Corona Renderer

THE COMPLETE GUIDE

Francesco Legrenzi
 Corona Renderer
THE COMPLETE GUIDE
First edition
Original title
Corona Renderer - THE COMPLETE GUIDE
by Francesco Legrenzi

Copyright © 2020 Francesco Legrenzi

Illustrations and layout

Eng. Francesco Legrenzi

www.francescolegrenzi.com

First edition Second edition Third edition

November 2020

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All rights reserved. No part of this book can be reproduced, stored in archive systems or transmitted in any form or medium,
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 SUMMARY
1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1
1.1. GENERAL ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1.1. Author information................................................................................................................................................................................................ 1
1.1.2. Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 1
1.1.3. Preface ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 2
1.1.4. About the book ........................................................................................................................................................................................................3
1.1.5. Contents .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1.6. Get the most out of the book ........................................................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1.7. Corona Renderer and the hardware ............................................................................................................................................................5
1.1.8. User license .............................................................................................................................................................................................................6
1.1.9. The book’s website............................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
1.1.10. THE DVDs .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 7

2. CORONA RENDERER ............................................................................................9

2.1. CORONA RENDERER’S HISTORY................................................................................................................................................. 9
2.1.1. Ondra’s College Years.........................................................................................................................................................................................9
2.1.2. First public interest .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 10
2.1.3. Corona Renderer v1.0 and the commercial version ........................................................................................................................ 14
2.1.4. Chaos Group merger........................................................................................................................................................................................ 15
2.1.5. The philosophy of Corona Renderer, strengths and weaknesses .......................................................................................... 16

2.2. CORONA RENDERER INSTALLATION ........................................................................................................................................ 17

2.3. CORONA INTERFACE ..................................................................................................................................................................... 17
2.4. ORGANIZATION AND PURPOSE OF THE BOOK..................................................................................................................... 22

3. CORONA - Scene TAB ..................................................................................... 23

3.1. GENERAL SETTINGS ...................................................................................................................................................................... 23
3.1.1. VFB - Show VFB ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 24
3.1.2. VFB - Post ................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 28
3.1.3. VFB - Stats .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 49
3.1.4. VFB - History.......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 53
3.1.5. VFB - DR ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 54
3.1.6. VFB - LightMix....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 54
3.1.7. Interactive Rendering .....................................................................................................................................................................................59
3.1.8. Corona Material Library ................................................................................................................................................................................. 61
3.1.9. Reset settings .....................................................................................................................................................................................................63

SUMMARY - I
 3.1.10. Corona Image Editor...................................................................................................................................................................................... 64
3.1.11. Progressive rendering limits ......................................................................................................................................................................71
3.1.12. Save/Resume rendering .............................................................................................................................................................................. 73
3.1.13. Render overrides ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 73
3.1.14. Denoising ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 76
3.1.15. Render selected .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 82

3.2. SCENE ENVIRONMENT ................................................................................................................................................................ 83

4. CORONA - Camera TAB ...................................................................................91

4.1. POSTPROCESSING ........................................................................................................................................................................ 91
4.1.1. Use simple exposure ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 92
4.1.2. Basic photographic settings ...................................................................................................................................................................... 92
4.1.3. LUT ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 102
4.1.4. Sharpening/Blurring..................................................................................................................................................................................... 102

4.2. BLOOM AND GLARE .................................................................................................................................................................... 102

4.3. CAMERA ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 103
4.3.1. Depth of field ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 103
4.3.2. Motion blur ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 108

5. CORONA - Performance TAB ..................................................................... 111

5.1. GLOBAL ILLUMINATION .............................................................................................................................................................. 111
5.1.1. Global Illumination .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 113
5.1.2. Path Tracing (PT) .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 114
5.1.3. UHD Cache (UHD) .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 119
5.1.4. 4K Cache (4K) ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 137

5.2. PERFORMANCE SETTINGS ....................................................................................................................................................... 147

