Caustics | MrBluesummers.com

Submerge (lume) Shader

Written January 5th, 2010
Categories: Effects, Materials / Shaders, Videos
4 comments

Hey everyone,

This week I’ll be showing you how to use the submerge (lume) shader in 3dsMax and mental ray. It’s an easy way to make your scenes look like their underwater while harnessing the power of caustics and global illumination. Try these techniques in conjunction with the waterbox we made last week for a really great one-two punch!

Also, you may have noticed that I included a transcript of last week’s video. I’m going to try adding that in to the mix for the next few weeks to see if people find that useful. Remember that you can always pass this page through Google Translate to get the transcription in your desired language!

(Re)Making a Waterbox

Written December 28th, 2009
Categories: Effects, Modeling, Rendering / Compositing, Videos
5 comments

Hey everyone!

I’m on vacation right now, but I’ve queued up this Monday Movie so that you can start your new year right! This week I’m showing you how to create a water box in 3dsMax using the mental ray renderer. For those of you who don’t know it, a water box is a great way to practice your rendering technique and for learning how the different settings work in mental ray.

3dsMax Caustics Tutorial

Written January 2nd, 2009
Categories: Articles, Effects, Lighting
No Comments »

Hey all!

I found this caustics tutorial recently, though I know it’s been around since about 2004. What’s nice is that it’s already in PDF form so it’s easy to download and print. Written by Mario Malagrino for the Florence Design Academy, this tutorial covers the bare bones of creating caustics in a simple waterbox. The nuts and bolts of it are pretty straightforward, and Mario was kind enough to illustrate the tutorial clearly.

You can download the Caustics Tutorial here!

Making a Waterbox

Written November 17th, 2008
Categories: Effects, Lighting, Rendering / Compositing, Videos
6 comments

So there’ve been a lot of posts lately regarding mental ray caustics in 3d studio max, and I figured this would be a great time to do a Monday Movie about creating and playing with a waterbox! A waterbox is basically a caustics test that you can play around with and really get accquainted with this advanced feature of mental ray.

Caustics through Mental Ray

Written June 18th, 2008
Categories: 3d Studio Max, Articles, Lighting, Offsite, Rendering / Compositing
No Comments »

“Caustics are really great light effects that you can observe in liquids, glass objects and gems. We are able to simulate this effect with 3D Studio Max perfectly. This tutorial about Caustics will work only if you enable “Mental Ray”! (This tutorial was made in Max 8).”

Rendering Objects using Vray

Written June 18th, 2008
Categories: 3d Studio Max, Articles, Offsite, Rendering / Compositing
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“This video tutorial is created by artist Giorgio Luciano in 3ds max using Vray. Giorgio live and dream in Genova and was born in 1975 (Gemini). Love art, reading, drawing and the smell of the place where live after the rain. This tutorial will cover the caustics, reflection, GI in a scene.”

Making of Ornaments

Written June 18th, 2008
Categories: 3d Studio Max, Articles, Lighting, Modeling, Offsite, Rendering / Compositing, Textures / Materials
No Comments »

“I saw an illustration on purerender.com “-The Chesterfield Project-” and I was blown away by the level of detail! When I looked closer at the details, I saw some glasses on the table and I thought, “I want to try it by myself, to create such realism in a 3D rendering”.”

Rendering Diamond Caustics

Written June 18th, 2008
Categories: Articles, Lighting, Maya, Offsite, Textures / Materials
No Comments »

This tutorial will cover the shader creation and rendering of a diamond which emits correct caustics.

Maya Diamon Caustics

Written June 18th, 2008
Categories: Articles, Lighting, Maya, Offsite, Rendering / Compositing, Textures / Materials
No Comments »

“Rendering a diamond as photo-realistically as possible is a 3D challenge. Light doesn’t just bounce off an object; it enters it, bends, changes color, bounces back and looses intensity. This tutorial will teach you how to make a realistic rendering of a diamond.”

Realistic Glass with Maya

Written June 18th, 2008
Categories: Articles, Maya, Offsite, Textures / Materials
No Comments »

“For this demo we will utilize Maya’s Blinn material, Ramp texture, and Sampler Info utility. We will also use Mental Ray’s Dielectric Material and new Mia_material. The user of this tutorial should note that I have also used Mental Ray as my renderer, with Final Gathering, Global Illumination, Caustics, and Image Based lighting used for optimal realism.”

Global Illumination with Mental Ray

Written June 18th, 2008
Categories: Articles, Lighting, Maya, Offsite, Rendering / Compositing
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“Global Illumination, Final Gather and Caustics, these are the three individual elements that we commonly use as 3D artists to simulate the effects of bounced and focused light. We will explore each of these in the following sections with theory and practice.”