All rights reserved 2010 www.vrayguide.com

2010

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C O N T E N T Introduction 3

Training creation 5

Few words about passes 7

Basic color correction in photoshop 8

Photoshop Blending Modes 9

Getting started with passes 11

Groups of passes 14

How to use passes in photoshop 18

Simple Six 19

Advanced passes explanation 22

Advanced passes combination 30

Ambient occlusion 32

Getting Photorealistic look 34

6 Hours of vray training Live q&a webinars 39

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PHOTOSHOP POST WORK

I N T R O D U C T I O N Hey, Alex here, and I want to welcome you to the exclusive Photoshop Post Work training. In this training you will observe my unique method of combining passes (render elements) and making exclusive color correction to

your rendering. The examples that are shown here were made with 3DsMax

and VRay, but the techniques can be applied to every 3D program that produces rendering passes, programs such as: Maya, Cinema4D, Rhino,

SoftImage XSI, Blender, Lightwaveetc.

I must warn you, these methods will improve significantly your final images look, so you must be prepared to discover the mighty power of Photoshop and be surprised to see that most of the photo-realistic looks lay on the post production work. That's right! I'm talking about Photoshop Post Work!

S o h o w d o t h e y d o i t ? I've asked my self the same question over and over, each time I saw an award

on Ever motion, or on CGSociety. Seriously, Is it the lighting? Is it the texturing? Or is it the modelling? What is it that makes the image look so real?

How do they get the colors to look so natural? I mean do they tweak all the material till they get it done perfectly? Well, the answer is NO!

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If we would do all perfectly in the 3D program, it could take us ages to get it

done. Funny, but once I was that person who thought that all must be made in

3Dsmax, without any retouch or color correction...Oh boy, I was wrong!

After seeing some professional artists do their post work on 3D images, I was simply amazed to discover the other side of the coin. So yes, now I see it

crystal clear, that the color correction work is a must on your final images, small curves tweaking and a contrast adjustment could add so much to your

image. And you should not be ashamed of yourself for doing it...

Everybody does it, be it Alex Roman, Stanislav Orechov, or Marek Denko. All of these pro 3D artists bring out their skills at the post production level.

Yeah, huh...how silly it was for me to think that the perfect images can be

created without Photoshop...

Well now you know the truth! Oh, and by the way, if you would see the raw

renders of those PRO guys man...they are so simple, with all the respect to these pro masters, there is nothing special about what they do that is different from what we do. I mean, the textures and lighting are good, and all set-up correct, but it's not that big a deal, you know.

The real power shows up on the post work stage. Yes, this is the place where

you get to show the light beams, the natural colors and of course to bring the whole image to a perfect exposure balance, and give it a natural look.

Niceee...huh?

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T r a i n i n g c r e at i o n During the last 3 years I was searching for a way to combine passes with

Photoshop and every time I was told that it is not useful or it is not the right way to do it, well at least not with Photoshop, and there are much better

programs to do that, like, After effects, Fusion, Combustionetc.

Every time I heard that it pissed me off because I didn't want to do it with programs I was not comfortable with.

So, I've searched all over the internet but unfortunately could not find any useful material that could lead me to create good results with Photoshop.

Finally after lots of tests and comparison with different editing program techniques I have resolved this problem and have found a unique way of doing

it with Photoshop.

Now I will share my knowledge with you, and hope you enjoy this training as

much as I have writing it. But I must warn you, these methods are my special development, and most of them I discovered by mistake while working with

Photoshop. So if you ask me, Is this the right way of doing it? Well it sure works for me, but the pro's will always jump up and say:

Photoshop is not the right program for passes combination! and they might tell you that this is wrong, and you should use other programs or other

rendering method.

But what if I want to do it with Photoshop? This is my call, yours as well, because you are in this training.

Just so you know, for example, in my work flow, I use exponential as color

mapping, and this is probably wrong because the right way to do it, is with linear and VRay Frame Buffer calibration.

Here is short video that explains the differences between two methods. I thought it might be interesting from you to know If this topic is not something that you familiar with, do not worry! Ill show you how to activate passes and how to get them in to Photoshop, in the next step-

by-step instruction, but in a mean time here it is LWF=Linear work flow video.

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Well OK, if you did understand what I've just sad that's fine, but if you didn't, don't get stressed, cos' in this training you still get to create awesome 3D

images, and my method works 100%, so if you follow the steps and practice a few times you'll get it, plus Ill be here to support you! Anyway it's really doesn't matter with which method you work, linear or

exponential, as long as we don't get to use real post-production programs like After Effects, Combustion, Fusion...etc.

This method will work for you! With any 3D program, with any rendering engine!

And if you where wondering why it is so universal, it's because Photoshop

combines passes linear way and you don't get to build complicated node based tree, like in post-production programs.

So, relax! We are in a Photoshop training. This is going to be as easy as you

can imagine. And I can guarantee that after this training you will increase your level of quality production.

