3dsmax: Vray - volume effect

We have recived a lot of e-mails with questions about detailed tutorial concerning volume effect for Vray renderer. In this article, Myqel and Pendzel show you how to use it. You will find here 2 parts, first for standard rendering job and second for postproduction in Photoshop.

1. RENDERING

Lets open START SCENE. Remember, when you will be creating scene like this by yourselves - your volume light must have Shadows set on Shadows Map.



Here you can see volume sets for Direct01 light. To add or create your own volume effect - in Atmosphere section click on Add... button, in Volume Light Parameters click on Pick Light and choose appropriate light.

  In our scene we have got light and metal ball - light will be reflect from ball and disperse on the walls making caustic effect. So here you can see sets Caustics in our renderer.

Now we decrease Caustic subdivs parameter to 500 - this will speed our preview renders up.



In G-Buffor/Color mapping section let set Type as Intenisty exponential and Bright multiplier to 3.

And here is our first test render.

Now lets increase Caustic subdivs to 1500.

And light Multiplier to 10.

Well, as you can see it is brighter.

Now lets turn Indirect illumination (GI) on. This time I will use Light cache as a GI engine in Secondary bounce - its subdivs lets set on 100.

And here you can see our final 3dsmax result. This final scene you can download from our server: CLICK HERE

1. POSTPRODUCTION

Now a little fight in Photoshop. Open our final render. Make a copy of our Background - we will desaturate it. Just press CTRL+L and move saturate-slide max to the left.



Now go to Select>Color Range... and select the brightest point in our image.



Now we add another layer.



Now click on the "eye-icon" of our Background copy layer - we will not use it anymore. Now go to Layer 1 and choose Selec>Feather... and click OK. Thanks to this we will soften edges of our selection.

 

Now, using Paint Bucket Tool instill white color into our selection and next change Opacity to 57.



Lets create new layer and make a new selection - caustic reflections of our volumetric light (Vray does not support it so we have to make it by ourselves.



Next, choose Select>Feather... and press OK.



Now, using Paint Bucket Tool instill gradient (from white to grey) into our selection. Next change mode of the layer from Normal to Screen and set Opacity to 15%.

 

Now, add new layer, 3rd and make another selection of reflections (thanks to this effect will be more realistic). Now make standard operation: Selec>Feather... (but change its parameter to 8) and press OK.



Again, instill gradient.



Next, change mode of this layer from Normal to Screen and Opacity set to 11% this time.



Now, copy background and correct Levels.

 

Add another layer, draw ellipse and instill white color into it.



Now deselect our selection and blur all layer using Gaussian Blur filter.



Now change opacity and move it to few places on the screen to simulate reflections on camera glass. If you like this final image, you can download psd file from our server: CLICK HERE

Best Regards,
PENdzel & Myqel

source: http://www.evermotion.org/