3ds Max Lighting and Rendering - Simplifying Environment Creation

[#1]

This tutorial introduces you to a free script designed to help you set your scene environment. It simplifies creating Daylight Systems, setting backgrounds and adjusting exposure values among others, all from a simplified and unified UI.

Notes

• Recorded in: 3ds Max 2015
• This tutorial is intended for use with 3ds Max version 2015 or higher.

Transcript

Hello everyone, this is Amer Yassine from Autodesk. Today we're revisiting an old friend: 3ds Max's Daylight System.

This may seem odd as the Daylight System is featured in almost every tutorial on this channel.

The purpose of revisiting it is to introduce you to a new free script called Environment Helper.

Currently, this script is exclusive to this channel and was designed by yours truly, and written by my friend and colleague Martin Ashton.

The script greatly simplifies working with the Daylight System and Environment dialog.

Before getting into what the script has to offer, let's revisit the Daylight System and its pros and cons.

For that, we'll use this scene named temple.max; it features a simple terrain, a body of water and a Roman temple.

The Rendering Engine is set to mental ray. In fact, the Environment Helper script was written specifically with mental ray in mind.

When you add a Daylight System to a scene, using the old fashioned way, you usually call it up from the Systems panel.

It's useful in that it simultaneously creates two light sources, one simulating the Sun and another simulating the Sky or atmosphere.

The sunlight is used for direct illumination while the skylight is used for indirect or global illumination.

The creation process is simple enough, albeit requires a fair amount of clicks and drags, in addition to answering prompts.

You start with a click and drag to define a rose compass, and then an additional drag and then a click to define the sun height.

Here's where it gets a bit more complicated:

To define the time of day, 

edit the North Direction or readjust Orbital Scale (or sun height), 

you use the Motion Panel.

However, to edit other light parameters, you need to go to the Modify panel.

For example, this is where you define the Sun and Sky systems to use mental ray characteristics.

This also leads to another prompt that encourages you to use exposure control. That's an additional click you often wish was automated.

Speaking of Exposure control, you need to go to yet another area of the interface to adjust it, in this case to lighten up the render.

So in addition to dabbling with the Motion and Modify panels, you now have to also open the Environment Dialog, 8 on the keyboard.

Here you can adjust Exposure Values to suit the render at any given time of day.

Moreover, if you need to edit the background, in this case the mr Physical Sky parameters, you need to drag this map into the Material Editor.

This is where you could potentially use an image, 

usually a 360-degree panorama as a custom background, 

or as part of the Haze channel.

If you do so, then you need to edit the bitmap's coordinates, so that it wraps properly in a spherical environment

When you use an 8-bit image as part of the Haze channel, you usually need to boost its output to make it visible at render time.

That's quite a bit of work, even when you know the process.

What's more, between the two command panels, the environment dialog and the Slate Material Editor, that's four UI's that you need to juggle.

Often a change in one place requires a change in another.

Certainly, a change in time of day in the Motion Panel, 

would require a change in Exposure Value in the Environment dialog.

That's usually not enough. This here is not exactly a true representation of what 10pm should look like.

It should be quite a bit darker.

Let's try something: since it's 10 at night, add a couple of photometric lights, based on the street light template.

To save time, you can also merge seven photometric lights from the lights.max file.

The new lights certainly affect the scene; yet the scene remains overly bright for a 10pm render.

Exposure value should remain relatively low for the photometric lights to have any reasonable effect.

So the overall brightness of the terrain and the background sky has to be managed elsewhere.

This means you need to select the daylight system again and go back to the Modify panel; yet again.

There, you can reduce the mr Sun & mr Sky Multiplier value. Try a Sky Multiplier value of 0.2

This affects global illumination; you can see how the terrain gets darker as you move further away from the scene lights.

The background though, is still too bright.

This needs to be addressed in the Material Editor, by adjusting the background's multiplier value.

You can adjust tint and saturation values as well.

So, as you get to know which values to change and where to change them, you can adjust the scene to your liking.

The problem is that regardless of your level of expertise, you still have to hunt for these values in different areas of the interface.

This is where the new script helps you; it makes that process far easier.

Reset 3ds Max without saving your file and then simply reopen the scene.

To run the Environment Helper script, you can use the Run Script method, 

or simply drag & drop the script from Windows Explorer.

If the scene has a Daylight System, the script will pick it up.

If it doesn't, then the creation process is literally just a mouse click away.

Changing values such as time of day, 

North direction,

 or sun height (orbital scale) is done from the same User Interface.

