Lifestyle Training

INTRODUCTION

In the real World the human eye is a wonderful thing, capable of adjusting to just about any light temperature - whether it’s the warm yellow of incandescent bulbs or the dull green of fluorescent ones. A camera, however, is downright stupid compared to the human eye. Whereas the eye will take in the glow of an incandescent bulb and interpret it as white light, a camera will just see it as plain ol’ ugly. This is why, when it comes to interior photography, it is best to use only natural light. This is the golden rule when it comes to interior photography.

In Visual - Method we love to simulate our work like is happening in the real world in order to produce natural photographic result. As a business we treat CGI in the same way like photographers do in true location photography .

Most photographers know that a cloudy or overcast day produces really soft light that can be flattering on the human face . Maybe not good for the sky, but an overcast day gives you diffused lighting photography. This means, even light is falling over your entire scene. A bright sun and well-defined clouds create strong light and powerful shadows.

We don't want sharp shadows but we love natural light, for that reason we shoot when it's overcast.

In this Wiki we going to see step by step how to light , render and comp our sets following this principals.

Summary

When it comes to interior photography, it is best to use only natural light.
We don't want sharp shadows but we love natural light, for that reason we shoot when it's overcast.

3Ds MAX + V-ray 5

In this session we going to check step by step how to do our lighting setup in 3Ds Max. For render we will use V-ray 6 and we will see also some extra futures and tools that are new in V-ray 6.

Having a solid understanding of the theory behind light physics, is important for making more realistic and refined materials. Before you start reading this article it is strongly recommended to familiarize yourself with the theory behind Physically Based Rendering (PBR) LINK

Before we move to the lighting setup we must make sure we are always working in a template 3Ds max scene file that is aligned with our Workflow. You can find the scene file here:
R:\06_TEMPLATES\02_PRODUCTION_TEMPLATES

In the template scene file you can find a Vray Dome light with the Vraysky loaded in the map slot and also a vray Sun and a fake sun that are by default switched off.

After our latest upgrade to V-ray 6 we ended up with a Workflow that it can produce our preferable diffused lighting result but at the same time it can offers also the tools so we can add some photographic directional light for better contrast when we think this is needed .

Summary

After our latest upgrade to V-ray 5 we ended up with 2 Workflows that they can produce our preferable diffused lighting result. To achieve this In both methods we are keeping the Vraysky as our primary lighting source and we switch off the Sun to avoid sharp shadows.
Template MAX scene file: R:\06_TEMPLATES\02_PRODUCTION_TEMPLATES

Vray Physical camera

In Visual Method we mostly do interior images for The product industry . For that reason we are using Focal Length 40 mm - 50 mm. We are trying to avoid wide lens in order to show the room and the products that they are included in it with minimum distortion. A good focal length in our case is 40 mm - 50 mm and we place the camera roughly in 1,00 m from the floor level.

Of course each project is unique, but you can have this values as a guide to help you achieve a good result that follows the VM standards.

Tips&Tricks

Clipping Planes Tool - The clipping Plane tool allow us to shoot outside from the Room when we have limited space with out this be noticeable . This is something that we can find only in the digital world and we are going to use it a lot next. Clipping planes help us avoid to use wide lens .

Base step

In both methods we create a Vray Sun light and when we are asked if we would like to automatically add a Vray Sky environment map we choose YES

V-ray is trying to mimic the real Sky environment and for that reason is taking different colours depends from the sun position in the dome. In our case because as a business we are mostly working for product design we need to be colour accurate , that's why next step is to desaturate our environment to avoid colour bleeding.

To do that:

We create a Vray Sun light and we choose the improved Sky model
From the environment tab drag and drop the Default Vray Sky map to material editor.
Next add a colour correction node and desaturate it completely .
We are naming our new desaturated Vray Sky map as a VraySky_CC to make it easy noticeable that is the colour corrected version of our Vray Sky Map.
We switch off the Sun

Method 1 - Vray Sky in adaptive Dome Light

Following this workflow, after we complete the previous steps, we add the colour corrected VraySky map to a dome light with the adaptive check box active and we clear the map from the environment slot.

The adaptive dome check box is a new future that has been introduced for first time in the previous version of V-ray and we have it also in V-ray 5. This new future speeds up the rendering by optimising the sampling algorithm for the dome light.

