interior Lighting Using Mental Ray

Part 1

by Didik Wijaya

Here we go with Mental Ray again. This time I am going to create interior lighting and rendering using 3ds Max Mental Ray. We will texture and lit a simple living room. If you don't familiar with Mental Ray, you can read and try Realistic Glass Rendering Using Mental Ray tutorial first.

1. First, we need living room 3D model. You can download Simple Living Room 3D model here (3ds Max 9 format). Open in 3ds Max

2. Activate Mental Ray first. Open Render Setup window (F10). In Common tab, go to Assign Renderer rollout, change Default Scanline Renderer to Mental Ray renderer.

3. Next, we need to change material applied to object. Open Material Editor (M). Select "wall" material. This material is already applied to wall object. Click Standard button, in opened window choose Arch & Design material type. Choose Matte Finish as template. Then change Color to bright beige.

4. Select Fabric_Tan_Carpet material. This material is applied to couch. Change this material to Arch & Design material type. Use Matte Finish as template. Click small button right next to Color. In opened window double click Bitmap. Use "CARPTTAN.JPG" as texture. Usually this bitmap file is available in folder Program Files/Autodesk/3dsMax/maps/Fabric.

Click Go To Parent button to go back to previous rollout. Scroll down rollout, and go to Special Purpose Maps rollout. Activate Bump. Click None button and choose the same bitmap file as bump texture. Set Bump amount = 5.

5. Next, create floor texture. Select one of unused material slot. Name this material "floor". Apply this material to "floor" object. Change this material to Arch & Design material type. Use Glazed Ceramic Tiles as template.

In Main material parameters rollout, set Diffuse Level=1. Click M button right next to color. Open Advanced Controls rollout, reduce Horizontal and Vertical Gaps to 0.1.

Select "floor" object in viewport. Go to Modify tab. Adjust UVW Map value, U Tile=3, V Tile=2, W Tile=2

6. You can modify or create and apply new Arch & Design materials for other objects. Here's the complete list

Object	Template	Parameters
drawer	Glozzy Finish	Change color to white
drawer handle, table leg	Chrome	-
porcelain 1	Glazed Ceramic	Change color to red
porcelain 2	Glazed Ceramic	Change color to white
table glass, fruit dish	Glass (Solid Geometry)	-
book case, magazine rack	Glossy Varnished Wood	-
window	Matte Finish	Change color to brown

7. When all objects are textured, try to do a sample render (F9). Nice! Next step is to lit the scene.

part 2

by Didik Wijaya

In Part 1 tutorial, you applied textures to living room scene. Now it's time to add lighting and render using Mental Ray. Using Mental Ray, you can render fast and achieve realistic result. Here you will know how.

1. Our living room has some openings (window), so sunlight can enter the room. In Command Panel, go to Create>Systems. Click Daylight button. Click in Top viewport to add a Daylight. Make sure Daylight is still selected. Go to Modify tab. Change Position to Manual, then move daylight so the light enters the room like image below.

Reduce Daylight Multiplier intensity to 30.

2. Open Environment window (Render>Environment). Click None button right next to Background color. Choose any bitmap image as background. I used tree image as background. Alternatively, you can choose background image available in folder Program Files/Autodesk/3ds Max/maps/Background.

3. Open Render Setup window (F10). Enable Final Gather. Use Preset = Low for slight better quality rendering. In Caustics and Global Illumination (GI) rollout activate Caustics and Global Illumination. Also check All Objects Generate & Receive GI and Caustics. Press Render button.

4. Image below shows rendering result. Great result, but using only Daylight creates darker shadows and overexposure areas.

5. Add an omni light in the scene. Position this light below the ceiling. Use Multiplier=0.5 and color = white.

Select Daylight. In Modify tab, reduce Multiplier intensity to 7. Then, Render (F9).

6. Image below show finished rendering. The scene looks softer with soft shadows and natural colors. Congratulations, you have finished texturing, lighting and rendering an interior room using 3ds Max Mental Ray!