Yes, this is the other side of the coin, and I have some really nice tips and

tricks to teach you. So sit tight, and let me show you some ninja techniques that I've gained over the past 8 years working in the Architectural Visualisation

Industry.

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F e w w o r d s a b o u t Pa s s e s Passes are the elements from which the final images are created. Pretty easy

huh.. For example, almost in every image we can find sharp shadows (that lights or

the sun produces), soft shadows as a result of indirect illumination (secondary light bounce), reflections (metal, mirror), refractions (glass, water), diffuse

color (base color or a texture of an object) and this refers to every indoor or outdoor environment.

Therefore every image can be separated into such elements with the help of

3D programs at the rendering stage. In other words, we can split these

elements while rendering final images and get separate layers that represent every element that was described above. Later on, each element can be

adjusted individually in Photoshop, in order to get exclusive and unique final look. Of course you will ask, W h y s h o u l d I b o t h e r d o i n g i t ?

Well simply because with the help of passes (render elements) you can

increase the quality of your final image, most likely after the render is done, at the post production stage, you get to work on each element separately, and

add or remove reflections, refractions, improve lighting, change color of the light spots, change color of the objects, without re-rendering the image. So

you get much better control over the look, in comparison to a regular render. That is what professionals do and this is how they work in order to supply high

quality images to their clients.

Yep! The power of Passes in Photoshop is about to be exposed in front of your

eyes, so you will see that this is just a very necessary stage of creating PRO

3D Visualizations.

Basically you will create from a crappy render an awesome looking image, if you just use the passes properly. I did it lots of times, these tricks saved my

projects not just once before, but keep saving me till this day.

This is where you get full control over your image exposure, reflections, lighting, shadows and colors. This is where you pull out an elephant out of your magic hat, without even touching the render button again.

Yep, this is a time (money) saver, and you are about to explore it!

So enough chit chat, let's get down to business.

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Basic Color Correction in Photoshop

OK, now I know I've turned you on, and you are probably thinking, oh yeah

let's start building this Skyscraper, but let me just remind you something very important, before we start the construction, we need to prepare a good fundamental, a base for our future building, right? Otherwise we're going to get a Pisa instead of Empire State Building. So you got the idea, the good fundamental that I'm talking about, is the basic color correction you need to make before you start to work with passes.

It will give you a good starting point, and this is how you do it.

Correcting your image is a necessary thing, and there is a big variety of

techniques for doing that. Every artist has his unique way of applying color correction.

In this video it is less important, if you repeat it step-by-step, what is really important here is that you learn to control the actions and learn to know what

action must be applied in order to improve your image. How do you learn it? Simply by practising! You need to do several images in

order to understand what action works better for that particular image. So my suggestion to you would be to try to mix the order, apply the curves first, and

then the contrast, skip the exposure control, try to get the same result only by using these two effects.

Our mission here is to get the right exposure by balancing the light in the scene. So its less important if you apply these actions in that particular order, as long as you nailed it down, and get the same result by using different combination, youre on the right track.

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OK! Great now that we saw the basics lets move on to more advanced level.

U s a g e o f P h o t o s h o p b l e n d i n g m o d e s I n c r e a s e s i m a g e q u a l i t y So simple, but what does it mean? Well let me just clarify the term: Blending Mode is the same, so if youre going to hear that somewhere, just know that it is refers to the layer appearance. And by controlling that layer appearance you can manipulate your images' final look or style. For example, stuff like adding or removing contrast, increasing or decreasing lighting exposure.

How do I do that? Well simply by duplicating your layer and changing its layer blending mode. Here is an exclusive and more advanced technique for making color correction. Here Ill be using Photoshop blending modes, where the final result look even nicer than the basic color correction method, (just in my opinion), you can use both techniques, try to mix them, see what works for

you, what you like more or less. Just remember one thing; practising will give you the best input regarding

these methods. So the more you do, the more it gets to your sub-consciousness, and you start to develop feeling to what action must be applied next.

Alright here we go, Exclusive Color Correction.

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If you go to the Photoshop ''layers'' window, you will notice that the layer

mode is set to ''normal'' by default, it is set for every layer that you create or

bring in to your ''layers'' window panel. Changing the ''mode'' will affect the appearance of the ''layer'' and the underneath layer as well, because now it will combine both layers into one piece as seen on the screen.

So, if you bring two layers and change the mode of the first one, you can create a unique look similar to the adjustments, like contrast or Hue saturationetc. By adding more layers and changing their ''mode'' visual appearance, you can

color correct your image, and get to the same results, as by using only layer adjustment technique or even better!

So let's see which types of blending Modes do we have? If you click on a drop down menu you will find 23 different types of ''blending modes'' representing the layer.

Normal Dissolve

Darken

Multiply Color Burn

Linear Burn

Lighten Screen

Color Dodge Linear Dodge

Overlay

Soft Light

Hard Light Vivid Light

Linear Light Pin Light

Hard Mix

Difference Exclusion

Hue

Saturation Color

Luminosity

So if you want to get really advanced on that one and to work with passes like

a PRO, you need to understand the idea of this technique, which contains 3 different aspects:

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1. Finding the right ''mode'' for each layer (pass).