5.2.1. Sampling balance ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 147
5.2.2. Speed vs. Accuracy balance..................................................................................................................................................................... 153
5.2.3. Displacement & CoronaDisplacementMod ....................................................................................................................................... 157
5.2.4. Interactive rendering ................................................................................................................................................................................... 175
5.2.5. Caustics solver .................................................................................................................................................................................................177

5.3. DEVELOPMENT / EXPERIMENTAL STUFF ............................................................................................................................ 186

5.3.1. Introduction....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 186
5.3.2. Basic configuration ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 189
5.3.3. Adaptivity and denoising ........................................................................................................................................................................... 196

II - Corona: THE COMPLETE GUIDE

 SUMMARY
5.3.4. Interactive Rendering ..................................................................................................................................................................................198
5.3.5. Hair rendering..................................................................................................................................................................................................199
5.3.6. Lights ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 200
5.3.7. Terminator handling ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 201
5.3.8. String options.................................................................................................................................................................................................. 204

6. CORONA - System TAB ................................................................................ 207

6.1. CORONA SYSTEM SETTINGS ...................................................................................................................................................207
6.1.1. System settings ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 208
6.1.2. Interactive rendering .................................................................................................................................................................................. 208
6.1.3. Autosave .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 214
6.1.4. VFB Settings ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 215
6.1.5. Render history and A/B comparison..................................................................................................................................................... 216
6.1.6. Tooltips and Material editor...................................................................................................................................................................... 216

6.2. FRAME BUFFER ............................................................................................................................................................................219

6.2.1. Render stamp .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 219
6.2.2. Filters ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 220

6.3. ABOUT CORONA RENDERER / LICENSING ........................................................................................................................ 229

6.4. DISTRIBUTED RENDERING ......................................................................................................................................................231
6.4.1. Slave (Port 19667) .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 234
6.4.2. Master (Port 19666)...................................................................................................................................................................................... 234
6.4.3. Settings .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 234
6.4.4. Image data ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 234
6.4.5. 3dsMax version .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 236
6.4.6. Log ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 236
6.4.7. The DR .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 237

7. CORONA - Render Elements TAB ............................................................ 241

7.1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................................ 241
7.2. CESSENTIAL.................................................................................................................................................................................. 242
7.3. CGeometry .................................................................................................................................................................................. 246
7.3.1. CGeometry_Normals..................................................................................................................................................................................... 246
7.3.2. CGeometry_UvwCoords .............................................................................................................................................................................. 250
7.3.3. CGeometry_Velocity .................................................................................................................................................................................... 254
7.3.4. CGeometry_WorldPosition ....................................................................................................................................................................... 256
7.3.5. CGeometry_ZDepth ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 259

SUMMARY - III
 7.4. CInfo ...............................................................................................................................................................................................262
7.4.1. CInfo_NetworkRenderDebugging ......................................................................................................................................................... 262
7.4.2. CInfo_RenderStamp ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 263
7.4.3. CInfo_SamplingFocus ................................................................................................................................................................................. 263

7.5. CMasking .....................................................................................................................................................................................264

7.5.1. CMasking_ID ......................................................................................................................................................................................................264
7.5.2. CMasking_Mask ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 266
7.5.3. CMasking_WireColor ................................................................................................................................................................................... 267

7.6. CShading .................................................................................................................................................................................... 268

7.6.1. CShading_Albedo .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 268
7.6.2. CShading_Alpha............................................................................................................................................................................................. 269
7.6.3. CShading_Beauty.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 269
7.6.4. CShading_BloomGlare ............................................................................................................................................................................... 269
7.6.5. CShading_Caustics....................................................................................................................................................................................... 270
7.6.6. CShading_Components .............................................................................................................................................................................. 270
7.6.7. CShading_RawComponent ........................................................................................................................................................................ 272
7.6.8. CShading_Shadows ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 273
7.6.9. CShading_SourceColor .............................................................................................................................................................................. 273
7.6.10. CTexmap ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 275
7.6.11. CShading_LightSelect ................................................................................................................................................................................ 276

8. CORONA - OBJECTS ........................................................................................ 279

8.1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................................... 279
8.2. CORONA LIGHT .......................................................................................................................................................................... 280
8.2.1. Theoretical basis of illumination .......................................................................................................................................................... 280
8.2.2. Parameters ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 297

8.3. CORONA SHADOWS ................................................................................................................................................................. 308

8.4. CORONA SUN .............................................................................................................................................................................. 309
8.5. CORONACAMERAMOD ............................................................................................................................................................. 318
8.5.1. Introduction....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 318
8.5.2. Stereoscopic view, 360° view, and VR................................................................................................................................................. 321

8.6. CORONA CAMERA ..................................................................................................................................................................... 330

8.6.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 330
8.6.2. Parameters ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 331

IV - Corona: THE COMPLETE GUIDE

 SUMMARY
8.7. CORONA FRACTAL...................................................................................................................................................................... 343
8.8. CORONA PROXY .........................................................................................................................................................................355
8.9. CORONA SCATTER ....................................................................................................................................................................360
8.10. CORONA VOLUME GRID......................................................................................................................................................... 379
8.10.1. Introduction .....................................................................................................................................................................................................379
8.10.2. Parameters ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 382

9. CORONA - MATERIALS................................................................................... 401

9.1. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................................................................401
9.2. CoronaMtl................................................................................................................................................................................... 402
9.2.1. Basic options.................................................................................................................................................................................................... 403
9.2.2. Diffuse ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 403
9.2.3. Translucency .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 407
9.2.4. Reflection ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 410
9.2.5. Refraction........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 418
9.2.6. Opacity ................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 426
9.2.7. Displacement ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 429
9.2.8. Absorption......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 430
9.2.9. Subsurface Scattering (SSS) ................................................................................................................................................................... 433
9.2.10. Mode: Volumetric scattering ................................................................................................................................................................ 434
9.2.11. Mode: SSS ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 450
9.2.12. Advanced options ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 455

9.3. CoronaLightMtl........................................................................................................................................................................ 469

9.4. CoronaLayeredMtl .................................................................................................................................................................. 477
9.5. CoronaPortalMtl ......................................................................................................................................................................481
9.6. CoronaRaySwitchMtl ........................................................................................................................................................... 484
9.7. CoronaShadowCatcherMtl ................................................................................................................................................ 488
9.7.1. Matte/Shadow .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 493
9.7.2. Reflection properties................................................................................................................................................................................... 496
9.7.3. Project backplate options ......................................................................................................................................................................... 499

9.8. CoronaVolumeMtl.................................................................................................................................................................. 501

9.8.1. Parameters ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 503
9.8.2. Tutorial - 1 ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 511
9.8.3. Tutorial - 2 ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................513
9.8.4. Tutorial - 3 ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................519

SUMMARY - V
 9.9. CoronaSkinMtl ........................................................................................................................................................................ 526
9.9.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 526
9.9.2. Parameters....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 528

9.10. CoronaHairMtl....................................................................................................................................................................... 535

9.10.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 535
9.10.2. Parameters...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 537

9.11. CoronaSelectMtl .................................................................................................................................................................. 549

10. CORONA - MAPS ............................................................................................ 551

10.1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................................... 551
10.2. CoronaBitmap ....................................................................................................................................................................... 552
10.2.1. Environment mode ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 552
10.2.2. Dome mode..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 555

10.3. CoronaColor ........................................................................................................................................................................... 560

10.3.1. Color input ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 560
10.3.2. Advanced ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 565
10.3.3. Result color preview ................................................................................................................................................................................. 566

10.4. CoronaSky ................................................................................................................................................................................ 567

