Hope to another Sunrise (1/3)

by Mohammad Soleimani
mohammad.soleimani AT gmail.com

Hi everybody, I am Mohammad Soleimani I am a self-taught computer graphics

This is my first tutorial I hope that you find it useful

The main purpose to write this tutorial is to show you how to make a nice image in simple

Modeling and heaven post processing I wish you think it after finishing this tutorial

After this tutorial I wiil try to write another tutorial but more complex than it

Ok ….making this scene is very simple I try to make this tutorial step by step

Part 1 : Modeling

Modeling the scene is so simple just follow the /images:

Create a plan 1000*1000 with 50*50 segments with this plan we create mountains and landscape for our scene

Set density to 5.0 we don’t want full detail in viewports full details occur in rendering

Add a uvw map modifier on top of the stack then make sure the mapping type set to be planar

Add a displacemap on top of the stack with this modifier we try to create mountain with this plan

In the image rollout choose noise map then drag it to a new slot of material editor and choose instance

Set noise type to fractal and and size to 165 level to 3 and high to 0.87 and low to 0.43

Adjust the settings of noise map of color#1 and color#2

Add noise map to color#1 slot and color#2 slot

Settings: Noise map for color#1        Settings :Noise map for color map#2

Ok now go to master noise map and click on it and choose mask map then from the dialog box choose

Keep old map as sub map

You should have noise map as a map and choose gradient ramp as a mask

Right click on the left flag and choose edit properties and set color to black RGB=0,0,0

Then do this for other flags you may add some flags

turn on noise from noise rollout set amount to 8.0 level to 4.0 and size to 3.0

Select plane then in displace modifier set strength to 120

After that you may want to create a camera for your scene

In this simple scene we want to create some trees to fill our scene

You can model trees in 3ds max with powerful such as edited poly edited mesh

Simple cylinders with scatter or p-clued or p-flow but if you have newer version of 3ds max

You can create trees without having time to work more on edited poly and …

Note:some plug ins such as Digimation Speedtree with powerful tools for animating and more

Ok…go to create panel and select AEC Extended and then click Foliage and click on Scotch pine icon and create it in viewport

In modify panel check only trunk and branches and uncheck other

Depended on your system select low,medium,high in level of detail menu

Convert it to editable poly and click on poly

and in the select by material by ID field enter 3 for branches then detach it as clone and named as snow_on_tree

select snow_on_tree and add push on top of the stack and set push value to 0.1

add mesh smooth with iteration of one

we want to simulate snow on tree this is a simple way to create it but for this case we have many many ways to do

just thinking of it..!

ok..to filling our scene we create two rows of tree in left and right of our scene

but you may wish to change Seed of every tree to get good looking scene

ok…modeling this scene is done

in the part 2 we'll try to texture our scene

before you start part 2 please save your scene

Hope to another Sunrise (2/3)

by Mohammad Soleimani
mohammad.soleimani AT gmail.com

Part 2 : Texturing

In this little part we try to texture whole of our scene

to make a good material for this scene we must notice that what renderer we need

in this tutorial we want to render this scene by Vray so for good result and other resone

we use vray material

first of all we try to make a material for snow

for access vray material you must set your renderer as vray

open render scene from render menu ( F10 ) then in common tab go to

Assign Renderer then select vray from menu

ok…open material editor then select an empty slot click on Standard botton then select VRayMatl

rename this slot to “Snow”

set highlight glossiness to 1.0 , RefL glossiness to 0.35 and Sundivd to 16.0

for diffuse color select Cellular amount=100

Reflect à Falloff amount=35

HGlossiness à Mask amount=100

Bump à Mix amount=20

to adjust parameters of Cellular map set X-Tilling to 0.5 or any value you want

in Cellular Parameters set Cell Color to RGB=255,255,255

and Division Colors to RGB=230,230,230

and RGB=200,200,200

set Cell Characterisitics to Circular

set Size to 15.0 , Speard to 0.5 and Bump Smoothing to 0.3

for reflect map add a fall off map to its slot then set Front Color to RGB=54,54,54

and Side Color to 181,181,181

set Fall off Type to Perpendicular/Parallel

in Mix Curve adjust the Curve like this figure:

fot HGlossiness all a mask map then add noise map for map and mask slot of Mask map

