Understanding through the parameters seems to me a great bullshit. It’s necessary to deeply understand things, then just apply to the software.

That’s because 90% of this article is devoted to a simple explanation of what the depth of field is and what it depends. The softwares does not invent anything new,  once you understood the fundamental issue so the application will be really simple.

* * *

For each picture there is just one place where the photo is perfectly sharp. There also is a space in front and one behind the subject, in which blurring is so minimal as to be imperceptible.

Outside of this space objects start to appear increasingly blurred.

This space is called Depth of Field and the objects in this space appears perfectly sharp.

WHAT DOES AFFECT THE DEPHT OF FIELD?

There are 3 importants things:

• Focal lenght
• Distance from the subject
• Aperture (f number)

How to increase Blur DOF effect?

1. Using a bigger focal lenght
2. Reducing the distances from the subject
3. Decreasing F Number

If you already fixed your camera/view, the only way you have to give a strong DOF effect is decreasing F Number, but there is a problem: more light will came!

So, how to balance this phenomenon? I want a very strong blur effects with the same brightness.

The secret is to know EV (Exposure Value)

Basically the amount of light entering in a lens is the result of two factors:

1. F number (the aperture)
2. Shutter speed  (expressed in thousandths of seconds)

In this table “f” and “shutter speed” are associated with a number (EV).

Keep EV value constant and you will get the same brightness! C’est facile!

PRATICAL SCENE EXAMPLE

I completed my settings and I have VRay Physical Camera with: f=8 / Shutter speed = 250.
In the table  I can read the EV is  14. (image below)

(Rememebr: Our goal is to keep EV constant!)

Do you want to get a blurred image? (I know you like thaaat!) if I decrease  F number = 4 I have to check in the table the right Shutter speed value in order to preserve EV=14

The right values is Shutter speed = 1000 (Click image below)

( F=4 and Shutter speed = 1000 will keep EV = 14 and the brightness will be constant! )

It’s easy: I told you!

Now just flag depht-of-field (in V-Ray Physical Camera object) and remember that “subdivisions” affects the grain coming from the Dof. High values (30-40) will give a better image but the rendering time will increase drammatically.

Remember that the distance where we  have the perfect focus will be determined by the VRayPhysical Carmera TARGET.

For the application I used V-Ray but the concept is the same for any software simulating a real camera.

Last good news: these concepts are also valid for your REAL Reflex!
Have a good rendering!

>> FREE SCENE: http://www.cg-blog.com/…/dof-final-scene.zip

You need to render a rock surface and you just have a diffuse map. ( Look here for Free Textures! )
How to convert it in a useful displacement map?

Most of times you open the texture in photoshop and work it in order to get your displacement map. But often we just get really rought surfaces. How to improve it?

In this cases a really useful tool in Photoshop is Cutout filter:

Cutout reduce the nuances present in the image, thus solving most of the problems!

The classic steps to create a displacement map is:

• Transform it in black and white texture
• Contrast the image
• Save and apply it in the displacement channel

Ok guys, today I want to suggest one step more:

Apply the cutout filter (to reduce the color variations):

Look at the difference in the image below:

If you want to refine the displacement map you can use Gaussian blur filter.
The displacement will be more soft.

If you want to simulate Caustics with V-Ray con can’t miss my related post!

If  you want to simulate the sea with V-Ray as you see in the picture above? Download the free scene – LINK! (V-Ray + 3ds 2009)

- – - – - Became a fan of CG BLOG on Facebook! – - – - -

I’m also pleased to talk a little bit of this method. I often say in my courses: there are methods and principles. Who knows the principles always find the solution, but who knows only the methods (tutorials) will have many more problems!

What is the main principle in this case? The classic “noise” is not suitable to simulate the sea because the sea has some undulations, within which there are other small ripples, within which we have very small ripples … and so on.

Now that you know this principle, create a new image in Photoshop by clicking: Filter> Render> Clouds. The result is an image like this:

It appears with large areas of black and white, within which there are smaller variations of the same. Do not you think her behavior very similar to the sea? So use this texture in “displacement” channel of the sea material and it’s done. (The value of the displacement regulates the height of the waves)

About “sea” material: It’s nothing special! Dark green (RGB = 32,61,64) with fresnel reflections: when the angle increases, increases the reflections. I putted the sun inclined to emphasize the effect.

Free for subscribed and new users:

I went on holiday, I spent two wonderful weeks in Zante – thinking in a V-Ray Sea Simulation – and I must confess it: these days I was particularly attracted to those amazing play of light that you see on the bottom of the sea and swimming pools.