10.4.1. Corona Sky Texmap .................................................................................................................................................................................... 568
10.4.2. Rawafake model parameters ................................................................................................................................................................ 570

10.5. CoronaWire ............................................................................................................................................................................. 572

10.6. CoronaRoundEdges ............................................................................................................................................................ 578
10.6.1. Additional bump mapping ...................................................................................................................................................................... 582
10.6.2. Effect includes/excludes ....................................................................................................................................................................... 583

10.7. CoronaNormal ....................................................................................................................................................................... 586

10.7.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 586
10.7.2. Parameters ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 589

10.8. CoronaFrontBack ................................................................................................................................................................ 593

10.9. CoronaRaySwitch................................................................................................................................................................ 595
10.10. CoronaColorCorrect ........................................................................................................................................................ 596
10.11. CoronaAO ................................................................................................................................................................................ 602
10.11.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 602
10.11.2. Parameters ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 604

VI - Corona: THE COMPLETE GUIDE

 SUMMARY
10.12. CoronaMultiMap .................................................................................................................................................................. 611
10.12.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 611
10.12.2. Parameters .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 612

10.13. CoronaMix.............................................................................................................................................................................. 619

10.13.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................................................619
10.13.2. Parameters ....................................................................................................................................................................................................619

10.14. CoronaDistance ..................................................................................................................................................................630

10.14.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 630
10.14.2. Parameters ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 635
10.14.3. Tutorial - Height.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 635
10.14.4. Tutorial - Gradient ......................................................................................................................................................................................637
10.14.5. Tutorial - Ocean .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 638
10.14.6. Tutorial - Scatter ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 639
10.14.7. Tutorial - Booleans .................................................................................................................................................................................... 643

10.15. CoronaTriplanar ................................................................................................................................................................. 646

10.15.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 646
10.15.2. Parameters ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 648

10.16. CoronaUvwRandomizer .................................................................................................................................................. 652

10.16.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 652
10.16.2. Parameters ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 653

10.17. CoronaBumpConverter ................................................................................................................................................... 662

10.17.1. Introduction................................................................................................................................................................................................... 662
10.17.2. Parameters .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 664

10.18. CoronaTonemapControl ............................................................................................................................................... 666

10.19. CoronaSelect .......................................................................................................................................................................668

11. CORONA - SCRIPTS...................................................................................... 669

11.1. Script - Corona Converter ................................................................................................................................................. 670
11.2. Script - Open matlib v1.0....................................................................................................................................................680
11.3. Script - Corona Official Toolbar.....................................................................................................................................683
11.4. Script - Corona Proxy Lister v1.0 ....................................................................................................................................685
11.5. Other scripts ...........................................................................................................................................................................686

SUMMARY - VII
VIII - Corona: THE COMPLETE GUIDE
 CHAPTER 1
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. GENERAL

1.1.1. Author information

Francesco Legrenzi was born in 1977 in a small Bergamo valley. After graduating as a construction engineer at the faculty
of Milan, he worked for three years as a structural engineer. Realizing his true passion, he gave up his long-time job,
devoting himself to the world of 3D graphics. In 2001 he was asked to participate in the management of a famous Italian
3D graphics forum, where he remained an active participant until 2010. In the meantime, in 2001 he became aware of a
small plug-in, V-Ray, developed by Chaos Group, a Bulgarian software house. In 2005, he began writing what became one
of the most referenced books for learning V-Ray: VRay - THE COMPLETE GUIDE. The success was unexpected: three
reprints and an English version were made. Since then, he has immersed himself in the world of 3D, especially for the 3ds
Max rendering engines. After years spent directing the Modeling & Lighting department in an architecture firm in Milan,
the author began working as a freelancer. In 2013, he discovered Corona Renderer (www.corona-renderer.com), a sofware
in Alpha 4 version. It was relatively unknown, but he decided to use it on a professional level. From that encounter a close
collaboration was born with Chaos Czech a.s., which lead to the creation of this book.