Adding a background image is quite a bit easier as it doesn't require a visit to the Material Editor anymore.

The image preview also lets you define the horizon line, which works on setting up the bitmap coordinates properly

A background image can be used as Haze or simply on its own.

The nice thing about this tool is that all values that you typically edit manually are now coded to react to the time of day.

They are grayed out by default but do change after dark.

So all of a sudden, it becomes much easier to render a scene at night simply by changing the time of day.

All other values react properly.

Of course, for a night scene, you'd need artificial lighting, so merge the photometric lights like you did earlier.

You can still override the individual values without hunting for them in command panels and dialog boxes.

For example, you can boost the Sky multiplier to get a hint of a midnight sky background.

To let the tool handle the parameters based on the time of day, simply enable the Sync to Time option.

Try other renders to see the effect.

There is also another camera shot you can try

There is also a section where you can render a thumbnail of the scene, which is faster than a full render.

The World Horizon Offset controls the position of the mental ray Physical Sky horizon line. Nudge it up or down to suit your scene.

As previously stated, this tool doesn't reinvent the wheel; it just makes sure that all values that are related actually work together.

It's just a convenient way to control all aspects of the Daylight System and Environment parameters, 

from one simple and unified user interface.

The Time of Day is also animatable, so you can render an animated scene at various moments.

Here are examples of the scene rendered around midnight, where everything is still quite dark,

at daybreak, around 4:30~5am where a hint of a golden morning starts to appear and the artificial lights' intensity begins to fade,

Here is early morning around 7am, when it's brighter but with the sun still low, as shown by the long shadows,

the background also still shows the slightest hint of orange as morning stretches out.

At midday, the scene is brighter and the sun is up. The background is also quite a bit bluer than it was before.

Later in the afternoon, and as the sun begins to set, the general lighting goes back to warm with a slight red tint affecting the scene and the background.

This is even more pronounced at dusk, as the artificial lights start to get more intense.

At 9pm, it is dark again, with the background barely showing a dark blue tint,

before getting pitch black again around midnight.

Keep in mind that the script is given to you as is, as an example of automation.

You can edit it to make it work in a way that you're happy with.

For example, paramaters that are linked to the time of day such as exposure, Sun & Sky multipliers, Tint values and others,
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3ds Max Lighting and Rendering - Simplifying Environment Creation
 

 
 
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Hello everyone, this is Amer Yassine from Autodesk. Today we're revisiting an old friend: 3ds Max's Daylight System.

This may seem odd as the Daylight System is featured in almost every tutorial on this channel.

The purpose of revisiting it is to introduce you to a new free script called Environment Helper.

Currently, this script is exclusive to this channel and was designed by yours truly, and written by my friend and colleague Martin Ashton.

The script greatly simplifies working with the Daylight System and Environment dialog.

Before getting into what the script has to offer, let's revisit the Daylight System and its pros and cons.

For that, we'll use this scene named temple.max; it features a simple terrain, a body of water and a Roman temple.

The Rendering Engine is set to mental ray. In fact, the Environment Helper script was written specifically with mental ray in mind.

When you add a Daylight System to a scene, using the old fashioned way, you usually call it up from the Systems panel.

It's useful in that it simultaneously creates two light sources, one simulating the Sun and another simulating the Sky or atmosphere.

The sunlight is used for direct illumination while the skylight is used for indirect or global illumination.

The creation process is simple enough, albeit requires a fair amount of clicks and drags, in addition to answering prompts.

You start with a click and drag to define a rose compass, and then an additional drag and then a click to define the sun height.

Here's where it gets a bit more complicated:

To define the time of day, 

edit the North Direction or readjust Orbital Scale (or sun height), 

you use the Motion Panel.

However, to edit other light parameters, you need to go to the Modify panel.

For example, this is where you define the Sun and Sky systems to use mental ray characteristics.

This also leads to another prompt that encourages you to use exposure control. That's an additional click you often wish was automated.

Speaking of Exposure control, you need to go to yet another area of the interface to adjust it, in this case to lighten up the render.

So in addition to dabbling with the Motion and Modify panels, you now have to also open the Environment Dialog, 8 on the keyboard.

Here you can adjust Exposure Values to suit the render at any given time of day.

Moreover, if you need to edit the background, in this case the mr Physical Sky parameters, you need to drag this map into the Material Editor.

This is where you could potentially use an image, 

usually a 360-degree panorama as a custom background, 

or as part of the Haze channel.

