3ds Max and Corona Renderer: 5 Tips To Create Your Best Visual Ever

Quick Summary

Here is a quick summary of what my blog post will cover so you can decide if this article is for you.

1. Corona Scene Converter. Looking for the quickest way to convert a V-Ray Scene to Corona? Here's how.
   
   

2. Corona Light Mixer. One of the most exciting thing about Corona Render Engine. Plus a bonus tip on how I created and animation for a client in no time.
   
   

3. Corona Material Library. How to use and manipulate the built in material library.
   
   

4. Round Edges. Can't be bothered to chamfer all of your objects. Me neither, here's a quick way to do that.
   
   

5. Post Production. Photoshop is awesome, but what if you could do all you're post in the Corona Frame Buffer?

Do you want step-by-step instructions to implement all these tips?

Alright, let's get going. 

Corona Renderer

The tips I am going to show you are from the Interior Visualisation with 3ds Max and Corona course but don't worry about that just yet, check out the tips and see if you like them, because if you don't like them then the course definitely won't be for you ..

These are a few of the things I personally do to speed up my workflow and deliver high quality images to my clients.

After you're done reading and watching, you'll have new techniques to use when creating 3D renders. My objective is to provide you with techniques so that you can start replicating the results in your own images for your own clients.

I have had the opportunity to review Corona Renderer a couple of times as part of the 3D Artist magazine Expert Panel.

The tips I am going to share are going to save you buckets of time in the long run, so invest in yourself now and learn these techniques. I'll now go into details of my favourite Corona Renderer tips and show you how you can do the same in your own 3D renderings.

But first if you have not got the 45 day Corona trail installed then head here download and install the latest version.

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1. Corona Scene Converter

Do you know the best thing about using Corona for the first time?

We can use our previously created scenes and convert them to Corona and they will work a treat!

Once you have corona installed you can convert V-ray scenes with the click of a button!

This is how I do it ..

Once you have installed Corona open up 3ds max.

You should see the Corona Toolbar, if not right click on a Toolbar and click on Corona Official Toolbar.

On the Corona Toolbar, click Run Corona Converter and in the window that pops up click Start Conversion.

Here is a video to explain.

2. Corona Light Mixer

But what  if we want to make adjustments to the lighting on the fly?

I am glad you asked.

This is one of the most exciting things about Corona Renderer.

It used to be that, using a certain amount of guess work you would set up lights.
Hit render. Pray a little.
Stop the render and adjust the lights,
Hit render, pray ...
and repeat until you had a pretty good result.

This took a lot of praying and was also quite time consuming.

Now all you need to do is hit the Set Up Corona Light Mix button… 

Corona light mix works by rendering out each light separately. 

This means that even whilst the image is rendering we can change the intensity of the lights and even the colour.

This is how I do it ..

Start by downloading the Step By Step Guide and watching the video ..

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Bonus Tip - You can animate lights!

Whilst doing a client project I was asked to produce an animation where the lights would turn on one by one. 

In another render engine I would most properly need to render each image out one by one. In this case that would have been 11 images that would need rendering individually.

But lucky with Corona Light Mixer all i needed to do was turn off all the lights and then turn them on one by one and save out the images. I then put them together in a video editor.

Here is the result…

3. Corona Material Library

Nice work, still with me?

We have set up our lighting and it looks pretty cool but what if we want to change materials? 

Well you’re in luck. Rather than starting each material from scratch, Corona has a built in material library of all the materials you could wish for. 

You can use these as is or use them as a base and update them with your own textures.

4. Round Edges

Straight edges are a dead give away that an image is computer generated. 

“I want my materials to have round edges” I hear you cry.

Well you could chamfer all of your objects... but that would take ages.

Well how about you use the Rounded Edges material in Corona?

The quickest way to avoid straight edges is adding the rounded edges material to the bump map slot of your material.

Here's how…

5. Post Production

Nice, so our image is looking great, so then we render it. 

We could take these images into Photoshop and do the post like this…

Or we could do all the post production in the Corona Frame Buffer!

Like this…

Your Next Steps ..

I hope you enjoyed this article and learned a thing or two .. :-)

Are you a 3D Artist?

If yes .. Do you have a system to deliver top notch results everyday..?

This is what clients are looking for ..

Consistency ..

If you feel like upgrading your “game” ..

You can check out the full Corona Interior Course here.

And make sure to get all my free resources below and implement the tips to speed up your workflow!

Click the button below to download the guide.

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Render on!

3ds Max + Vray Exterior Visualisation: 5 Tips To Create Your Best Exterior Visual Ever

Quick Summary

Here is a quick summary of my blog post so you can decide if this article is for you.
 

These are the tips in no particular order ..
(you can click on the number to jump to a specific tip, welcome to the future 😉 )
 

1.  Straighten the vertical lines. Architectural photographers do it so we should do it too. After all we are virtual architectural photographers.
  

