The following article is a “guest post” written by Jamie Cardoso, a very talented 3d artist and blogger. In this particular article he talks about all the steps he takes when doing a project, starting from gathering materials to post production.

Hi All,

This is a project that I have finished recently for TP Bennett Architects.

The main brief was to try making the 3D renders look realistic and appealing.

The client had a vague idea of what they really wanted. However, they had already decided on the materials and finishes for their interior.

Pre-Production phase:

My first task was to quickly source for real photo references of similar spaces/designs that the client had produced in the past; in addition to new photos sourced from Flickr, etc.

In finishing that, I had put together a mood board to show them my vision of the art direction.

This first submission subsequently led to few more hours of discussion with the client about their ideas, art direction, etc.

At the end we both came to a final decision about the final art direction (i.e. final collage of the art work).

Production:  

Having signed off the crucial Pre-Production process, I have begun creating, I have begun creating shaders and applying the textures, based on the photo references originally supplied by the client and sourced by me.

The next phase was to begin adding the artificial lights. Each light created was test rendered against a white non-reflective override material. This technique was to prevent the scene from quickly becoming "scorched" with too many lights.

I had also ensured that there was a clear definition between bright & dark areas in the scene, in order to create DEPTH.

Once satisfied, I had disabled the override material to see the results.

Once the override material was disabled, the test renders begun taking slightly longer to render. However, there were fewer test renders to be carried out at that point.

I did the final tweaks and sent some big size region renders before sending the final big renders. This technique is to closely monitor any possible artifacts, prior to submitting the final renders.  

I had also saved few render elements for the post production: Object ID; Depth of field (DOF), etc.

Post Production:

I have adjusted the colors and the contrast of the renders using the "Curves" layer adjustment to closely match the Renders with the photo reference originally supplied.

Effects such as grain, vignetting, etc. were also used.

While I could easily apply these effects directly from Max, it is more advisable to do it in post, because certain effects are under more scrutiny by the client. And it becomes more efficient to add or omit such effects in post…as opposed to re-rendering the scene.

The above described workflow allowed me to finish the project in time and within the budget…with little or no stress. 

I hope you like the final result!

It was produced with Max and VRay. However, I also have the same version in mental ray.

This workflow allowed me to use a variety of different rendering engines and platforms without compromising the quality of the final results.

For more in-depth detail about this workflow, please visit:

http://jamiecardoso-mentalray.blogspot.com/2011/12/3d-realism-practical-easy-workflows.html

Regards,

Jamie

In the following tutorial we will create an advanced rusty metal shader. Although the tutorial makes use of vray renderer’s vray blend material, you can also use shellac material if you are not a vray user.

1. Create a vray blend material, and in the base material slot create basic blue metal material with the following settings:

-diffuse color 47, 50, 119

-reflect color 40, 40, 40

-refl. Glossiness .7

-subdivisions 15

-BRDF – ward

            -bump map – noise (adjust the tilling and the size according to your needs).

At this point, the material should look like the one in the rendering bellow.

2. Now, let’s create a rust material. In the first slot of the coat materials, create a vray material with the following specs.

-diffuse – a rusty metal texture

-reflection color – 10, 10, 10

-refl. Glossiness – .65

-subdivisions 15

-bump – a bump map similar to the one bellow.

If you do a test rendering at this point, you should end up with something similar to the one bellow.

3. The 2 materials now blend in a uniform manner. However this is not the look we are after. We need to control the way the rust appears on the object. Fortunately that can be done very easily with a mask map next to the coat material slot.

This is what I have used as a “blending mask”:

For maximum control, you will have to unwrap the 3d model; this way you can control exactly where the rust will appear.

After having done all of the above your final result should look similar to the one bellow.

You can enhance the shader even more by painting separate reflection and glossiness maps for both materials, but must of the times this should be more than enough.

Due to the fact that high end rendering technology is becoming more and more accessible and the number of people interested in architectural visualization is growing rapidly, the quality level of architectural renderings has dramatically increased during the last years.

When Brazil and V-Ray engines first appeared, using global illumination in a rendering was enough to make it look photorealistic and differentiated itself from the competition.

Nowadays one has to go to great lengths if extreme photorealism is the main focus (Check out the post that featured some of the most realistic architectural renderings I have ever seen).

With that in mind, I have compiled a list of 20 renderings which I consider to be original; some of them have great composition, others use a wonderful chromatic palette, but all of them stand out in one way or another and can be considered art, not just commercial work.

 http://www.tianyizhucg.com

Congratulations to Piotr Truszczynski from Motionfront for winning the Autodesk 3ds Max Design Hero competition!
 

His image will be featured on the cover of 3ds max design 2012 and on all related marketing materials. That’s a huge exposure that will definitely lead to many jobs from many high profile clients. What more could one ask for?
 

Congratulations again Piotr for your great achievement!
The images that took 2nd and 3rd place are also great. It was for sure a tough decision for the judges.
You can check them out here.