3dsmax VRay Rendering Tutorial - Rendering with Sunlight

Software Used: Autodesk 3dsmax & VRay Advanced 1,5 RC3 for 3dsmax 9

Original Ideas From: Osmosis Studio Sydney nsw@osmosis.com.au

Modified and Presented: Dong

Contact: yangdongmy@gmail.com

Introduction

This tutorial explains how to set up sunlight and VRay light to light up a building's interior.

Approach to Render a Scene with VRay

The approach I used to render this scene is: Firstly, use a single SunLight to simulate the outdoor
light. In this case, the outdoor sun light is the main light source. Test render the scene and add a
VRay light to add additional light and shadow to the scene. The VRay light is used to simulate the
light from outside to give small objects some shadow because the Sunlight and Environment
lighting will not give shadows to small objects.

Steps to Set Up the VRay Render

Step 1: Go to Create tab -> System -> Sunlight, to create a sunlight system. Then, place the
Sunlight outside of the building as the image shows:
Step 2: Set up the Sunlight parameters: Set the shadow type to "VRayShadow", set "Multiplier" to
"3.0", "Color" to White.
Step 3: Set up the VRay rendering parameters in Renderer tab by pressing F10.

First, under "V-Ray: Image sampler(Antialiasing)", set "Image Sampler" type to "Fixed", and turn
"Antialiasing Filter" on, type to "Catmull-Rom".

Tips for selecting "Image Sampler" types:

1. Use "Fixed" when the rendered scene requires a lot of blurring effects such as Depth-of-Field.

2. Use "Adaptive subdivision" when the rendered scene does not require any blurring effects such
as Global Illumination, Reflection and Refraction, Area Light/Shadow, Transparency).

Step 4: Under "V-Ray: Indirect Illumination(GI)", tick the box before "On". It will enable VRay
GI. Set "Primary bounces" -> Multiplier to "1.0" and "Secondary bounces" -> Multiplier to "0.5".
Set the "Secondary bounces" to "0.5" will prevent the scene being too bright because we will set up
the Environment as well for Skylight. If the render result is too dark, you can always increase the
"Secondary bounces".

Under "V-Ray: Irradiance Map", "Built-in presets" -> set "Current preset" to "Low". It will reduce
the test rendering time dramaticly. Under "Options", tick the box after "Show calc. phase". This
option will show you differenct phases while you are rendering, so you can quickly spot problem
areas before the render finishs.

Under "Mode", set "Mode" to "Single frame".

Step 5: Under "V-Ray: Environment", turn on "GI Environment (skylight) override", set the color
to blue (R=173, G=208, B=255), set "Multiplier" to "4.0". This setting will override MAX's default
environment settings. If this option is not turned on, MAX will use the default settings for skylight.
Below shows the differenct phases of the render:

Phase 1:

Phase 2:

Phase 3:

Step 6: As you can see, the render is too dark. And there is some antialiasing problem as well in the
edge of the sun light area. We will change some settings to eliminate the problem.
First, go to "V-Ray: Color mapping", set "Dark multiplier" to "2.0", it will give the dark area more
light.

Second, go to "V-Ray: Image sampler(Antialiasing)", change "Image sampler" type to "Adaptive

subdivision". And go to "V-Ray: Adaptive subdivision image sampler", set "Min. rat" to "-1" and
"Max. rat" to "2".

Third, got to "Create" tab and create a "VRay Light". This light will be used to simulate light
coming from outside and gives small objects some nice shadows. Check out VRay Light settings
with the image below.
Fourth, select Sun Light system and go to "VRayShadows params", tick the box before "Smooth
Surface Shadows".

Fifth, change VRay render settings according to the image below. Note, set the "Secondary
bounces" Multiplier to "1.0" will increase the brightness of the bounced light.
Final Render Result: