Recreation of Thorncrown Chapel

3ds Max and Maya  - Modeling
Vray - Rendering
Building "Thorncrown Chapel" - Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

Wireframe:

Light balance:

Green Cicada

3DS Max - Zbrush - Vray

Light Balance - Vray for Max

 

Base mesh for Cicada - Modeled in 3DS Max

 

Zbrush - Detailing and Poly Painting

Learning exercise - Recreation of a Sydney Cafe

Modeled in Maya
Rendered in V-Ray for Maya

Final Renders:

 

 

 

Light Balance Tests:

 

Recreation of the Learn Vray course shaders within Maya - (Instead of 3ds Max)

Studio max has many advantages over Maya for shader creation, especially when it comes to procedural texturing. The alternative for detailed procedural texturing in Maya is to use a plugin like Filter Forge for Photoshop that can generate large tileable textures. It's a some what poor work around but people like Alex Alvarez use this method to create detailed terrains in Maya/Mental Ray - see HERE. Hopefully Maya will some have better procedurals that work with renders like Vray, Arnold and Redshift soon.

Another annoyance is that curves in Maya don't have bezier handles but, by using splines, the same result as in max, can be achieved.

Below I have replicated shaders from the "Learn Vray" course. See 3ds Max versions HERE.

I've scripted them into a UI which has formed an ever growing library. They need a little tweaking but I will do that as I use them. This is what I love about Maya - MEL and Python scripting.

Here's how some of them look on the Learn Vray course shader ball, cloth and Gargoyle.

Eco Work Room

Another learning exercise - this time a recreation of a room from Home Design Magazine by Catherine Whitting - an Eco Interior. I changed alot of details but kept the overall color scheme and basic furniture arrangement.

Modeled in Maya
Rendered in Vray for Maya

Final Render

Light Balance

Reference image from Home Design

Something's Gotta Give - Kitchen

As a learning exercise I've decided to model, texture and render a number of photos. The process will hopefully improve my rendering by giving me instant feed back on real world lighting and shading. The first photo I decided to replicate is a photo I found in a copy of "Home Beautiful". It's the kitchen from the movie "Something's Gotta Give".

There are quite a few things that are incorrect. Most notably the modeling was a bit rushed resulting in inaccurate beveling details and, to save time, my render settings were rather low resulting in all the grainy noise.

It's a learning exercise so no need for perfection.

All modeling was done in Maya and rendering in Vray for Maya.

Here is my final render:

Here is the wire-frame for modeling:

Here is the lightbalance:

If I were to re-render the scene I have a good idea about what would need changing to up the realism and create a better match.

Here is the photo I was attempting to replicate: Link

W.I.P - Cafe - Vray lighting experiments

Created with V-Ray + 3ds Max





 

Learn Vray - course renders

I recently completed the lessons for the "Learn Vray" course - (visit www.learnvray.com). It teaches a simple yet powerful method for creating realistic Architectural renderings.  The principles are broadly useful for simulating photographic images of all sorts and in any render engine.

Here are my renders for the course scenes - completed in V-Ray for Maya:

 Light Balance Renders:

Final Renders

Test Renders

Some random test renders in Vray For Maya:

My first attempt at ice - very much a W.I.P

Vray for Maya - 2 sided shader test 2 - bushland environment

An experiment with my old forest scene - this time using Vray for Maya - 2sided shaders - (sun + HDRI) - click to enlarge.

Vray for maya - 2 sided shader test 1

Playing with VRay for Maya's 2Sided Translucent shader.

02. HDRI lighting of ferns with Pysical Camera + Depth of field

 01. Glossy leaves - Vray Sun & Sky

More network tweaking to be done....