1.1.2. Acknowledgments
In 2008 I wrote VRay - THE COMPLETE GUIDE. It was my first book and many people offered their help. I would like
to thank the following people for giving me courage and inspiration to complete my second volume.

 The first thank you must go to Ondra Karlik, without whom no one would have had the pleasure of this program,
and I would not have had the honor of writing the world’s first guide for Corona Renderer.
 To my beloved parents, Tomaso and Megi. Without their financial and moral support, I would never have
completed this book. Their examples of life, their union, their consistency, intelligence, understanding, and
tenacity will always be my point of reference.
 To www.textures.com for its free textures and the ability to distribute them.
 To www.3dsky.org for the free models.
 To www.hdri-skies.com for the free HDRI maps and permission to distribute them.
 To Toni Bratincevic for his precious tutorial on Anti-Aliasing.
 To www.pixabay.com for their image archive.
 To www.omlc.org for the radiometric exercises.
 To www.coronamaterials.com for the free shaderball model.
 To DeadClown (Martin Geupel - www.racoon-artworks.de) for the Open matlib v1.0 script he wrote for the book.
 To www.hdrmaps.com and www.hdrshop.com for the free HDRI maps.
 To toolset.mrwebmaster.it for information regarding the conversion from Hex to RGB.

INTRODUCTION - 1
 CHAPTER 2
2. CORONA RENDERER
2.1. CORONA RENDERER’S HISTORY
By Ondra Karlík.

I have always been fascinated by CG. I started using 3ds Max at the age of 15, trying to create photorealistic images with
all my effort and passion ( Fig. 2.1). Initially, CG was a hobby, but I always felt it may become my future. I stopped being
a designer to create a program for the college of computer science, with the purpose of learning to code. The course was
demanding, so I temporarily abandoned the world of 3D.

 Fig. 2.1
Renders created by Ondra Karlik.

2.1.1. Ondra’s College Years

In 2009, with my graduation coming, I had to choose the topic for my thesis. I had an agreement with a faculty teacher to
create a web timetable for the university, but I decided to do something different: a friend advised me to write a rendering
program. At first, I thought it would be too complicated, but then I convinced myself and started to plan what would later
become Corona Renderer. The first version was basic, did not support Global Illumination and had no connection with
other 3D applications. In fact, the target of the thesis was not creating a commercial rendering engine, but comparing
rendering algorithms ( Fig. 2.2).

 Fig. 2.2
Images made with an embryonic phase of Corona Renderer. From left to right: the first render saved by Corona Renderer, the first render with multiple objects, and the
first shader with “electronic microscope” effect.

CORONA RENDERER - 9
 CHAPTER 3
3. CORONA - Scene TAB
3.1. GENERAL SETTINGS
In this section we discuss the control panel of Corona called Scene, but first we should clarify how Corona “thinks”.

The strength of this extraordinary software lies in its simplicity. The engine under its hood is called Progressive Path
Tracing (PT). In 2013, V-Ray or Mental Ray users will remember wasting time looking for the best settings to achieve an
optimal render without artifacts. Often, due to lack of time or poor knowledge of the software, it was common to use
parameters found online or in tutorials (often incorrect). Other times we proceeded “by groping”, in the hope of having
guessed the correct parameters, or we used very high values sure of an excellent result at the expense of rendering times.
Thus, in the V-Ray Virtual Frame Buffer, a preview began to appear due to the biased system of the software; then, small
rectangles called buckets appeared ( Fig. 3.1). Piece by piece, the final image took shape and the software gave us a rough
time estimate, but the actual total rendering time could vary, depending on the complexity of the image.

 Fig. 3.1
Example of how various
rendering engines calculated
images. Unless using the new
progressive rendering
systems, the classic rendering
engines (Scanline,
Mental Ray, V-Ray,
Final Render, etc.) did not
allow us to view the overall
image, but they proceeded
with horizontal lines or square
buckets. Moreover, it was
often necessary to modify
many parameters (of
rendering, materials, and
lights) to quickly obtain a
quality render.