No light portals are needed with this setup. Light Cache must be set as the GI engine for this feature. . For more infos about the adaptive dome feature and its purpose you can visit the link above

https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/VMAX/Dome+Light

- Drag and drop VraySky_CC map in the dome light , change the resolution to 2048 for better light definition and make sure that the adaptive dome check box is active.
- Delete the Default VraySky map from the environment slot

Method 2 - Vray Sky in the environment slot + Skylight portals

In this method, after we complete the common steps for both workflows, we add the colour corrected VraySky map to the environment slot.

In the previous method we deleted the VraySky map from the environment slot because we used it as a map in the Dome light. In this method we dont use Vray Dome Light but we keep the Colour corrected VraySky map in the environment and for that reason we add Skylight Portals.

After we Colour correct our VraySky map we replace the Default VraySky with the new Colour corrected map and we add Vray Skylight portals with the simple check box active.

Drag and drop the new map in the environment slot .
Add Vray Light Planes and activate the Skylight Portal mode and make sure the simple check box is active. After we do this we add Skylight Portals in every opening in our scene to propagate the light better.

Rendering with RP Manager

RP Manager is an extension for Autodesk 3ds max which makes the task of managing multiple render passes from a single scene file efficient and user-error free. 3ds Max is an extremely flexible and capable package, and RP Manager has been designed to enhanced and complement existing workflows, helping to organise and automate the often taxing task of managing multiple passes.

In order to start using RP Manager you need to click the "R" icon from the toolbar

Straight after you hit the button, RP will ask you if you want to build a render pass , you choose yes and the RP Manager window is appearing in your screen . RP can produce unlimited passes.

RP Manager has 14 tabs that hosts the V-ray settings plus some extra tools. Most of this settings are the same like the default render setup window, from there you can customize the render settings and preferences for each pass separately.

In this wiki we are going to see only what we need

First you need to load the default render settings. You can find them here
R:\06_TEMPLATES\02_PRODUCTION_TEMPLATES

To do that hit right click in the RND column and load the presets
Next give a name to your Pass. In our test scene we named it S01_MAIN. It's preferable to name your pass with the same name like your camera.

Common Params: The common tab contains no custom or unique V-ray settings. Is the same Like in the Autodesk render setup window,

1. Time output group: From there you can setup which frames you want to render in case you have an animation or you can just choose still image.
2. Output size: From this section you can setup the render aspect ratio
3. Pass Output Path: You need to activate the Enable Autopath Generation and after that browse a destination folder path to save your renders after they are finished rendering.
4. Environment Group: This is a shortcut of the environment tab from 3ds max. To load your environment map you need to hit " G " after you loaded in the default environment slot from 3ds max environment tab. You can't import or delete a map from RP , everything you need to do you must do it from the default Environment Tab from 3ds Max and then hit G to update RP.
5. Camera(s): From there you can choose the camera that you would like to render.

Render Setup: Here you can find the V-ray parameters like the default Render Setup Window. In case you want to render in progressive mode you must set this from the default Render Setup window and then update RP by clicking the pass name. RP supports progressive render.
Elements: From this tab you can setup your render elements with the same way like the default Render Setup Window .
Effects and Atmosphere: This is the same like the environment and Effects in 3ds max
Preview: Preview override system for efficient preview renders with select rendering options disabled, ie camera multipass effect off, lower resolution frame, advanced lighting off, shadows off, AntiAliasing off, (optional) visual indicator of preview mode rendered in the image. Overrides for 3rd Party Renderers such as Brazil and Vray include GI disable, reduced GI rate, DOF disable, motion blur disable, AA rate, shadows disable, among others. Network or local render output can optionally use these settings for rendering preview sequences.
Custom: From this tab you can submit your render with Tile rendering mode. Each Pass has a check box. If you have more than one pass you can submit The passes that you have selected manually or the passes that the check box is on.

At the bottom of RP Manager you can see three groups. Preview Render, Local Render and Net Submission . From these groups you can control the rendering mode. If you just want to do preview renderers you need to hit selected or checked passes from the preview group. If you want to do a local render then you need to use this group and for last if you want to send your job to the farm without tile rendering you need to use the Net Submission Group.

RP Manger has Visibility set system. This is a tool that build and manage object visibility sets for use with RPManager, assigned on a per pass basis, with tools for quickly adding/removing/redefining visibility sets. Objects can be members of multiple sets.