If you do so, then you need to edit the bitmap's coordinates, so that it wraps properly in a spherical environment

When you use an 8-bit image as part of the Haze channel, you usually need to boost its output to make it visible at render time.

That's quite a bit of work, even when you know the process.

What's more, between the two command panels, the environment dialog and the Slate Material Editor, that's four UI's that you need to juggle.

Often a change in one place requires a change in another.

Certainly, a change in time of day in the Motion Panel, 

would require a change in Exposure Value in the Environment dialog.

That's usually not enough. This here is not exactly a true representation of what 10pm should look like.

It should be quite a bit darker.

Let's try something: since it's 10 at night, add a couple of photometric lights, based on the street light template.

To save time, you can also merge seven photometric lights from the lights.max file.

The new lights certainly affect the scene; yet the scene remains overly bright for a 10pm render.

Exposure value should remain relatively low for the photometric lights to have any reasonable effect.

So the overall brightness of the terrain and the background sky has to be managed elsewhere.

This means you need to select the daylight system again and go back to the Modify panel; yet again.

There, you can reduce the mr Sun & mr Sky Multiplier value. Try a Sky Multiplier value of 0.2

This affects global illumination; you can see how the terrain gets darker as you move further away from the scene lights.

The background though, is still too bright.

This needs to be addressed in the Material Editor, by adjusting the background's multiplier value.

You can adjust tint and saturation values as well.

So, as you get to know which values to change and where to change them, you can adjust the scene to your liking.

The problem is that regardless of your level of expertise, you still have to hunt for these values in different areas of the interface.

This is where the new script helps you; it makes that process far easier.

Reset 3ds Max without saving your file and then simply reopen the scene.

To run the Environment Helper script, you can use the Run Script method, 

or simply drag & drop the script from Windows Explorer.

If the scene has a Daylight System, the script will pick it up.

If it doesn't, then the creation process is literally just a mouse click away.

Changing values such as time of day, 

North direction,

 or sun height (orbital scale) is done from the same User Interface.

Adding a background image is quite a bit easier as it doesn't require a visit to the Material Editor anymore.

The image preview also lets you define the horizon line, which works on setting up the bitmap coordinates properly

A background image can be used as Haze or simply on its own.

The nice thing about this tool is that all values that you typically edit manually are now coded to react to the time of day.

They are grayed out by default but do change after dark.

So all of a sudden, it becomes much easier to render a scene at night simply by changing the time of day.

All other values react properly.

Of course, for a night scene, you'd need artificial lighting, so merge the photometric lights like you did earlier.

You can still override the individual values without hunting for them in command panels and dialog boxes.

For example, you can boost the Sky multiplier to get a hint of a midnight sky background.

To let the tool handle the parameters based on the time of day, simply enable the Sync to Time option.

Try other renders to see the effect.

There is also another camera shot you can try

There is also a section where you can render a thumbnail of the scene, which is faster than a full render.

The World Horizon Offset controls the position of the mental ray Physical Sky horizon line. Nudge it up or down to suit your scene.

As previously stated, this tool doesn't reinvent the wheel; it just makes sure that all values that are related actually work together.

It's just a convenient way to control all aspects of the Daylight System and Environment parameters, 

from one simple and unified user interface.

The Time of Day is also animatable, so you can render an animated scene at various moments.

Here are examples of the scene rendered around midnight, where everything is still quite dark,

at daybreak, around 4:30~5am where a hint of a golden morning starts to appear and the artificial lights' intensity begins to fade,

Here is early morning around 7am, when it's brighter but with the sun still low, as shown by the long shadows,

the background also still shows the slightest hint of orange as morning stretches out.

At midday, the scene is brighter and the sun is up. The background is also quite a bit bluer than it was before.

Later in the afternoon, and as the sun begins to set, the general lighting goes back to warm with a slight red tint affecting the scene and the background.

This is even more pronounced at dusk, as the artificial lights start to get more intense.

At 9pm, it is dark again, with the background barely showing a dark blue tint,

before getting pitch black again around midnight.

Keep in mind that the script is given to you as is, as an example of automation.

You can edit it to make it work in a way that you're happy with.

For example, paramaters that are linked to the time of day such as exposure, Sun & Sky multipliers, Tint values and others,

can be edited simply by changing their defaults directly in the script.

If you do, you will need to reset the default script values in order to use the new ones.

This may force you to reset your background image but as you saw earlier, it's an easy process to redefine it.

Go ahead and give this script a test drive and let us know if you like it.