adjust noise map for Map like this figure:

set noise type to Regular

Size to 5.0 , High to 0.62 , Low to 0.6

Set color#1 to RGB=0,0,0

And color#2 to 130,130,130

adjust noise map for Mask like this figure:

set noise type to Regular

Size to 10.0 , High to 0.66 , Low to 0.55

Set color#1 to black

And color#2 to white

for bump map add a mix map then add noise map to color#1 and copy the texture we made

for ground for color#2 and Mix Amount

adjust parameters of noise map of color#1 :

set Noise Type to Regular and Size to 8.0

ok…assign this material to snow on trees

material for ground a bit more complex.

we try to make a material for ground:

select an empty slot of material editor then rename it “Ground_Snow” set type material to “Blend”

copy material named snow in material 1 then set type material 2 to VRayMtl

set Mix Amount to 50 and Transition Zone Upper to 0.75 and Lower to 0.25

in material 2 set Diffuse Color to RGB=225,225,225

and Subdivs to 16

add noise map to Bump slot then set amount to 15.0

Note: material 2 is only for detailed bump

set noise type to fractal and size to 16.0 , High to 1.0 and Low to 0.2 levels to 3.0

change color 2 to RGB=232,232,232

select an empty slot in material editor and renamed it mountains set subdivs to 16.0

we want to make a material for mountains

don’t forget to set material type to VRayMtl

for diffuse and bump we use bitmap, you can use any bitmap you feel it is nice

but I recommend you to use 3D total textures and Dosch Design textures couse

of having great and cool textures

in this case I choose textures from both for mountain I use Dosch Design textures

select an empty slot of material editor then set type to Top/Bottom

copy “Ground_Snow” to Top Material and “mountains “ to Bottom Material

set Coordinates to Local , Blend to 10 and position to 90

add a Mix map in diffuse slot then like the below figures complete this material

note that in this case we use 3d total textures

repeat this step for Bump map with amount of 15 instead of diffuse map use grayscale of them

supplied in total textures

ok….this part is over in next part we try to lighting this scene with GI Systems like Vray and do some Post Processing to get

a good result. before jump to next part save your work.

Hope to another Sunrise (3/3)

by Mohammad Soleimani
mohammad.soleimani AT gmail.com

Part 3 : Lighting and Rendering

In this part we will try to lighting this scene.

In render menu open Enviroment and select a image of a sky in this case I choose

a great cool image of a sky in total textures but you can choose any image that

color of it, is same with this image:

Create an omni light and place it in front of your scene and name it “Sun”

Set shadow type to VRayShadow and Multiplier to 2.25 and Color to RGB#255,243,200

In VRay shadow Paramereters rullout check Area Shadow and Sphere

Change the value if subdives to 32

ok…create another light.this light is made only for visual effects we want to have a nice volume light

create spot light and palce it in center of omin light and name it “Sun_Rays”

set the Multiplier to 1.0 and color to RGB#255,249,230

in spotlight parameters rollout set Hotspot/Beam to 3.0

and Falloff /Field to 20.0

in advanced effects rollout uncheck Diffuse and Specular

check map in projector map and select a version of grayscale of your sky but do a little on it in photoshop for good result

look carefully below to understand:

to get the same result you can convert the image to grayscale and change Level and Brightness and Contrast of it.

In Environment and effects add a Volume Lght for Sun_Rays and set the Density to 1.5

RENDERING:

Open render dialog ( press F10 ) in Renderer Tab in global Switches uncheck Default lights

in image sampler check Adaptive subdivision

make sure Antialiasing filter set to Area

in inderct illumination ( GI ) enable it by checking “on”

select iraadiance as primaey bounces map and light cashe as secondary bounces couse of use omni light to get good result we use light cashe instead of it you can use QMC but couse of increasing render time we use light cashe

Tips:

The light cashe works efficiently with any lights - including skylight, self-illuminated objects, non-physical lights, photometric lights

But the photon map cannot reproduce the illumination from skylight or from standard omni lights without inverse-square falloff.

in irradiance map rollout select Low for Current preset but if you feel it is not enough change it

in light cashe rollout set subdives to 1000 or any value you want but remember increasing this parameters affects in render time

set scale to screen

ok…render your scnece you should get result look like this;