By default the visibility Sets are set to none. In order to setup different visibility sets

Click in the VisSets from RP toolbar and click the Visibility sets Editor . You must see now a new window with two columns and some tools Right to the bottom. In the RHS we have the Layer Sets that we are going to create and the tools that will help us setup the different layer sets and in the LHS we have all our layers.

Next will demonstrate this tools with an example in our test scene.

Most of times if not always, you will be asked to change position of some props depends from the camera angle, render different bed positions or to render an object with different material in different passes.

In this example we going to setup two different passes.

In the first pass we want to have our bed frame with oak texture and closed position and in the second pass we want our bed frame with a different wood texture and also for the second pass we want an open version to show the storage under the bed with the props inside.

In order to have easy control of our visibility sets we need to have good layer setup in our scene. The objects that are changing position depends from the pass need to be in a different layer in order to add or remove them from the visibility sets. In our case the only object that has some position change is the bed . For the bed frame we want to change the material not the position , we are going to see this after.

To setup 2 different passes with different bed version you should:

Make 2 passes and named them S01_MAIN_CLOSED and S02_MAIN_OPEN
Make 2 Layers. Add in the first the closed bed and in the second layer add the open version and the props in the storage room under the bed.
Name your Layers closed bed and open bed .
Switch off the layers with the open bed version and the props.

Go to your visibility sets and open the layer set editor.
Click create Layer Set From Visible Layers and rename the layer set as OPEN_CLOSED
Switch off the CLOSED_BED
turn on The OPEN_BED and _STORAGE_PROPS layers
Click create Layer Set From Visible Layers and rename the layer set as OPEN_BED

You should have this setup now in your screen

You can always manually choose the layer from the left side and with the arrow in the middle move it to the right side in the layer set you want.

Like we said before RP by default has NONE Status in the Visibility sets column. In order to load the Layer Set setup that we did previously

right click in the Visibility sets column
Assign a layer set
And add the correct layer set for each pass .

Now you should have these two different setups in the same max file.

Next we are going to see how to add different material in the same object depending from the pass. For this example we going to add 2 different materials in the bed frame for the two different passes.

To do that:

Open the material editor
go to materials
choose the general tab
add RP Material

Now you should see this in your screen

Like we mentioned in the beginning, RP can create unlimited passes. That's why you can see all this slots . After we finished our material setup we are going to keep only the slots that we need.

To do that:

Choose your RP material, hit right click and click Hide unused nodeslots

Next create the two different shaders, add them to the first two slots and assign the RP material to your bed frame.

To control wich material will affect each pass you just need to add the shader in the slot with same number like your pass number.

Following this process we managed to create a single 3ds max file to produce two different versions.

Deadline Monitor - In Progress

Fusion

Fusion features a powerful node based interface that lets you quickly and easily create sophisticated effects by connecting different types of image processing tools together! In Visual-method we are using Fusion 9 as our primary software tool for Compositing and Post production.

We are using Fusion 9 in post production stage for animated sequences and for still images also. In our case will demonstrate how to work and export still images only.

In this Wiki will check step by step

how to Load our renders
our post production process
how to export our final images.

At the same time will explore the interface of Fusion and say a few things for some interesting and useful tools

Is strongly recommended to visit and read the manual of Fusion 9 https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/Fusion9_Manual.pdf

Lets start !!!

Fusion 9 interface

When you open Fusion for very first time you can see the default interface that consists 4 major panels and they all have different kind of tasks and objectives.

2 X Viewer panels to view your effects and footage
Flow area or work panel that you build your nodes and make effects and footage work with each other. This is the most used panel from all
Media player or time ruler , who determines the frame that is displayed in the viewers.
Tools panel or control panel , when a tool/node is selected in the flow area . its parameters and settings appear there.

So lets see how this programme actually works . First thing we need to add our footage or in our case our still render . To do that we need to add a Loader node and browse our beauty pass from the folder path that we are saving our renders. We can do that by picking the loader node from the tool bar on top or by holding Shift + space bar. This is a short cut in order to find all the tools , from there you can type what tool are you looking for and add it in the flow area . In our case type Loader.

Load the render image

When you hit enter/ok the media file will pop up so you can load your render from the server.

Ok so now we loaded our render. Before we continue with our post production will be useful to see how we can navigate in the 2d flow panel and viewer panels.