2. Finding the right combination between the layers (hierarchy) position,

what layer comes first, in order to avoid blocking underneath passes. 3. Adjusting the layer visibility (opacity) and add special effects in order to

fix render imperfections.

Let's start to practice right away with something very simple, just to get an idea before we move to complicated passes combination. But before we do that

lets see how we can get our VRay passes from 3DsMax.

Getting started with passes First of all I would like to notice that I'm working with gamma LUT 2,2 in 3Ds max, it gives me much better colors, contrast between the objects and the

lights get to be less instanced in the scene.

So to activate this just go to 3DsMax, and on the main control panel, select "Customize > Preferences > Gamma and LUT" and make these changes.

In order to render passes in 3Ds max you must activate them. Press F10

''Render Set-up'' then go to ''Render Elements'' dialogue and press ''Add'', select all the Render Elements and press OK. We will not use all of them, but

we will go through them to be aware of the passes we have in all.

In order to save passes, first you need to activate the frame buffer option Enable built-in Frame Buffer and check the Save separate render elements,

this option will allow you to save the render elements, ''Browse'' to save passes to your selected folder, give them a name and save your file as PNG, leaving all

PNG settings by default.

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PNG format comes with 16 Bit channel and it works just fine for this purpose, of course for the test renders I'm using JPG (8 Bit), but for final quality we

must go with much higher image quality format. One of the used ones is TIFF (32 Bit) image that can store lots of (unseen for an eye) information in it,

something that just does not exist in 8 Bit JPG. If you want to learn more about different types of images and data that can be

stored in these images just follow the link here. It will also tell you about differences between 8 Bit and 32 Bit.

Most people wi ll ask why PNG 16 b it and not T I F F 32 B it? Well simply because it is not necessary to store so much information in your

render image, 32 bit images contains much more pixel depth information (cannot be viewed my the human eye) but its there! So for example if you over-exposed or over-darkened your final render it will be much easier to bring the missing information back with the help of pixel depth that stored in 32 bit

image. So if you are in a hurry and don't have time to tweak your lighting perfectly,

you can just make a quick render and fix your image with Photoshop, for that purpose select TIFF format with 32 Bit or even better OpenEXR format or HDRI

that possesses much grater pixel depth. But if you're satisfied with your image lighting and you want better performance while adjusting it in Photoshop, save

it as PNG. PNG's are much lighter and easier to handle because of their small size.

You will save space on your hard disk, the files will be 2 times smaller and the

work flow in Photoshop will be much smoother.

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G O I N G B A C K T O 3 D S M A X Well after we saved our elements we can press the render and wait a while.

The render is complete so we can go in to the folder and see what we've got there. Open the selected folder for saved passes and take a look there. If you

dont have VRay passes you can use mine, you can find them here.

In the first look we can say that some of the passes look very similar, with a lot of black spaces or complete black. These complete black or complete white

passes are redundant at this point, because we didn't define their purpose in 3DsMax in order to use them later. So lets just concentrate on passes that show us something, and try to split them into groups, that way it could be

much easier to understand their purpose.

W h a t g r o u p s o f p a s s e s d o w e h a v e ? Like I mentioned before, passes represent different elements from which the whole image exists; things like shadows, lights, direct and indirect

illuminations, reflection, refraction, and of course diffuse color or texture of our scene objects.

Open your rendered passes, or just use my passes here

Generally passes can be divided in 2 groups: 1. Standart VRay Passes

2. Raw VRay Passes

Both groups of VRay passes look very similar and have the same names

(except the ''Raw'' prefix at the beginning) but the big difference between these groups, is that the ''Raw'' passes represent very strong aspects of the

scene and have no interaction with textures, just grey color instead of texture. ''Raw'' passes represent the pure reflection, pure refraction, pure lighting, pure

GI, and so on, thats why they are called ''Raw''.

Ok, so this is simple right, but lets just break it down into groups of use and see how passes can be used and for what.

As you can see, there are lots of passes that look similar and probably act similar as well. Ill try to categorise it, so it becomes much easier to understand.

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G r o u p s o f u s e Ok so let me just break it down in to the groups, which are responsible for:

Textures:

rolf_benz_vero.RGB_color.0000.png rolf_benz_vero.VRay_BumpNormals.0000.png

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Specular.0000.png rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Normals.0000.png

Lighting:

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Lighting.0000.png rolf_benz_vero.VRay_RawLighting.0000.png

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_TotalLighting.0000.png rolf_benz_vero.VRay_RawTotalLighting.0000.png

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Shadows:

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_MatteShadow.0000.png rolf_benz_vero.VRay_RawShadow.0000.png

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Shadows.0000.png

Global illumination:

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_GlobalIllumination.png rolf_benz_vero.VRay_RawGlobalIllumination.png

Reflection:

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_RawReflection.0000.png rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Reflection.0000.png

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Refraction:

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_RawRefraction.0000.png rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Refraction.0000.png

Passes for making selection/object isolation:

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_ReflectionFilter.0000.png rolf_benz_vero.VRay_RefractionFilter.0000.png

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_RenderID.0000.png rolf_benz_vero.VRay_ObjectID.0000.png

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_WireColor.0000.png

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Passes for lens effects: color filter/exposure/motion blur/depth of field:

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_SampleRate.0000.png rolf_benz_vero.VRay_UnclampedColor.0000.png

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Velocity.0000.png rolf_benz_vero.VRay_ZDepth.0000.png

There are also passes that wasnt defined in our 3DsMax, so we got them pure white or total black.

