This week’s got a really exciting topic; the Sunlight System in 3d Studio Max’s mental ray. The system is easy enough that you can throw it up in a scene in a matter of seconds, but powerful enough to make just about anything look fantastic. The color, the intensities, and the sheer crispness of the render will make you go gaga over it too.
In this video I show you how to navigate some of the basics of using the sunlight system, followed by how you can use sunlight to illuminate interior scenes. I’m sorry if it seems like I’m going too fast; there’s just so much to cover! If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment and I’ll do my best to answer!
By Eric July 9, 2009 - 11:43 pm
hi, I try the mental ray day light system.
somehow the image turns out bluish and the overall color is wash out, I follow your tutorial but the result is not relaly satisfying, is there something I miss?
By Bluesummers July 9, 2009 - 11:57 pm
Hey Eric!
The first thing I would check is whether your scene is too large or too small. Make sure objects are reasonably sized. Next, are you using IES sun and sky, or mental ray’s sun and sky? Finally, double check your exposure value (EV) in the Environments and Effects panel. If you’re using a really low shutter speed, it can give a gross gray effect.
By Eric July 10, 2009 - 10:58 am
Thanks for your reply!
well I did check the size and the light setting and the exposure, all seems ok. I took some screen shot for you to look at.
this is the settings and the simple sence I was testing:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2541/3707662160_42bcc6f88a_o.jpg
and this is the rendering:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2503/3707662126_7e8668edf5_o.jpg
also, do you have any experience on Vue Xstream? I recently got to play one of that, the demo video in their site sure makes it attractive, but it’s definitely tricky to get it right for me.
http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_7_xstream/videos/Vue7xStreamDemo.html
thanks for your help and your tutorials!
By Eric July 10, 2009 - 11:48 pm
hi, after play around I found out that I need to adjust my gamma in the preference setting.
the gamma/lut wasn’t enable.
After set the gamma it start to looks very good.
do you always enable that when you work with mental ray?
By Bluesummers July 11, 2009 - 12:57 pm
Why do I always enable photographic exposure control?
Well that’s a tough question. For starters, 3dsMax has a lot of assumptions about your workflow. One of them is that your scene is reasonably sized. Try making an object that’s .001 units wide or 20MM units wide and you’ll quickly find out just how finicky the program really is on this subject.
One of these assumptions is that if you’re using advanced lighting (photometric lights, Sun & Sky, etc) then you’ll also be using exposure control. I’ve found that it leads to better results not only because you have more control over Brightness/Contrast/Gamma and so on, but also because it plays into the expected workflow. It may sound kind of superstitious, but when you use the program the way that Autodesk expects you to, it yields tiny, unknowable benefits.
By Eric July 11, 2009 - 3:43 pm
thank you for your reply and tip, I’ll checking back this website often, there are many valuable lessons to learn here!
By Bluesummers July 11, 2009 - 4:32 pm
I’m glad you like it, Eric! ^__^
By Eric July 17, 2009 - 11:04 am
Hi Mr. B~ sorry to bother you again with the sunlight again.
Thanks to you! now with the proper exposure and gamma correction, I get to make the image looks decent. =)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56921779@N00/3729255885/sizes/o/
I have 2 problem though:
1. as you can see, the shadow somehow gets darker in the center and on the side. That’s due to the palm tree in the front (when I took it out there’s no more dark shadow) but why? Is there any way I can fix it?
2. the soft shadow looks a big grainy, what setting can I use to improve that?
So I use high quality preset on final gathering with 2 on bouncing light and the mental ray sun system.
Thank you again!
By 3turtlestudios May 2, 2010 - 3:15 pm
Nice study, as compared to sun and sky systems in Vray..
By Defrosted Tuna June 5, 2010 - 10:20 pm
Hi. I am a little late to your tutorials but they are really fantastic! I have been having a problem with the ‘flip’ as it does not do what it does for you. The box turns black and i cant see through it, what did i do wrong?
By Cayenne September 9, 2010 - 1:06 pm
Thank you mr.bluesummers! Just what I neeeded. Your tutorials help me a lot!
By julian April 23, 2011 - 2:38 pm
fantastic!!!
really needed some one like you
got loads of problems and slowly but surely your sorting them out
if you can send me links to your weekly videos I’d be very greatful.
By MR December 9, 2011 - 3:25 pm
Hello Mr.Bluesummers! thanks for the tutorial!
But i want know that how can i get soft detailed shadows with the daylight system. Thanks!
Please reply!
By Mr. Bluesummers December 9, 2011 - 7:36 pm
Hey MR,
Make sure you’re using a realistic scale for your scene (e.g. avoid 1cm cars or 100M houses) and turn on Final Gather with “Bounces” set to 1 or 2.
By jones December 16, 2011 - 12:53 pm
Mr. Bluesummers that was an helpful tutorial! But I wanted to know how to have soft shadows inside the hard ones. for example the shadows made in Vray or iray have pretty decent shadows which look very realistic. I was rendering a car with mr sun and mr sky with final gather enabled and and bounces set to 2 but it did not have soft shadows which appear directly under the car the car in real life