on page 45) is an accurate representation of a real world translucent effect While it can produce stunning results, it can also be notoriously slow to render A much faster approach is to use a VRayFastSSS2 material The parameters... parameters of which are available as an extension of the standard VRay Advanced material and as a standalone material called the VRayFastSSS2 material The Raytraced-Solid mode will calculate/estimate the Volume inside the object Open example file test_stage_marble.c4d The scene is setup with a marble texture map and contains only a Diffuse layer It’s also possible to cheat translucent effects using the Vray2Sided... Note: These files are all available in the VrayBlendMaterial folder figure 4.37 Page 50 Page 51 VRayDisplaceMaterial The VRayDisplaceMaterial allows the usage of Displacement maps in VRay It’s possible to mix this material with a standard VRayAdvancedMaterial by stacking it to the right of the standard material and choosing ‘Mix textures’ from the texture tag Let’s quickly explore The following example... you to stack materials - It works in almost exactly the same way as manually stacking them in the object manager, but allows for better management in some cases The process starts off with a base layer such a brick map for example, then additional materials are applied as a coat material, this could be useful for peeling paint of a layer of broken concrete Various mapping techniques that have some Material...Introduction to the Physical camera The Physical Camera in VRay allows us to reproduce the parameters of a real world camera To improve our scene without further adjusting the Color Mapping or the default lighting intensity of the Sun, we’ll implement the Physical Camera and make use of its features such as ISO and FStop It’s good practice to use the Physical camera for all of your scenes From the OM select... Each of the approximation methods has its own very specific parameters This is visible as the dark areas in the image Leave every other IR setting alone The first two parameters you come across are Min rate and Max rate These settings relate to the size of the IR map calculation The Min value “determines the resolution for the first GI pass” The Max value determines the resolution for the last GI pass... Displacement figure 4.31 ‘Octopus’ figure 4.38 The default amount can be set too high for certain tasks and should be experimented with for optimal results Create a standard VRayAdvanced material and apply it to the cube Create a VRayDisplaceMaterial and also apply to the cube object (after the first material) For more in depth features relating to your displacement needs, please refer to the VRay manual... absence of a material channel, the VRay2Sided material will use a standard grey diffuse VRayAdvanced material by default The VRay2Sided material solves this old limitation by allowing us to have a ‘diffuser’ in VRay A diffuser softens light as it passes through a surface, essentially making it what we call translucent This material was created to address the need for thin translucent objects like paper,... easy to comprehend Antialiasing I’m certain you’re all familiar with the practice of using Antialiasing in your scenes VRay features 3 types of image samplers (antialiasing methods) and each one differs slightly in approach We have the Fixed rate sampler, the Adaptive DMC sampler and the Adaptive Subdivision sampler Choosing the right image sampler is determined by the individual scene and there are... (Fully adaptive) Having covered two of the possible GI engines and how their individual passes contribute towards the quality of the final render, we need to talk about the big guns! The DMC Sampler You can think of the DMC sampler as a global quality control This group of 4 settings play a very important role in the rest of the workflow Looking at an Area light’s parameters (VRay Light tag), it reveals . VRayBridge - VRay Advanced material A VRay advanced material has far more options than a standard C4D mat. e vast majority of materials you’ll set up in VRay are relatively straight forward, though. discuss the Physical Camera and how to implement photographic values in order to restore the balance. Page 20 Page 21 Introduction to the Physical camera e Physical Camera in VRay allows us to. Page 1 Cinema 4D Training Introducing VRay A short guide to the settings of VRayForC4D Stuart Lynch e C4D Vault presents Page 2 Page 3 ZIP ARCHIVE PASSWORD SherbetLemon case sensitive Project