This is a physical effect that takes the name of “Caustics” and you have probably already read somewhere that you can simulate this effect with V-Ray. Let’s see how.

The light passes through a curvee and transparent body (glass, water ..) , so the light will tend to concentrate it in some areas. (Read a full explanation of caustic )

Very often we create material “Water” material using “Affect shadows” option. In this way the light passes through the object. If you do not want the caustics this  is a good solution. If you want to simulate the caustics mark “on” here:

• Panel rendering (F10) > Indirect Illumination> V-Ray Caustics > ON [X]

Here a little explainiation of the main 4 parameters you’ll find there:

• Multiplier: caustic intensity  (1,0 default = ok)
• Search dist: projection distance (..follow the tutorial)
• Max photons: maximum number of photons used to calculate (10 = ok)
• Max density: Resolution limit (0,0 default = ok)

CAUSTIC SUBDIVISION parameter:
It ‘important to manage the details of the caustic. It is governed by the value “Caustic subdivs.” you can find by clicking on Light Setting in:

- Rendering panel > Setting > Light Setting (at bottom) and checking the light: Direct Sun, in this case.

Note: In this V-Ray version I use  I prefer to use “direct light” because it works better than VRaySun

(In the attached file, “Caustic subdivs.” setting is 30000. It’s high enough to get sharped caustics. Attention: for your first test you can start using “3000″.)

As you know I love simple explanations, and especially love the “results” without too many technical and mental complications, so let’s concentrate on the main actor. Do you know who is?

>>> It’s the WATER SURFACE!
“Create a good water surface in order to get a realistic caustics effect”

Without a suitable surface the effect is never pleasant. Surely there are many ways to make a good surface that simulates the water, in this tutorial I do so:

• I create a box with a high number of subdivisions (1cm thick)
• I apply the Noise modifier with “fractal” active (Z = 1cm)

You just turn on the caustics and assign to Search. dist. a suitable distance to let the caustics “reach” the bottom. (Eg.: If the pool is 200cm deep, setup Distance search = 300cm, this value will be more than sufficient.)

In this render I just use “affect shadows”: It seems the sun doesn’t penetrate the water!

But if we activate the caustics, thus allowing the light to cross the water, generate caustics, projecting towards the bottom and upwards … then the result changes! (Unfortunately, also the rendering time)

I hope you liked my simple tutorial about V-Ray caustics!

• Original post:  ”Cosa sono le caustiche?” – Italian
• V-Ray Official page about Caustics

Do you like this image above? Probably you already downloaded my useful 3 Scene Template about interiors, exteriors and objects. Ok, go on with this great scene, full setted, totally free.

I made this rendering using 3ds Max 9 and Vray render… and I want to give you that scene as a present for you readers!

3d model to add nice ditails in bathroom scenes type. Toothpaste, toothbrush, liquid soap, box and something else with V-ray 1.5 high photorealistic setted scene. Just Clic render button and get a photorealistic shot!

I hope you’ll like my 3d files! It’s a good opportunity to investigate my V-ray settings, to compare my setting with yours… to help each other about settings and lighting concept.

Tell in your 3d forum, tell your friends…. Download and enjoy it.

[ Vray Tutorial ] – In the 2005 the Nine Inch Nails made a new video: Only. It was a great success, especially among 3d lovers in the world!

Many people like its music, but the 3d lovers like the videoclip because it’s made totally with Vray! Vray Render is the really main actor in this 3d short movie!

The Photorealism is amazing, but the special effect who surprise everyone is that you can see at 1’30″: the singer appears in the Pinscreen singing!! That’s a gret effect… but not so complicated to realise.

Suppose to start from a 3d head model. This is the idea:

• Render a sequence with Z-Depht (front view)
• Use these images as Vray Displacement Map!
• Final Render

Et-voilà, it’s done!

This is the summary of the Alzhem Tutorial. Here the link… enjoy it!

• Only – Videclip
• How to create a Pinscreen – Vray
• Behind the scenes!

I would to see your results! Send the images at my email address! I’ll publish it with your name. Subscribe to the Newsletter!

[ Vray Tutorial ] V-ray has various method to control the light in the scene. You can tune the lights and the environement but also you can play with Color Mapping settings.

With Color Mapping we can manage the shadow intensity and the brigtness, so it’s very important to understand perfectly this rollout.

There are different type of algorithm with Color mapping in vray 1.5: Linear, Exponential, Exponential HSV, Intensity Exponential, Reinhard and Gamma Correction … and we can read the official guide to understand all about it:

• Vray – Official guide about Color Mapping

But I also found a very nice tutorial explaining the differences between Linear, Exponential, Exponential HSV… is an italian tutorial but it’s very simple so you can use the google language tools to read in english this tutorial!

