V-Ray Next for 3ds Max Essential Training

Course details

Get up and running with the V-Ray Next rendering engine inside 3ds Max. In this course, instructor Brian Bradley shows how to extend the range of 3ds Max using the many state-of-the-art tools and features found in this edition of the powerful rendering solution. Brian kicks off the course by covering several new tools included in V-Ray Next, including the Lighting Analysis tool and the Viewport IPR. He then dives into critical V-Ray concepts, including materials, image sampling, maps, and lighting, as well as how to create in-camera effects such as depth of field and motion blur. Plus, he shows how to easily add lifelike effects to your 3D models using FX tools such as VRayFur.

Learning objectives
Working with drag-and-drop V-Ray assets
Using V-Ray lighting tools
Enabling the Environment skylight
Working with Global Illumination
Using irradiance mapping
Working with V-Ray materials and maps
Quality control using image sampling
Using V-Ray GPU
Leveraging tools for interactive rendering
Working with FX tools such as VRayMetaball
Stereoscopic VR rendering
Using Render Mask

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Creating renders using V-Ray Next
02 - Software versions used in this course
03 - Working with 3ds Max projects
04 - A note on gamma and unit settings

1. New in V-Ray Next

05 - Adaptive Dome Light setting
06 - Metal rough workflow
07 - Rendering in the cloud (beta)
08 - Switch material
09 - NVIDIA AI Denoiser and render element specific denoising
10 - New hair material (update 1 Glint and Glitter)
11 - Lighting Analysis tool
12 - V-Ray plugin material and texture
13 - Drag-and-drop V-Ray assets
14 - Point-and-shoot camera tools
15 - Update 1 - Viewport IPR
16 - Update 1 - GPU improvements (bucket, dispersion, and faster fog)

2. V-Ray Key Lighting Tools

17 - An introduction to the V-Ray light
18 - The V-Ray Plane light
19 - The V-Ray Dome light
20 - The V-Ray Sphere light
21 - The V-Ray Mesh light
22 - The V-Ray Disc light
23 - The V-Ray IES light
24 - V-Ray Sun and Sky
25 - Enabling the Environment skylight

3. Working with Global Illumination

26 - Using irradiance mapping - Part 1
27 - Using irradiance mapping - Part 2
28 - Using Light Cache
29 - Using Brute Force GI

4. V-Ray Materials

30 - The V-Ray Material - Diffuse color
31 - The V-Ray Material - Reflection
32 - The V-Ray Material - Clear glass
33 - The V-Ray Material - Colored and frosted glass
34 - Creating a translucency effect
35 - V-Ray hair shader
36 - Car paint shader
37 - Using the VRmat format
38 - The V-Ray alSurface material
39 - Using MDL materials

5. V-Ray Maps

40 - An introduction to V-Ray maps
41 - V-Ray Color
42 - V-Ray Curvature
43 - V-Ray Dirt
44 - V-Ray Edges Tex
45 - V-Ray HDRI
46 - V-Ray MultiSub Tex
47 - V-Ray Normal Map
48 - V-Ray Triplanar

6. Quality Control Using Image Sampling

49 - Image sampling explained
50 - Progressive sampling engine
51 - Bucket sampling engine
52 - IPR
53 - Resumable rendering
54 - Fixing super bright sampling problems

7. The V-Ray Physical Camera

55 - Physical Camera setup
56 - Physical Camera controls
57 - Controlling exposure
58 - Depth of field
59 - Creating a Motion Blur effect
60 - Perspective correction
61 - Rendering panoramas

8. V-Ray GPU

62 - An introduction to V-Ray GPU
63 - Using V-Ray GPU
64 - The GPU UI - V-Ray tab
65 - The GPU UI - Performance tab

9. Working with Render Elements

66 - Render elements explained
67 - Pipeline decisions
68 - Render elements workflow
69 - Outputting our basic render elements
70 - Compositing the basic elements
71 - Using elements for image manipulation
72 - Adding DOF using a Z-Depth pass
73 - Light Select
74 - Multimatte
75 - Cryptomatte
76 - Sample Rate
77 - The Denoiser element
78 - ExtraTex (Dirt AO)

10. V-Ray Frame Buffer

79 - UI overview
80 - The Color Correction controls
81 - Using the History tool
82 - Tools for interactive rendering
83 - Interactive Lens FX

11. V-Ray FX Tools

84 - Using V-Ray Geometry - Fur
85 - Using V-Ray Geometry - Proxies
86 - Using V-Ray Geometry - Clipper
87 - V-Ray Instancer
88 - Stereoscopic VR rendering
89 - V-Ray metaballs
90 - DOF in a perspective viewport
91 - Using Render Mask
92 - Aerial perspective
93 - Displacement
94 - Volume grid
95 - V-Ray mesh viewer

Conclusion

96 - Next steps