Since the first Alpha versions (back in 2012), Corona adopted a completely different approach, which was then copied by
many other rendering engines. The user no longer had to set up dozens of parameters or waste time with hundreds of
rendering tests. The main parameters were optimized to achieve the highest quality in the shortest time. From the first few
seconds we had a precise idea of the final result, and it was the user who decided how long Corona had to calculate the
render ( Fig. 3.2). Naturally, the longer the time, the greater the quality (cleanliness) of the image. With the accurate
estimate provided by Corona, it was very easy to determine how long an image had to “cook” to be perfect. We no longer
had to feel frustrated looking for the best values. We no longer had artifacts, splotches, or “flying” objects without
shadows, as Corona automatically solved these problems for us. Reading this book, we will realize how amazing it is to
work with Corona.
Under the influence of Corona, many other software houses introduced a similar calculation system in their rendering
engines. Corona was born as a progressive rendering engine with simplicity as its winning card, and it is one of the most
efficient CPU rendering systems on the market.

CORONA: Scene TAB - 23

 CHAPTER 4
4. CORONA - Camera TAB
This TAB contains three rollouts: Postprocessing (Sect. 4.1), Bloom and Glare (Sect. 4.2), and Camera (Sect. 4.3). Also,
the Camera rollout allows us to manage Depth of field (DOF) (Sect. 4.3.1) and Motion blur (Sect. 4.3.2).

 Fig. 4.1
The three rollouts of Camera
TAB: Postprocessing,
Bloom and Glare, and
Camera.

4.1. POSTPROCESSING
This rollout is divided into four sections: Tone mapping, Basic photographic settings, LUT, and Sharpening/Blurring. By
modifying the values in the Corona VFB, those of the Postprocessing rollout are automatically updated, giving us the same
values in two different positions of the interface ( Fig. 4.2). The Basic photographic settings parameters are more
complex and are not reflected in the VFB.

 Fig. 4.2
The Postprocessing rollout
with four groups:
Tone mapping, Basic
photographic settings, LUT,
and Sharpening/Blurring.

CORONA: Camera TAB - 91

 CHAPTER 5
5. CORONA - Performance TAB
Although Corona is a young rendering engine, a large number of professionals already adopted it as the main tool for their
projects. The perfect balance of its parameters allows us to obtain excellent results, even for the less experienced users. The
default values are optimized to achieve the right balance between quality and performance. However, in some cases the
user might need to change the default settings. In this section we will discuss Corona advanced parameters ( Fig. 5.1):

 Global Illumination (GI);

 Anti-Aliasing (AA) and noise;
 Displacement;
 Interactive Rendering (IR);
 Caustics;
 4K/UHD Cache (4K/UHD);
 Corona Core (developmental and experimental parameters).

 Fig. 5.1
The eight Performance TAB rollouts.

5.1. GLOBAL ILLUMINATION

Global Illumination (GI) is a useful tool to generate photorealistic images. In the following pages we will learn how to
improve lighting quality with the use of GI.

The scene in  Fig. 5.2 consists of a room illuminated by the Corona Sun+Corona Sky system. The first two renders are
very different from each other due to the use of Global Illumination. When the GI processing is disabled, Corona only
calculates direct light (i.e. only objects directly exposed to light are illuminated). When GI is enabled, it calculates both
direct and indirect light, and the room will be illuminated in a photorealistic way.

CORONA: Performance TAB - 111

 CHAPTER 6
6. CORONA - System TAB
In the previous three chapters, the more complex parameters of Corona were analyzed, explaining how the software
“thinks”. In the System TAB ( Fig. 6.1), service parameters are found. Except for the Image filter group tools, all other
parameters do not affect the render quality, but take action in the Corona management.