Undefined passes:

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_MtlSelect.0000.png rolf_benz_vero.Alpha.0000.png

rolf_benz_vero.MultiMatteElement.0000.png rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Caustics.0000.png

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How to use passes in Photoshop? Well there is no one fixed way to combine passes, every image has its own

aspects and complications, which you can solve with the help of passes. For example, when the sun's shadows are too bright or too dark, not enough

reflections or overdone reflections, or you need to have more transparency in objects like glass or windows, or self-illuminated objects, like light bulbs or

spots (VRayLightMtl) where you need to spread more light, in such situations passes can be very helpful.

So regarding my unique method, what you basically do is, you put a base layer (fundamental remember?) and you start to build a skyscraper (start to add passes one by one) by improving different aspects of your image, like:

reflections, refractions, lighting, GIetc.

Some objects can be individually treated with the help of passes. For example, when the ceiling is too dark, you can use the ID pass to make the selection

and brighten the ceiling. Floor texture needs to have other color tint, or walls, or leather material on sofas and armchairs. Same thing happened here, we use

the ID pass to make the selection and apply HUE/Saturation layer adjustment to change its color. Instead of re-rendering the image, we just used ID pass, to

select the object and change its color, brightness, contrast and so on.

The tricky thing here, as I mentioned before, is to know which blending mode goes for each pass, and in which order you need to add your passes (what

goes first-what goes last), so you will not block your lower layer appearance.

Well now you say , OK great ! how do I do it? Let me show you my unique way of doing this in Photoshop, some might say

that this is not the right program to do it, youll hit a wall on you first step, but what if Im not willing to work with the other post production program, like After Effects or Fusion. What if Im feeling comfortable working with Photoshop and this is my environment that Im used to. Just for that reason we are here in this course, so here we go!

Here is link to PSD passes combined examples, just in case you want to see how I did it in Photoshop (username and password in your confirmation email:

http://wp1177833.vwp4130.webpack.hosteurope.de/videos/passes_psd.rar

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S I M P L E S I X

Just to get the main idea of how images can be built from only 6 passes.

1. We start from ''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_GlobalIllumination.png'' pass, we'll open it and use it as the first fundamental layer, upon which we build

our own image.

*If you just think about it, it is very logical and you can compare it to how the things work in our world: All the colors of any object in your

world starts from something basic and fundamental and upon this color we get reflections, refractions and glossiness, caused by influence of

light and material behaviour. 2. Second comes the ''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_TotalLighting.png'' pass, we'll

place it upon the ''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_GlobalIllumination.png'' layer and change its mode to ''Lighten''.

What this option does is, it actually removes the white (dark) colors from the image and leaves only the lightened areas.

3. We move on by adding lighting pass ''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_lighting.png'' placing it above the ''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_TotalLighting.png'' layer and

changing it's mode to ''Screen'', this option removes all the black (dark) colors, the more black color is = more transparent it becomes.

In this case, 100% Black = 100% Transparent.

4. Next pass is the ''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_Reflection.png'', we'll place it above the previous layer and change it's mode to ''Screen'' as well.

Same purpose here, removing all the black/darkened colors and stay only with (brighten) reflections.

5. The next one is the ''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_Refraction.png'', we use the ''Screen'' mode here as well. Same idea of removing black (darkened)

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colors and stay with pure transparency.

6. Last pass for the simple six is the ''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_Specular.png'',

this pass used on the ''Screen'' mode as well. Simply by removing the darkened colors we stay with the glossy reflections that this pass

supplies.

That's it! A nice and simple combination, now is the time for final tuning! This can be done by changing the opacity of the layers. I've changed the opacity of

the ''VRay_Lighting.png'' layer to 50%, looks a bit better.

C o n t i n u e t e s t i n g You can try and play with other layers opacity, see what result you can get. You can also try to switch layers places, see what influence layers have on

each other, some changes do not affect the final result at all.

For example if you switch places ''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_Reflection.png'' and ''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_Refraction.png'' you will not see much of a difference, it

means if the layers are at a 100% opacity on the same layer mode, it doesn't matter which one comes first.