By holding Ctrl + scroll wheel you can zoom in and out to your nodes in the flow panel and to your image in the preview panel.
By using only the scroll wheel you can pan your viewport up and down
By holding just the scroll wheel you can pan free in the viewport.
to snap your nodes in the grid in the flow panel hit left click expand the Arrange tools section and activate the Grid

After you complete the first step and you add your render we need to preview this image somehow to the viewer panel. If you take a look in all the nodes you can see three little dots. The first one is for the left viewer panel the middle one is for the second viewer panel the third for a third viewer panel and so on. You can click the dots in order to load your image in the preferable viewer or select your node and hit 1,2,3,... in your keyboard and for last you can just drag your node and drop it in the viewer panel you prefer .

We can create as many viewer panels as we want . Because we are using 2 monitors is better to create a new Floating viewer panel and place it i the other screen so you can preview better in full screen your comps.

After you complete these steps you should see in your two monitors something like this. At the left side we have our base layout and we create a second viewer panel ,maximize it and placed it in your right monitor .

Now lets check some useful tools that we can find under the viewer panels . The viewer toolbar runs across the bottom of the viewer, providing access to many of the most commonly used Viewer related settings. Lets check some of them from Left to the Right.

The viewer toolbar contains a scale menu. If you click on that is bringing up of several preset scales to choose from, or click to the fit button to fit your image in the viewer
Effect Masks. Blurs, colour correction and wraps are typically applied to the entire image. However, there are times when it helps to be able to restrict the effect for a tool to a specified portion of an image. Effect masks can be polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes or bitmaps. To add an effect mask , Click on the button in the viewer toolbar for the desire mask type or right click in the viewer, then choose Effect masks from the contextual menu.
Switching between buffers. Each viewer has two buffers, each of wich can contain images. Each buffer can be considered a complete and separate viewer within the same viewer panel. The default is to always use the A buffer, so when you click the viewer indicator on a tool, the image loads into the A buffer on whichever viewer you have chosen. The A, B buffers can be used to enable a split screen display, where two buffers can be compared on screen. The splitter bar can be moved and rotated in any direction or angle by dragging on the splitter. Draggin it while holding the Shift key will snap it to the nearest 45 degree angle.
When compositing, you deal with individual colour components or channels in a image as much as you deal with the full RGB colour of the entire image. The viewer panels can can display separate colour, alpha and depth channels that comprise the image.
Look Up Tables (LUTs). LUTs are used to help match the appearance of a viewer to its eventual output destination . it is essentially a colour correction tool that affects only the viewer, not the image data. The default LUT type is standard Fusion view LUT, which is initially flat, so when you enable it there will be no appearance change to the image. To select a different type of LUT, click on the arrow to the right of the button and a LUT menu will appear with a list of all known LUT types, including macros and fuses.

After we loaded our render in Fusion first thing that we can notice is that our image is too dark this is happening because we need to add gamma 2.2 in our image. To do that :

From the viewer toolbar you should activate your LUT
Choose Gamut View Lut
Go to edit
In the output source choose sRGB

Now we can see our image with the correct gamma.

Like we mentioned before, LUT from the viewer toolbar it is essentially a colour correction tool that affects only the viewer, not the image data. If you try to save your image just with this setup your image will be saved dark like it was looking before we change our LUT.

If you want to add gamma 2.2 and affect your image data you need to do that with a node. The node that we going to use is called Gamut.

To do that:

Click Shift + Space bar
Type Gamut and hit enter
Connect your Loader with this node
Load the gamut node to your viewer panel
Switch off your LUT from the viewer toolbar if you still have it ON

Next step is to add the Filmic tone mapping in our image. Tone mapping is the process of converting the tonal values of an image from a high range to a lower one.

That means that by adding the tonne mapping we will save our burned out areas instantly.

To do that:

Click Shift + Space bar
Type Filmic tone mapping and hit enter
Add this node to your comp

Next we are adding a colour correction node and start adjusting the image until we are happy with the result .

To do that:

Click Shift + Space bar
Type Colour corrector and hit enter
Add this node to your comp before your tonne mapping
Select your node and adjust the values from the tool panel until you are happy with the result .

For this test image we adjusted the Shadows and Midtones of the image. You can always change the values of the Master channel but you will have less control because you affect all the channels (Shadows, Midtones, Highlights) at the same time.

For this image we are going to stop here, to keep it simple for training purpose, but you can continue your post processing by adding additional nodes like curves, HUE Saturation , brightness contrast , e.t.c. To do that you just need to Click Shift + Space bar and type the name of the node that you want and place it in your comp the same way we did it before with the colour collector node.