 Fig. 6.1
The three System TAB
rollouts: Frame Buffer,
About Corona
Renderer/Licensing, and
Distributed Rendering.

6.1. CORONA SYSTEM SETTINGS

The System Settings button in the upper left opens a window containing useful tools to control the rendering process. They
are slightly hidden, as they rarely need to be changed during normal use of Corona ( Fig. 6.2).

 Fig. 6.2
The
Corona System Settings
window is divided into eight
sections.

CORONA: System TAB - 207

 CHAPTER 7
7. CORONA - Render Elements TAB
7.1. INTRODUCTION
A render consists of colors, shadows, reflections, refractions, and volumetric effects. With the Render Elements module
(RE) we will be able to divide a render into “layers” representing parts or proprieties of the final image ( Fig. 7.1). Then,
with programs dedicated to post-production, these layers can be used for various purposes, such as reconstructing the final
render, creating masks, and generating technical renders.

 Fig. 7.1
Example of render
reconstructed by combining
several layers.
Some REs extract additional
information from the 3D
scene, such as the
Depth map (Sect. 7.3.5),
Ambient Occlusion
(Sect. 7.6.10), or the
CGeometry_Velocity RE
used for the post-production
calculation of Motion blur
(Sect. 7.3.3).

The purpose of separating a render into individual elements is to modify its properties once the render is completed. For
example, if the reflections are not very visible, we will not have to recalculate the entire render, but it will be enough to
modify the reflections layer, thus saving a lot of time.
The Render Elements window is located on the Render Elements TAB. When Corona is set as the rendering engine, the
3ds Max REs disappear and the Corona REs will be displayed. 32 REs are available ( Fig. 7.2), each with unique features
capable of isolating a specific property of the image.

 Fig. 7.2
After clicking the Add... button
(1), a new window will appear
to choose the REs we need
(2). In this example, the
seven REs of the
CESSENTIAL category were
enabled.

Once the main render save

folder is determined (F10 →
Common TAB Parameters
→ Render Output), Corona
will correctly rename each RE
save path.

CORONA: Render Elements TAB - 241

 CHAPTER 8
8. CORONA - OBJECTS
8.1. INTRODUCTION
With Corona installed, new 3ds Max tools are available to create and control multiple aspects of a 3D scene. In this chapter
we will describe the following objects:

 Corona Light: Corona proprietary light. Corona Light is a better alternative than 3ds Max Standard lights. Also,
Corona Light includes some tools not available in 3ds Max lights (Sect. 8.2).

 Corona Shadow: designed exclusively for use with the 3ds Max Standard lights (Sect. 8.3).

 Corona Sun: together with the Corona Sky map, this light source simulates the sun and controls the look of the
sky (Sect. 8.4).

 CoronaCameraMod: modifier to add physical parameters (ISO, F-stop, etc.) to the Standard camera (Sect. 8.5).

 Corona Camera: camera specifically designed and optimized for Corona (Sect. 8.6).

 Corona Fractal: parametric object capable of generating 3D fractals (Sect. 8.7).

 Corona Proxy: replaces a heavy geometry with a lighter version. For example, we will be able to process a forest
made up of millions of polygons without overloading the RAM (Sect. 8.8).

 Corona Scatter: tool to distribute millions of objects on a surface (Sect. 8.9).

 Corona Volume Grid: tool to import .vdb files (OpenVDB) (Sect. 8.10).

CORONA: OBJECTS - 279

 CHAPTER 9
9. CORONA - MATERIALS
9.1. INTRODUCTION
A material is able to assign physical properties to objects, such as color, transparency, refraction, opacity, or translucency.
In addition, there are also special materials to be used for specific situations. For example, CoronaVolumeMtl can generate
fog or clouds (Sect. 9.8), and CoronaLightMtl can turn a mesh into a light source (Sect. 9.3). However, CoronaMtl will be
the most used shader, as it can reproduce a wide variety of materials: plastics, glass, liquids, etc. This chapter will analyze
all nine Corona materials available at the time of writing this book ( Fig. 9.1).