You can also try to change the ''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_Refraction.png'' layer mode, from ''Screen'' to ''Lighten'' and observe the differences. Move it up and

change the opacity to 75%. After you've done with testing lets try to draw some conclusions of what we

have experienced so far:

Conclusions from our first ''simple six'' test: Well as you have observed, it is possible to rebuild the image from separated

passes. I know it is not perfect and we can get better results by color correcting the regular render in Photoshop, but this test was made only to give

you that first feeling of how passes with different blending modes can be combined into one final image.

1. GlobalIllumination layer (it can be also our render) will be used with ''Normal'' mode as base fundamental layer, we will build all our passes

upon this layer. 2. It is important to understand the logic behind the hierarchy of organizing

passes. Passes that have less transparent areas will come first, like: ''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_GlobalIllumination.png'' and

''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_lighting.png''.

Passes that have more transparent areas, like ''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_Reflection.png'' and ''ROLF_BENZ_VERO_Refraction.png''

will come last. 3. ''Screen'' mode removes black areas, mostly used for passes with black

appearance, like ''Reflection'' and ''Refraction'' pass. (''Lighten'' mode also could be used to get the same layer blending mode).

4. I didnt show you that in this exercise but it is important from you to know that ''Multiply'' mode works on the opposite way of Screen mode, removes the lighten areas, most of the time used for passes with white appearance. (''Darken'' mode has similar effect on this kind of passes).

So in this case everything is 100% white=100% transparent.

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There are other types of modes that can be very useful and we will discover them on the next advanced passes combination video.

Now, we have learned the logic behind passes assembly and the idea of using

different types of blending modes for passes assembly, we can move forward to the most difficult and complicated stage of all.

Advanced passes explanation

Passes that VRay produces in 3DsMax can be found in passes folder: Before we get into long complicated combination exercise, lets just get to know what do we have to deal with, ladies and gentlemen, please meet VRay render elements.

In the first two passes we dont see much because we didnt activate the featured options that these passes provide us, but Ill say a few words about them just in case you would like to use them in your render.

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rolf_benz_vero.Alpha.png represent the alpha channel, used in Photoshop for isolating the sky

from the background.

rolf_benz_vero.MultiMatteElement.png represent the matte objects, if defined in a

scene before starting the render. This pass is also used for quick and comfortable selection for

isolating the matte objects from our composition.

rolf_benz_vero.RGB_color.png this pass is our base render and similar to our final render image, representing the RGB channels of our

image. (Red, Green, Blue colors of the monitor, but this is basically our render, thats all). P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e f o r u s e : Normal

rolf_benz_vero.Vray_Atmosphere.png pass that represent VraySky.

rolf_benz_vero.Vray_Background.png same with this, passes that represent environment of our background that we could see, but we used

plain object for creating our background, so we basically blocked the VraySky with it.

Ive used photo (image) and applied it as material to my ''plane'' object in order to create background in the scene, (this method works

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fine for me in this case). So my background plane covered the VRaySky from being seen in the camera. I also didn't define the environment which is why we

cannot see much happening in these two passes. I really do not use these passes for interior visualisations at all, but it can be

very handy for exteriors.

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_BumpNormals.png this pass helps us to define bumps in the texture in

order to create more accurate bumps on an object. I have never used that pass, so let's

move on to the next one.

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Caustics.png This pass represents perfect

caustics, water/glass/metal breaking reflection in the scene and to get this effect working we

need to activate Caustics in our scene. For example, light reflections coming from the

swimming pool from the water create water shapes on the walls or ceiling.

Examples of caustics can be seen here

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_DiffuseFilter.png - pass that represents the basic colors or pure texture

of the models without any lights and shadows. We will use it as the base layer for our

composition. P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e f o r u s e : Soft light / Screen + adjust layer opacity

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_ExtraTex.png as you can see this pass wasn't defined as well as the

others. It's used for adding or isolating specific textures. We can use it to change the textures

of particular objects and this could be handy sometimes but I have never used this pass.

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rolf_benz_vero.VRay_GlobalIllumination.png this pass represents indirect light or indirect

illumination of the scene (smooth light that fills our room with textures of course). We can call

this phenomenon as the secondary bounce - soft shadows that are being created will most

likely give a strong appearance at the corners. This effect is being created as the result of

secondary bounce of the light particles that continue travelling in our interior space.

P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e f o r u s e : Screen / Overlay + adjust layer opacity

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Illuminance.png -

represents all the scene material illumination

(except glass materials with translucency) with the help of this pass we can make the whole

scene brighter, but I never used it because there are much better passes to do that, so we

can mark this pass as unusable as well.

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Lighting.png this pass represents the lighting in our scene. Includes all

types of lights that we have, such as: Sun light, VRayLight, IES light, even VrayLightMtl might

produce lighting that will be visible in that pass. P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e f o r u s e : Screen / Lighten + adjust layer opacity

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_MatteShadow.png this pass represents invert shadows that light create

in our scene. You can notice that the sun's direct light is black, and the places of indirect

illumination are brighter. This pass can be of great use to fix the shadows visibility if its too dark. P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e fo r u s e : (invert) Screen + adjust layer opacity

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rolf_benz_vero.VRay_MtlID.png this pass represents Material ID's, if you have assigned

numbers to your material, you will see it in this pass as a different color for every id's number

of your object. Advisable to use it for object selection with : (Photoshop) select tool

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_MtlSelect.png - you can also define your material by making selections

as talked about before, you can create a pass that will represent colors for each material

selection. This provides easier object selection

while working in Photoshop. I really do not use these passes, simply because there are other

passes that represent objects in different colors. Well see them later on.

