1.1. Open the starting scene, which can be found
here.
1.2. Assign VRay as the current renderer.
1.3. You can open the Material Editor (M) to assure the materials
are properly set and assigned.
1.4. Before we do our first rendering, we will turn
on the Frame Stamp (System Rollout) so
that we can have the render times shown.
1.5. Render:
That is what we get with all default VRay Settings. To make the lighting
a little more interesting, we will add global illumination and area shadows
to the rendering.
1.6. Go to
Image sampler rollout and set the
Image sampler type to
Adaptive QMC.
1.7. In the
Indirect illumination rollout, turn
GI on and set both
the Primary and
Secondary GI engines to Quasi-Monte Carlo.
1.8. In the
Environment rollout, turn
Override MAX's (Skylight)
on and set Color
(255, 255, 255) and
Multiplier to 0.8.
This will give us some environment color to act as a skylight.
1.9. Render:
Notice how the render time has increased, due to all
the changes we made on the render setup.
1.10. Turn on the Area
Shadow of the omni light.
1.11. Render:
Now we have the area shadow.
The image looks good, but grainy. To reduce the noise, we will adjust the
QMC sampler parameters.
1.12. In the
rQMC Sampler rollout, set the
Noise threshold to 0.001.
1.13. Set the Global subdivs multiplier to
10.0.
1.14. Render:
Notice how the render time has increased, but the
quality is much better. Now our scene is ready for baking.
Preparing Objects for Baking the
Textures
2.1. Before all, we will turn Off the
Frame Stamp (System Rollout), otherwise we
will get it on our baked textures as well, which we do not
want.
2.2. Now open the Render to Texture (0) Window from the Rendering
Menu.
2.3. Choose your Output folder, where the
new baked textures will be saved.
2.4. Select both objects from the scene (the Space ship and the Ground).
2.5. In the Mapping Coordinates Section - select
Use Automatic Unwrap.
See how both objects were automatically added in the table of Objects
to Bake.
2.6. In the Output rollout - choose 512
for the Size, turn on Enable (if not), and
give the map a name in the name-field.
This actually will be the suffix-name of your newly baked texture files,
prefixed by the name of its object in the scene.
For example: in our case the baked map of our Ground object will
have the name: GroundCompleteMap.tga
2.7. In the Baked Material rollout - choose
Save Source (Create Shell).
2.8. Select the Create New Baked option and
choose (Standard: Blinn) from the pop-up menu.
2.9. Select Keep Source Materials.
2.10. Now go back to the Output rollout - choose
Self-Illumination in the Target Map Slot.
See how this is automatically added in the table as well.
Leave all the other settings by Default.
Now our objects are ready for baking (rendering).
Baking the Textures (Rendering)
3.1. Hit Render Button on bottom of the Render to Texture
Window.
3.2. You can see that the baking process proceeds in a row
object by object, as they were set in the table.
First is being rendered (baked) the Ground object followed by the Space
ship.
Loading the new Baked materials and Viewport preview
4.1. Open the Material Editor (M) and choose an empty one.
4.2. Click on the Get Material icon to open the Material/Map
Browser.
4.3. Select Browse From: Scene
4.4. You will notice that there are 2 new materials. They are Shell
Materials and contain both the original VRay material and the new
Baked Material in them.
That is because we wanted so: see steps 2.7, 2.8, 2.9
4.5. Drag the new materials in the Material Editor as shown.
4.6. In the new Shell Material Paramaters, choose the Baked
Material for Viewport, and Original
Material for Render.
This simply means that:
- if we do a new fresh render (F9) - the object will use their
Original material (VRayMtl).
- in all the viewports - the objects will use their Baked
Material (Standard).
4.7. Select the new Ground Shell Material - ground_material[Ground].
4.8. Turn on
Self-Illumination and select a pure white
Color (255, 255, 255). See that
there we already have the Baked Map attached.
That is because we choosed exactly this Target Slot
(see step 2.10)
4.9. Go to the Self-Illumination Map, and turn
on the Show Map in Viewport icon.
4.10. In the Viewport, you should be able to see the ground plane with
its already baked map.
Note: if you forget to turn on the
Show Map in Viewport icon, the viewport would look
just like this:
At this point, the Space ship is still being shown as totally
black because we still haven't adjusted its material.
4.11. Repeat steps from 4.7 to 4.9. for the new Space ship material -
ship_material [Space_Ship].
Now the viewport should look like something like this (notice how the
Edged Faces (F4) can be also shown along with the baked maps).
 |
 |
|
Shade + Edged Faces On
|
Shade + Edged Faces Off
|
4.12. Here are some additional views of the scene from different
positions:
Rendering the scene with the baked materials
5.1. Open the Material Editor (M).
5.2. Choose the Baked Material in the
Render option for both our Shell Materials.
5.3. Select the omni light and switch it off.
Actually we can even delete that light from the scene and it will
still render fine - we have all the lighting baked into the textures
already.
5.4. In the VRay settings, turn GI
off, Environment
(Skylight) off,
Default Lights off.
5.5. Render:
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