3ds Max 2017: Advanced Lighting

3ds Max features advanced tools for photometric lighting. Learn how to light and render photorealistic exteriors and interiors in this course.

Realistic lighting is easier, faster, and better than ever in 3ds Max. Photometric lighting and a choice of rendering options gives you the power to create a convincing illusion. This course focuses on architectural visualization, but the techniques apply to other applications such as motion picture production. Author Aaron F. Ross provides a conceptual overview of advanced lighting and rendering, then demonstrates how to construct various lighting scenarios in 3ds Max. He shows how to render scenes with exterior and interior daylight, practical artificial lighting, and manufacturer photometric data. The course includes a chapter on special effects such as light exclusion and lens effects. By the end of the course, you'll have seen how to control the powerful lighting tools in 3ds Max to achieve photorealistic results.

Introduction

• Welcome
• Using the exercise files

1. Concepts

• Photometric lighting
• Gamma correction and linear workflows
• High dynamic range imaging
• Exposure and tone mapping
• Global illumination
• Color temperature

2. Exterior Daylight

• Understanding 3ds Max gamma correction
• Laying out the scene
• Tuning final gathering or GI
• Creating mental ray sun and sky
• Setting viewport display options
• Exposure control and tone mapping
• Adjusting mental ray sun and sky
• Image-based lighting with a skylight
• Rendering global illumination and IBL
• White-balancing a map
• Applying environment fog
• Rendering against black for compositing
• Constructing a geometric backdrop
• Self-illuminating a backdrop

3. Photometric Interiors

• Interior daylight with ART physical sun and sky
• Physical material emission for environments
• Approximating direct sunlight
• Filling shadows with area soft lights
• Interior artificial light in ART
• Importing photometric data

4. Studio Lighting and Effects

• Light and shadow exclusion
• Controlling attenuation decay
• Projecting images with Projector Map
• Rendering volume lights
• Adding lens effects: Glow
• Layering and mapping lens effects

Conclusion

• Next steps