Adv is a bl e t o u s e i t fo r o bj ec t s e l e c t i o n w it h : (Photoshop) select tool

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Normals.png this pass is similar to BumpNormals.png as you have

probably noticed is used to make better bumps, but it is useless for us at the moment, so we

can skip it.

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_ObjectID.png this pass represents object by id, if defined in 3Dsmax it

will be much easier to select the whole object and change its appearance in the scene. Simply

right click on the object in your 3D scene, ''object properties'' change the id number from

0 to something else. Same numbers of id will be represented with the same color in this pass.

Advisable to use it for object selection with : (Photoshop) select tool

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rolf_benz_vero.VRay_RawGlobalIllumination.pn

g - pure representation of GI, secondary

bounces of the scene unlike the Standard VRay GI pass, this pass is not affected by the

textures and represents clean global illumination (light) in our scene. Multiple use of

this pass increases GI appearance in the scene for a better photo-realistic look.

Please notice the presence of the blue illumination from the VRaySky, glass is isolated in black.

P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e fo r u s e : Soft light / Screen + adjust layer opacity

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_RawLighting.png Here again, pure lighting pass is not affected by

textures. Glass appears as transparent objects

and isolated in black. Most of the time usage of this pass is meant to increase the sunlight

appearance in the scene. P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e fo r u s e : Soft light / Screen + adjust layer opacity

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_RawReflection.png - pure reflections, all that is reflected in the glass,

morrows, metals, stone, etc. Represented as a pure reflection and not affected by the texture

of objects, but we can see that texture reflected in the reflective model (NOT the textures of the

model itself). Most of the time used to increase the reflectivity of the scene.

P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e fo r u s e : Screen + adjust layer opacity

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light + adjust layer opacity

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_RawTotalLighting.png - this pass is somewhere in between the

RawLighting.png and RawGlobalIllumination.png. Used to bring more

photorealism to the scene. P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e f o r u s e : Lighten / Soft light + adjust layer opacity

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Reflection.png regular reflection pass, which is darker than the ''Raw''

pass and is being affected largely by the textures and the environment. As you have

probably guessed, this pass is used to fix or increase the reflection of the reflective objects

in the scene. This pass involves texture and therefore will be

masked through the filter pass in Photoshop. In my video you can see how I apply mask filter in order to isolate the blackness. A d v i s a b l e t o u s e w i t h R e f l e c t i o n F i lt e r a p p l i e d a s a m a s k P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e f o r u s e : Normal / Screen + adjust layer opacity

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_ReflectionFilter.png The name says it all, this pass will be used as a mask to filter out

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Reflection.png pass. Used as a mask to isolate the reflections properly

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Refraction.png - regular refraction pass, represents all transparent

(glass) objects and because of it's interaction with the object material this pass will be also

''masked'' the filter pass. Advisable to use with Refraction Filter applied as a mask P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e f o r u s e : Normal / Screen + adjust layer opacity

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rolf_benz_vero.VRay_RefractionFilter.png - You

can guess this one as well, that's right, this

pass is used to filter the previous pass. The operation works exactly the same way as the

previous one and we are going to use this pass as a layer mask in Photoshop. Used as a mask to isolate the refractions properly

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_RenderID.png this pass represents object ID's automatically, every

object processes its own color. It is much easier to use this pass for selecting and isolating

objects, Why? You will now ask, well simply because not everything can be perfect in our

scene and perhaps some of the objects would need a manual touch to fix their color, contrast,

visibility, exposure...etc. Adv is a bl e t o u s e i t fo r o bj ec t s e l e c t i o n w it h : (Photoshop) select tool

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_SampleRate.png this pass shows us our sample rate that is generated

by the ''image sampler'' if the pass is completely blue and we don't see any samples

interpolation that means we are not using our image sampler correctly, and wasting memory. I

know that this pass comes only to indicate the progress of the ''image sampler'', but Ive found interesting way to use it as a filter in order to

bring warm colorization to the final image. The exclusive usage of this pass can

be seen in the next video. I n d i c a t e s V R a y s a m p l e r a t e i n t e r p o l a t i o n

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_SelfIllumination.png this pass represents all the self-illuminating

objects in our scene, in other words, VRayLightMtl.

All the objects that VRayLightMtl was applied to will be seen in this pass. Of course if the self

illuminated object was blocked by the glass or

some other objects it will not appear in this pass (thats why we dont see light here).

P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e f o r u s e : Screen + adjust layer opacity

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rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Shadows.png this layer represents regular shadow interpolation and is

very highly influenced by the textures of the models.