• Understanding Color Mapping
• Related post – Linear WorkFlow

Enjoy it!

Vray Training.

It’s no possible to find all for free, sometimes wee need to buy ; ) but it0s important to choose the right products…

VisMasters delivers high quality training to your desktop. Industry experts present carefully developed curriculums to help you achieve your goals. Whether you are seeking to improve a technique or need a crash course, VM Online course offerings provide you an ideal online training solution.

• Vray training and more..

Linear workflow: understand it!

Have you ever wondered why your GI renderings start out so dark? Well, in fact they are not so dark. The problem lies with the display device (the CRT or LCD) and that the software is not making adjustments for the gamma that the displays put on our images.

Look at this tutorial to solve definetly your darkness… ; )

• Linear Workflow Tutorial

VRayFur is a very simple procedural fur plugin.
( In Grass and Carpets there is a gift for you related to vray fur! ).

This tutorial is about the fur is generated only during render time and is not actually present in the scene.

Have a look here to understand how to set a scene and create many different landscape changings few parameters.

Remember that VRayFur will not work with VRayPlane as a base object, beacuse it needs subdivision to distribute fur.

• Vray Fur file – Download
• Vray Fur -Guide

> I recovered this great tutorial from cgheaven.net, a good forum who disappeared some years ago <

Hey, this is a grass tutorial, pretty basic but you can use it to make some really nice non-animated scenes. Anyway let’s get started.

1# Open up 3ds max, you must have a copy of V-Ray

2# Make a plane set lenght and width segs to 100,  so you have quite a dense mesh

3# Select the plane the go into the object menus abd select vray then clic on vray fur

4# You should now start to see something similar to what I get below. Now we will change settings to create the grass.

5# First we will change the gravity to 2.5 (NOT -2.5), next change the lenght var to 1.0 this will give us the slightly grass effect. Change the grass lenght to 21. You will also want to change the max hairs to 3001, it’s located at the bottom of the side bar.

6# If sould start to look more denser now this is what we want for very thick grass. Let’s configure our render settings and material settings now. Ok, below is my vray reder settings.

7# My grass material is a standard V-Ray material with a following coulor applied. Tee ground is just a gray material that is 30% lighter.

8# Make sure all your settings are set properly then clic render. It should do some calculating then render your scene. That’s pretty much. Here’s my scene after adding some object. Enjoy!

- This tutorial remains property of cgheaven.net -

This short tutorial on how to use VRay’s Global Illumination feature will show you one method for creating realistic looking lighting for a scene.

VRay has many features including the ability to to physically accurate full global illumination, advanced material shaders and enhancements for speeding up rendering time.

• Global Illumination tutorial

If to set a scene with caustic effect+V-ray is so hard it’s better to find some videotutorial that explains us how to do that, isn’t it?

Sometimes I have a look on Tensun blog (sometimes because is totally wrote in chinese!!) and I continue to discover so interesting videotutorials! In the last one – Setting the plugin Fume FX – Tensun explained us the basic parameters of this wonderful plugin: now is the Vray Caustic time!

In this video you’ll find about refections/refractions, Fresnel option and procedural Falloff. Even if you know perfectly these parameters it’s better to repeat the lesson in any case…

Enjoy.

• Videotutorial: Diamond material
• Download the scene: Diamond material

If you are interesting in more articles about V-ray please visit V-ray Tutorial

So to make a good rendering we have to create a good photographic set and put our object in.

I found a excellent tutorial on cgindia.org: how to make a perfect digital photographic set. In this tutorial you can have a look at vray settings. In spite of everything I think this tutorial is very important to understand how to set a digital set with classic rules: primary light, secondary light and back light.

• Photographic set: how to make it with Vray

As soon as possible I provide to give you a complete scene for free donwload.

- Made with Vray 1.5RC3 -

It’s very easy to use it, you just need to download it, starting 3d studio max and go testing changing all the parameters with fantasy!

The V-ray parameters aren’t not so different from the last scene, the most important change is the sun position. As in the reality the color of the sun changes with the inclination, so you have a darker scene with more orange colors.

I’ve changed Vraysun multiplier and color mapping too. Here some information about the settings. Read in bold the parameters I changed:

N° of lights_ 1 | Vray Sun intensity_ 1,0 | Color Mapping_ HSV Esponential (1,4-1,2-1) | GI Enviroment _ Skylight (1.0) | Time to render_ 1′ 43″ (640×480)

Download Vray sunset
[3ds 8 - V-ray 1.5RC3]

If you are interested in free V-ray scenes to download find they in Vray category!

In the last file I showed you how to set VrayDisplacement to obtain realistic grass or carpets. It’s a good solution for middle camera shots.

But how can do if your grass is really near to the camera? You need more details to obtain a realistic render, so it’s time to use Vray Fur!

if you need more information about V-ray fur you could have a look to the official V-ray guide: Vray Fur.

If you need same nice tutorial to understand how to create a grass with vray fur have a look here: Vray Fur tutorial

If you want a very nice scene (xp Style!) to just clic “render”…  download my gift!

Free Scene: Grass with Vray Fur
[ 3ds 8 - vray 1.5 ]

Vray displacement is a very helpful modifier if you want to give more realism to your scene creating 3d grasses and carpets. Not just using textures… ( More V-Ray Tutorials! )

VRayDisplacementMod modifier uses an assigned texture to extrude polygons during the rendering, in fact this modifier doesn’t produce effects in the viewports.

For examples to create a good 3d grass you create a box with many segments, apply noise modifier and with VRayDisplacementMod modifier extrude the box: the grass is done!

I don’t want to give you a boring tutorial so here my scene, free!

> Download now: Grass and carpets with Vray Displacement | 3d studio 2009 + Vray 1.5

> Download now: Grass and carpets with Vray Displacement | 3d studio 8 + V-ray 1.47.02 or higher

Enjoy it!

I think Vray sun it’s the most important new feature in vray 1.5 but maybe it’s hard to set at the beginning.

But now your troubles are finished: you can download here my free Vray sun scene already setted. The result you will see clicking on Rendering botton will be the same you see in the in the image on the left!

I used Vray Low settings: this kind of setting are fast and nice, the best one to try your scene.

Here same information about the scene parameters:

N° of lights_ 1
Vray Sun intensity_ 0,1
Color Mapping_ HSV Esponential (1-1-1)
GI Enviroment _ Skylight (1.0)
Time to render_ 68″ (640×480)

Download now :: Vraysun template scene 1
[ Software: 3d studio 8 + Vray 1.5]

Thanks to Bittbox.com beacause he inspired me to create free files to download. I also invite you to discover this excellent blog, riches of good contents!

Download V-ray setted scene and just clic render button!

I would to share with you an interior scene, setted for Vray engine render. It works with V-ray 1.47 and V-ray 1.5 too.

My settings is very simple: I used 5 vray lights, one direct light to simule the sun (in this version I don’t use Vray sun). Exponential as color mapping algorithm… all the light emitters are calibrated between them: you just have to clic render to obtain your nice scene.

I suggest to use this scene to study settings and as start to new scene setting.

• Download my V-ray interior scene

Photoshop tutorial. If you want to render any kind of frosted glass, you have to think about to notable increase of rendering time.

My personal solution is to render “normal” glasses with our render engines, and after abtain any kind of glass playing with Photoshop. You could be make many kind of Glasses in few seconds!

A software like Photoshop could be very, very helpfully to refine scenes: stop to make 3d images directly with your 3d studio max or Maya… think your render as a first part. The second one will be the photo retouch!

Follow this great tutorial:

• Glass with photoshop

All of you who spends many time searching tutorials about vray I’m sure you already heared about Joe Pizzini.

In fact, Joe Pizzini, made a very famous tutorial explaining many things and tips about V-Ray.

So, after vray-materials.de it’s time to know vrayelite.com: made by Joe.

Inside you can find exellent tutorials, a glossary, same benckmarks… it’s a new good resource where you can find new informations for newbie and expert vray users.

• www.vrayelite.com

In this tutorial I mean explain in details the technics I learnt to create a Photorealistic scene. I don’t like you reproduce my technic in the same way, but this tutorial could be a starting point to develope your method… [ read next ]

Software: 3d studio max, vray

[tags]vray, tutorials, v-ray, 3d studio, plugins[/tag]

If you want to understand better how to set the new vray plugins: vraysun and vraysky please read the following tutorials. They are in Spanish language but very easy to undestand. There are many images to explain the concepts.

Official examples by Chaosgroup
Vraysun and vraysky settings

Tutorial by Neozenit from 3dsymax.org

• Tutorial part 1: Vray sky (Spanish)
• Tutorial part 2: Vray Sun (Spanish)
• Tutorial part 3: Settings optimization (Spanish)

[tags]vraysun, vraysky, tutorial, v-ray[/tags]