CGSWorkshops - Intermediate to Advanced Techniques in V-Ray for Softimage and Maya

Boaz Livny calls Part 2 of this V-Ray course "Go Pro". The second five weeks delves into more advanced practices and techniques, and shows how you can incorporate V-Ray and other packages such as Mari and Nuke into your workflow.

You'll look at texture preparation, linear workflows, subsurface scattering, volumetric effects, and a lot of compositing for CG passes and back plates. There may even be some fluid rendering with other custom tools from Chaos Group. You'll see first-hand how all these different custom tools can be used, and learn how you can work it in to your pipeline.

Anyone who took Boaz' Advanced Photorealism in mental ray CGWorkshop that ran for over two years will know about Boaz' technical and teaching expertise, and the time he dedicates to giving feedback. Don't miss this new opportunity to learn from a master.

1. V-Ray fundamentals

a. Maya / Softimage V-Ray basic orientation (UI, render settings, shaders, specific properties, indirect lighting, etc).

b. Proxies

c. Command-line rendering and custom render scripts

d. Cg fundamentals

1. Rendering algorithms (raycasting and raytracing)

2. V-Ray sampling and filtering

e. BSP and other related settings



2. Shading fundamentals

a. Light and shading fundamentals

b. Shading models and shader math

c. V-Ray material (full review - including interpolation)

d. Rayswitch techniques and environment shaders



3. Lighting techniques and live-action integration

a. HDR images and panoramic imaging for 3D

1. Fundamental of HDRI photography

2. Shooting and constructing HDR images

3. Stitching and converting between formats

4. Nuke conversion techniques

5. PTgui panoramic images

6. Maya and Softimage panoramic images

b. V-Ray light types (geo, IES, area, dome)

c. Image based lighting (IBL) vs. indirect lighting

d. V-Ray material wrapper / live-action integration part 1



4. Physical scenes, live-action integration, complex shaders

a. Car paint, blend material, and other related shaders

b. Integration with a back plate part 2

c. Camera fundamentals and physical camera settings (DOF, lens distortion, etc)

d. V-Ray sun and sky with physical cameras



5. V-Ray Indirect lighting (GI) techniques

a. Classifications of indirect lighting techniques

b. Biased vs. unbiased GI (irradiance maps, light cache, progressive path tracing, brute force)

c. Still vs. animated GI techniques (GI maps)

d. Sky portal and GI

e. Ambient occlusion



6. Working with Mari and V-Ray

a. Mari - V-Ray workflows

b. Custom python scripting for shader setups (Maya)

c. UV unfolding tools and techniques (Unfold 3D)

d. Ptex and multi channel textures



7. Linear workflows

a. Gamma and color spaces

b. Linear workflows and color math

c. Linear workflows between Maya / Softimage and Nuke

d. Color mapping / tone mapping



8. Subsurface scattering and participating media

a. Subsurface scattering basics

b. Volumetric effects (participating media)

c. Skin shading



9. V-Ray for compositing

a. Passes and custom-made passes

b. Basics of Nuke compositing

c. Light passes compositing / custom control

d. 3D passes and back plate integration

e. Review of several different compositing tricks and features that relate to 3D



10. V-Ray extra topics

This week is reserved for finalizing projects, unanswered questions and possibly some bonus content