Used most of the time to increase the contrast between the objects.

P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e f o r u s e : Soft l i g h t + a d j u s t l a y e r o p a c i t y

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Specular.png secular pass, used to increase (blurred) glossiness reflections of the objects. Most objects that get

specular reflections, are those with blurred reflectivity and low glossiness values and in

such materials specularity starts to be

presented in the scene. P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e f o r u s e : S c r e e n + a d j u s t l a y e r o p a c i t y

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_TotalLighting.png indicates the presence of lighting in the scene, evidently affected by the textures, used most of

the times to bring out more dramatic contrast and saturation, between the material colors. P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e f o r u s e : S c r e e n + a d j u s t l a y e r o p a c i t y

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_UnclampedColor.png most of the time this pass used to bring more

exposure and to motivate the light, I'm not using it very often, but you can try and test it, if

you're a fan of over-exposed photography. P r e f e r r e d b l e n d i n g m o d e f o r u s e : O v e r l a y + a d j u s t l a y e r o p a c i t y

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_Velocity.png this pass used for animation, unfortunately cannot be seen in action because we use static image in

this training, but in general it smooths the

movement of the camera and animated objects by giving everything that moves a nice blur, a

similar effect as the motion blur.

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rolf_benz_vero.VRay_WireColor.png this pass represents object textures without any

selection or adjustment. Every texture gets its own color to represent it. Very easy to use it

with select by color option in Photoshop, if we want to select all the desired textures at once.

This pass is the best choice for isolating objects, its antialiased! Advisable to use it for object selection wit h :

( P h o t o s h o p ) s e l e c t t o o l

rolf_benz_vero.VRay_ZDepth.png the last and the most interesting pass Z-depth, is used to bring DOF (depth of field) or fog effect into our

final composition, in other words we can use it

to create ''out of focus'' or DOF = Depth of Field phenomenon of the foreground or the background, or both of them together. Very powerful pass, you'll have a great time testing

it.

That's it, that was the last pass, was one helluva long description huh?... but we made it :) This was quite necessary in order to explore every pass and its

role in our image, otherwise the fun will not be comprehensible.

So after we learned how to set and render passes, and we explored every pass one by one, we can move to the next level. Let's test some advanced

techniques just to get an idea of the work flow.

Advanced Passes Combination

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Ok, hope you didnt get tired of this long video, I know some of you wanted to see it from the beginning, but it was necessary for me to write out a detailed explanation before you get to see this video.

I suggest you to print these pages and mark the blending mode option that can be used with each pass. Please by all means, go ahead and test this

method with your render element (passes). Just in case you want to check my psd files for simple six and advanced passes combination they can be found here.

Now its time to start adding photorealism to our image, and the first step will

be the creation and adjustment of Ambient Occlusion pass.

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A m b i e n t O c c l u s i o n t h e E a sy way There are a few ways to create this pass using 3DsMax and VRay. The easy

way and the manual way (which is more complicated) and Im going to cover it later on.

Here is another method of adding Ambient Occlusion to your image, this time it is done manually (without any plugins). I know that some of you might

experience a few errors working with this free plugin, or some of you might

want to know how to create this pass on your own. If this is the case, here is how you do it manually.

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Nice, we are getting closer to our final destination and that is a photo-realistic image. Some of you might say that is good enough and Im satisfied with the result, but some of you might want to get even closer to the real photograph. Well in that case I have something special for you, something that I was

keeping for myself, and thats the reason why this training is in limited addition, cos Im about to show you 2 significant ways of getting your image the final look as photo-realistic as it can be in todays technology.

Aright then, if you want to get your image to a photo-realistic level you need to think like a photographer, and the most common problems that photographers

have is lens distortion. Well I know it because, Im a photographer, I do it as a hobby, and for that reason Im familiar with all the road blocks we hit when trying to get real photos.

But what is our purpose as a 3D artist in that case? Yes, exactly getting these problems into our image, so it looks like it was made with a real reflex camera.

Funny though, photographers are trying to remove all the lens distortions that they get while making photos, and we as 3D artist try to bring them back in

order to add photo-realistic feelings to our 3D rendering.

So lets just see what are the most common problems that photographers meet while shooting with their reflex camera.

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GETTING PHOTOREAListic LOOK

C h r o m a t i c a b e r r a t i o n One of the most common distortions that can be experienced with cheap

camera lens is chromatic aberration, this appears most likely when we make a photo on a very bright day or with high light intensity and as a result of light

conjunction with the objects, we get a color shift, so for example, as a result we can see a thin contour red line defining the borders of our tree.

I just love to apply this effect to my 3d renderings, as it brings out a photo-real impact, but you must know exactly when and how to apply it, this effect

does not appear everywhere in the image! I suggest you observe a few images on the internet in order to understand how

this really works. Just so you know, this effect can ruin the photo-real feeling if

not applied correctly. Some examples can be seen here.