 Fig. 9.1
The nine Corona proprietary
materials. In the preview we
see CoronaHairMtl, the
shader dedicated to hair
simulation.

Corona also allows us to use 3ds Max materials. Some shaders are 100% compatible (e.g. Blend, Double Sided,
Multi/Sub-Object, Shell Material, Standard, Top/Bottom, XRef Material), while others are not supported. When a
material is not compatible, the following image appears in the Material Editor ( Fig. 9.2).

 Fig. 9.2
When Corona does not
support the material, the
object will be rendered in
bright red with the text
“Unsupported mtl”.
In this example, 3ds Max
Arch & Design material was
selected.
Note: the Corona Error
Message(s) window warns us
of problems with the
Arch & Design material.

Except for the Blend and Multi/Sub-Object shaders, different materials from those offered by Corona will rarely be
needed.

CORONA: MATERIALS - 401

 CHAPTER 10
10. CORONA - MAPS
10.1. INTRODUCTION
With the Corona materials we can assign properties such as color, reflection, refraction, and self-illumination to objects,
while with maps more details can be added to these properties.
In the following test, a CoronaMtl will be used to create the Corona logo by loading a CoronaBitmap in the Diffuse
channel and a black and white image in the Opacity channel ( Fig. 10.1).
(Ch10_01_Maps.max)

 Fig. 10.1
CoronaBitmap loaded in the Diffuse and Opacity channels. Now the logo has four rounded corners thanks to the opacity map.

Corona provides twenty new maps ( Fig. 10.2), which will allow us to assign colors, mix maps, simulate the sky, and
much more.

 Fig. 10.2
The twenty maps of Corona.
The CoronaData map will not
be analyzed, as it is only
useful for debugging and in
other rare situations.
CoronaUserProperty will
also be omitted as well, as it
is useful only for PRO users
who need to create scripts.

For a more in-depth explanation of the 3ds Max maps and how to use them in the Material Editor, it’s advised to look at
the countless tutorials on the web.

CORONA: MAPS - 551

 CHAPTER 11
11. CORONA - SCRIPTS
A scripting language is a method to easily access the internal functions of a software. MAXScript is a programming
language to manage and execute particular tasks in 3ds Max. Unlike plug-ins (files usually written in C ++), scripts are a
list of instructions read and run step-by-step by 3ds Max. For example, a script can be represented by the following lines of
code:

 Instruction 0: if at least one object is selected, go ahead.

 Instruction 1: choose the material of the currently selected object.

 Instruction 2: ask the user if they want to view this material in wireframe.

 Instruction 3: then enable the wireframe option of the selected material if the user answers yes.

Imagine this list written in a .txt file. Thanks to the 3ds Max scripting engine, it will be possible to select an object in the
scene and “ask” the software: “Open the list of instructions and run the code”. This example is very simple, but we can
understand how easy it is to handle 3ds Max. In 3ds Max there is a program called MAXScript Editor (similar to Windows
Notepad) for creating and reading scripts ( Fig. 11.1).

 Fig. 11.1
To create a script, click
MAXScript → MAXScript
Editor... .
A new window will open for
creating our first script.
The image shows the
coronaConverter_v1.45.ms
script. Once executed, it will
allow us to convert a 3ds Max
file created with V-Ray into a
Corona native file. This script
is made of 4,620 lines.

The MAXScript Listener tool is another way to execute a script (i.e. an interface to run commands “on-the-fly” without
saving the script in a file). For example, let’s try to open the Listener window (MAXScript → MAXScript Listener...) and
type the following command:

messagebox (“HELLO” + sysInfo.username + “!”) as string

Go to the end of the line and press ENTER ( Fig. 11.2).

 Fig. 11.2
A very simple script.

CORONA: SCRIPTS - 669