Chapter ?

| Product Lighting & Renering using Mental Ray

PREPARATION
STEPS
1. We usually set background/environment color to “Grey”
because its luminance value lies in between black and white. So
we can very clearly notice whatever change we make in
shadows and/or highlights.
2. Set the camera before anything else for better result because
Specular, reflection, everything varies in different angles.

3. We are using Mental Ray Renderer for this example.

“Sample per Pixel” is the option for

Sampling the pixels. Super Sampling or
Sub Sampling. Super Sampling means
dividing 1 pixel into 4/16/64/256 or so
on and vice-versa. We super sample
pixels for higher quality. Higher sampling
means higher render time. So, we
usually keep it to Adaptive. Means, this
will only super sample where it needs to
and keeps the maximum value which is
“16” (converts 1 pixel into 16 samples) in
our example else keeps the minimum
value which is “1” (1 sample per pixel)
NOTE | In Mental Ray, sampling is done
in background so we cannot see it. So,
below is the RADIOSITY snapshot for the graphical
explanation for the same.

“Filter Type” means antialiasing method. Blending of pixels sharply, smoothly or other way.
Right now we are using “Lanczos” the sharpest antialiasing method. Where width and
height is set to 4 pixels which means this will blend within plus minus 4 pixels in horizontal
and vertical space.

“LIGHTING”

4. Below is the render of the product using

skylight. Note: Skylight works only if
“Final Gather” is turned “on”. We are
using the Max’s default preset slider here.
We will learn about it in the next chapter
which is for “interior lighting and
rendering”. Right now, we will put this
slider to “Draft” for test renders. And set
it to “Medium” or “High” for the final
render.
5. Let’s add some lights to make it appear more beautiful.
Here we are putting some standard direct lights.

For the shader part, let’s use default “Car Paint” shader.
Because we need some small white flakes all around it. As it
happens in real cosmetic products to add more beauty and
the bling-bling factor. Reflection is sharp by default. If you
want blurred reflection, you need to increase the reflection
glossiness and play around with glossy reflection spread for
bias. In physics, we call it “Ray Diffusion”.

6. Now, let us apply background. Open “Environment and Effects”(shortcut=8) and choose “gradient ramp as
map. And change the clor as shown below.

7. Let’s add some glare (lens effect). Go to Render settings

(shortcut F10) . Under “Renderer” tab in “Camera
Effects”, we have “camera shader”. Check “Glare” on.
To adjust it, drag it to material editor as instance and
play around its value.

8. Adding ambient occolusion would be a good idea while

composing in Photoshop or any compositing software.
For occolusion process, please see the next chapter.
“interior lighting and rendering”

Happy product rendering…