New User questions about Cameras, Lights, Materials

[Streetwise]

Hello,

As a fairly new 3ds user and a brand new user of V-Ray, I have some basic questions:

1) When using a V-Ray camera, must you only use V-Ray Lights and Materials? I've noticed that standard lights don't seem to work unless I'm doing something wrong. I've got "default lights" turned "on" in the render setup but get nothing when I use a Target Spot (even though I can see it's effects in Active Shade). No biggie, just curious.

2) I see that is is possible to to use other materials (such as Standard or Arch & Design) with a V-Ray camera, but I'm noticing that I don't *seem* to have much control over them. Is that the case or a reason not to use those materials with VR camera, Lights? For instance, I have a generic glossy black Arch material applied to an object but when it renders, it renders as a medium gray value no matter what I do with the lights or material. Again, I'm just curious as to what I should be using for materials.

3) Lastly, I see that there's an "exposure" on the VR camera. I guessing that with that set to "off", it's like having the camera on Auto exposure? That might explain my issue in #2 above as the black object is on a white background. Perhaps the camera is trying to compensate? Either way, do most of you use "Auto" or "Exposure" and fiddle with the shutter speed/ISO values? And if you fiddle with ISO values, does it introduce more "dirt" the higher you go like conventional photography?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Dave Anderson

[Morne]

1) no, but you'll get better results if you stick to "all vray"

2) standard materials should give basic goog results. Again, try and stick to "all vray". You can convert your scene to vray by right-clicking in empty space in any viewport and "VRay scene converter". The converter however won't give best results, but hey it's a start. Learn to make VRay materials. There are some places where you can get some good materials. Just do a google search

3) No, setting exposure to "off" makes the camera behave like standard max camera. This could explain your problems in point1. Fiddling with iso and shutter behaves pretty much like a real life camera with the exception of the "dirt" you mentioned. "Dirt" in this case depends on your render settings. For best results when using exposure, you should use good materials and realistic light values

Hope that helps a bit

[Streetwise]

Thanks for your response, Morne. I certainly will make the effort to "stick to all V-Ray". I definately LOVE the still camera. Much like what I use in my commercial photography business -- espcially the Vert/Horiz camera shifts for product photography.

Anyhow, by "dirt", I guess I meant "grain" or "noise" like what you get with traditional cameras. So it sounds like adjusting iso on a V-Ray cam does not degrade the image in that way?

I'm learning to work with existing wireframes of Furniture (from IGS, STP, MAX files etc), but need to create the proper woodgrain materials using existing woodgrain scans by the manufacturer. The trick for me will be creating them properly as a VRayMtl and correctly applying them as a UVW Map modifier. I'm gaining ground on it as there are some nice tutorials, but I haven't seen anything on a tutorial for creating V-Ray Materials.

Thanks again!

Dave

[Morne]

head on over to http://www.vray-materials.de/
LOTS of examples (some not so good), but that will probably be a good place to start.

Also cheack out:
http://www.siger.lt
he has some commercial shaders you can buy, but also a free script you can download with a few everyday mats.

[Streetwise]

Thanks for the tip. Looks like lots of nice stuff there. I'm a bit confused as to the difference between a material and a shader though

Is a shader akin to "putting on the lipstick" to an otherwise "stock" render? In other words, while not mandatory for a typical render, using high quality shaders will set it apart from the rest?

Dave

[Morne]

material and shader is the same thing. You get different types for example, VRay, Architecture, MentalRay etc. Some people have custom shaders they programmed. For example you get a custom VRay shader that is in essence a VRay material, but some1 has programmed it to behave in a certain way. SO the interface for these materials maight look different.

Also check out vismasters