V i g n e t t e This is a very common lens distortion, this is when your images' corners get

darkened edges. This effect can be adjusted with VRayPhysCam as well, but I prefer to add it in post production stages, because if it was made in render it

cannot be controlled afterwards. So my suggestion, leave your VRayPhysCam - vignette at 0.1 and add it later on manually. Some examples can be seen here. F i l m g r a i n You can call it noise as well. Film grain is a consequence of a low quality camera film or lack of light. High film speed - ISO, increases film intensively, thats why noise starts to appear. In VRayPhysCam - ISO we do not have noise, it doesnt matter how high we go with the parameters, thats why this effect can be achieved only on the post production stages. You can try to render with really low parameters, then on

QMC, Brute force or you can try to render your image with Maxwell then you'll get it for sure. But somehow I find this less natural, because real film grain

effect must be applied on different channels of RGB in order to look natural. Some examples can be seen here. O U T O F F O C U S Some might see it as a part of DOF Depth of field effect, but this has less to do with focusing on the object and more with bad lens focus. This is a

simple blur that appears at the edges caused by wrong DOF or a distortion on a bad lens while focusing. Some examples can be seen here.

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D e p t h o f f i e l d Focusing on the object and getting nice blurred background or foreground, or both of them. This effect can be achieved with VRayPhysCam simply by turning

on the depth of field option, but most of the time this will add at least 15% to

your rendering time, some times even more. For that case there is a way to get similar result just by using VRay ZDpeth pass.

Here is how.

Some examples can be seen here.

B o k e h e f f e c t I especially love this one, even though not so easy to achieve, some Photoshop

plugins can repeat this phenomenon, like DOF PRO. There are also plugins for After Effects than can perform very well.

However this effect is a result of strong DOF or a Focus on some object, most

likely being seen at night. As a result light beams start to produce different shapes, all depending on the lens. Different lens produce different shapes, like

hexagonal, pentagonal, cylindrical light beam structures. Some examples can be seen here

Aright then, so now you know what you need to achieve! So lets see which

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programs can help us with that. Lets take our image to the next photo-realistic level.

L i g h t r o o m So you have probably started thinking like a photographer, and so why not use some photographers programs? This program was designed to correct photos

and can produce some very interesting results. Its very easy to use, and has some really nice option for making color correction and fixing exposure control.

You can use this program for creating your base layer for passes combination. You can also use it for final color correction work. I really like a variety of color control that this program provides, as its very accurate and full of optimizations. You can get trial version and test it for a month, and see if it works for you.

However I prefer a whole different platform for bringing photorealism.

Although its less for photographers and more for film makers or editors, I really think that this program can provide high end of photo-realistic results.

This baby works for me at its best! And I highly recommend you to get it!

Get ready for the final touch, you might not believe your eyes, and Im warning you, after knowing this there is no way backward! This is my final card, this game I fished with my JOKER, here it is ladies and gentlemen, get ready for

the real p h o t o r e a l i s t i c p o s t p r o d u c t i o n w o r k !

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L O O K S For me this was love at first sight!

Pretty amazing hah? Yes, this is what I think too,

F R E A K I N ' A W E S O M E !

By the way this is a stand alone version, but you can get one as a plug-in for Photoshop, or for After Effects, and start implementing your techniques on a

professional level. You can try this program for free for a whole month, and see if its for you. Heres the link.

Well alright ! How does it feel to be aware of such sneaky manoeuvres that PRO 3D artists perform on their everyday work? Now you can start practising

and developing your ultimate skills of special effect combinations that can

bring your image to the desirable result.

As for me it was a great pleasure sharing this knowledge with you!

This is quite a kung fu that Ive picked up for the last 8 years working in the architectural visualisation industry and it has been a great honour passing it

t o y o u m y f r i e n d .

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Let me know what you think, I will always do webinars with Q&A in order to

help you achieve your goal and to answer any questions that might come up

during this training.

Please feel free to visit my blog and to leave a comment. www.vrayguide.com

I thank you very much for from the bottom of my heart for taking this journey with me, your success is my pride!

Good luck with your exercises and remember Keep it PHOTO-Real!

Sincerely yours,

Alex

P.S.

Now go ahead and watch 6 hours of our Weninars and get down to this Like A PRO!

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6 Hours of VRay T r a i n i n g Here all the recording from the LIVE Q&A Webinars. We do it every week on

Friday, so if you want to join me on this exclusive private training, please visit this link and join us on VRay Master Class 2011 (the password for watching

these webinars is in you confirmation email)

Let me lead you to become PRO 3D Artist!

5th Q&A Live Webinar

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4th Q&A Live Webinar

3rd Q&A Live Webinar

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2nd Q&A Live Webinar

1st Q&A Live Webinar

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Thank you very much for your time and effort!

www.HowToBecomeApro3Dartist.com

How to become a PRO 3D Artist

by Alexander Vasiliuk aka VRayGuide

www.vrayguide.com

All rights reserved www.vrayguide.com 2010 VrayART