Is important to know that all the nodes that you are going to add must be placed before the tone mapping node.

Next we are going to see how we can use masks to restrict the effect for a tool to a specified portion of an image.

We can do that in three ways.

By using the effect masks tools that are located in the viewer toolbar like we mentioned previously
By using a custom mask that we prepared
By using a Multimatte element that we have already rendered together with our main image (We strongly recommend this method)

We are going to showcase the last 2 methods in this test project by affecting the tones of the Bed.

Custom mask

We prepared a custom mask by using Render Mask script from 3Ds Max . Our mask is looking like this. we save our mask as an exr. file format and we add it in our fusion comp file with a loader like we did previously at the beginning of this wiki.

Next we add a new colour corrector node to affect in our bed tones .We add our new CC node in our comp and our mask is floating on top . We need to connect this 2 nodes so we can restrict our CC node in the bed area only and not in the whole image. As you can see each node has a purple arrow. This is the input to connect your masks with your node. You don't need to memorize anything, if you move the cursor of your mouse in any of these arrows will pop up a description as a help so you know what is what. Before you connect your mask file you need first to add one more Bitmap node between your mask and your CC node and change the affected channel to luminance . The bitmap node had a soft edge slider from where you can soften the borders of your mask.

To visualize this example better we will desaturate completely our bed frame by changing the saturation in the CC node we created previously. In your monitors you should see something like this.

2. Masking with Multimatte element is the recommended way to do masks because you don't need to spend time and create your masks after the image is rendered.

The process is exactly the same like the black and white mask we created previously with the only difference that now we change the affect channel to Green, Blue or red , depends from the area that you want to affect. For this example you choose green.

Next step is to add our Background. To do this we need to follow first some steps in 3ds max stage and after needs to follow a workflow in Fusion that is explained step by step in this wiki https://sites.google.com/visual-method.com/visualmethod/visual-method-wiki/production/2d/compositing-techniques/adding-backgrounds-in-post?authuser=0&pli=1

We add our Background setup after the tone mapping and before our Gamut node because we dont want the comp that we are doing in our image to affect in our Background , we want to treat it separately . Your comp file now should look like this .

Now is time to export our final image. Like we added at the beginning a Loader node now we must add a saver node.

To do this:

Click Shift + Space bar
Type Saver and hit enter
The correct setup for your tiff's should be like this

Add this node at the end of your comp
Select your node, Browse the folder path that you want to save your image and the output format from the tool panel. Before you export your image make sure you changed the frame range to 0 because by default is set to 1000, that means that will export 1000 frames.
Click Render

PSD

Last stage in our 3D Production WF is to add our final tiff's in Photoshop and prepare masks for all the products for the CC stage later from the Retouching Team. We prepare different psd files for each shot to keep our files organized and clean.

If you take a careful look inside the 2D PRODUCTION folder of every project , we have separate comp folder so we can save there our PSD files. Inside this folder there is always a TEMPLATE PSD file

We deliver images in 300 DPI and usually the resolution is 6000 X 4242. Sometimes this is changing depends from the Shot and the client, but you can always go and resize the image size .

If you open the psd file you should see this

This Template psd file has some folders in the Layer stack . Lets take them one by one:

GLOBAL: This is the folder that includes every additional change and CC that will do in photoshop and we want to affect in everything that is included inside this psd . For that reason is first in the stack
COMP: In this folder the retouching team is adding the real footage from photo shooting . For example if we are doing a bedroom and is briefed from the start to add at the end a real bedding image , the retouching team will add this image there.
CC: In this folder we add masks for every product that needs CC from the retouching team. The WF is very simple, we just need to prepare inside this folder separate EMPTY folders with masks for each product for the retouching team later
RENDERS: This is the folder that we add our Tiff image that we exported from Fusion previously. If you need to do any additional fixes in your render you should do them inside this folder.
BACKGROUNDS: This folder is made for adding any image in the background of our tiff file in the case that we were exporting them with Alpha but we don't. In reality we don't use this folder a lot because we have specific workflow in Fusion stage of how to add anything in the background. But is always good to be there just in case .
OLD: This is the folder that you can add anything was made in previous stage, you don't need it anymore but we want to keep it just to compare of how the draft was looking before and how is looking now. In any other case is always better to delete everything that you don't need.
MAKS: In this folder you can save all the masks that you used.

When you are ready with your masks your psd file should look like this

Now is everything ready for the Retouching Team.

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