2. Use HDRI Lights. This is how I start lighting every scene I create. Once you have this light rig set up you can save it and use it to start all your scenes.
 

3. Sweet so you have your light set up, but what angle should you have it? Here I explain a quick way to test out your HDRI angles. (this tip even made it into 3D Artist Magazine!)

4. Fog is cool in any exterior image but can be a pain to set up in 3ds Max. So here I show you a real quick hack to create fog in Photoshop.

5. Ready to add grass and bushes, but don't fancy placing each blade of grass one by one :/ Here's how to 'paint grass and plants' using only 3ds Max.

Do you want step-by-step instructions to implement all these tips?

Alright, let's get going. 

Exterior Visualisation

The tips I am going to show you are from the exterior visualisation course but don't worry about that just yet, check out the tips and see if you like them and can use them, because if you don't like them then the course definitely won't be for you ..

These are a few of the things I personally do to speed up my workflow and deliver high quality images to my clients.

Notice that some of the tips here can be used in interior visualisation as well. For example tips 1, 2 and 3.

After you're done reading and watching, you'll have new techniques to use when creating 3D renders. My objective is provide you with techniques that you can start replicating the results in your own images for your own clients.

Do you know what's cool about all of the techniques I am about to show you ..?

Once you learn them, you can use them over and over again. Things like the HDRI tips (2 and 3) can be set up, saved and opened for every scene.

This is going to save you buckets of time in the long run, so invest in yourself now and learn these techniques. I'll now go into details of my favourite exterior tips and show you how you can do the same in your own 3D renderings.

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1. Straighten Your Verticals
 

Do you know the best thing about being a Photographer in the Virtual world ..?

We can bend reality. Literally. 

Check out these two images.

When we have something like the top image it can look a little odd. That's because in reality we view everything as straight, honestly check it out now. Our eyes have auto tilt turned on all the time! 

Imagine doing this as a Real Photographer .. you would have to buy a tilt shift lens. (one of those will cost you upwards of £1000) 

Lucky for us we are Virtual Photographers 😃

This is how I do it ..

Vray Physical Camera

Create a Vray Camera anywhere in the viewport. 

If you want the camera to be where you are viewing from you can just hit Ctrl+C.
 
Hit C on the keyboard to view through the camera.

Now select your camera. You can do this by clicking on the camera name in the top left of the viewport.  Select Camera from the dropdown. 

Under the Basic Parameters in the modifier panel you can then adjust the vertical tilt.

Easy hey, well it gets easier. How about clicking on auto guess vert tilt.

Corona Camera

Follow the same instructions as above to create and select your camera but this time in the modifier panel Tick the box next to Automatic vertical tilt.

What, so easy!

Physical Camera

And finally the trusty 3ds Max standard camera. Again, use the same steps to get to the modifier panel but this time take a look under Perspective Control, there's an Auto Vertical Tilt Correction button here too.

Photoshop

I usually straighten verts in 3ds Max for reasons you will soon find out. 

But if you have already rendered your image you can also do this in Photoshop.

The easiest way is to go to Filter > Lens Correction. Under Transform, move the Vertical Perspective controller.

The problem with using this technique is you are going to lose some of your image.

2. Use High Dynamic Range Images to Light your Scenes

This is it, the secret sauce 😃 How to achieve highly realistic renders. And this is how I light nearly every scene. First I am going to explain what a HDRI is, then I will walk you through how to set it up.

Want to know another secret ..?

Once you have set this up, you can save it as Exterior_Lighting.max and use it for lighting in your future projects. All you have to do is swap out the HDR image.

There you go, we have eliminated one of the most time consuming tasks already!

2.1 What is a HDRI?

HDRI is short for High Dynamic Range Image... 

They are panoramic images that are shot at different exposures and then combined into one 32-bit image. 

But all you really need to know is they can be used in 3D programs as a light source. They create very natural and realistic lighting effects. 

2.2 So how do I set up a HDRI in my scene?

Great question, I am glad you asked!

This is how I do it ..

Start by downloading the Step By Step Guide and watching the video below ..

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3. Get The Light Right

Nice work, still with me? Cool.

So we have set up our lighting and it looks pretty cool but what if I want to change the direction of the sun? Well don't worry, I've got you covered :-)

This tip got me a full page in 3D Artist magazine!

Alright, so most people would hit Lock to Icon in the light settings, rotate it a little then hit render, wait, look at it, rotate it again, hit render... not us though. 

We are going to keyframe, which means animate the light to rotate every 10-25 degrees, hit render once and make a coffee..

Got that coffee? Here is your render..

This is how I do it ..
 

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When I first started out with 3D I was doing all this stuff manually over and over. 

But when you start working for design studios you soon realise that you haven't got time to start from scratch every time.

So make sure you start creating systems of everything you do more than once. 

The name of the game is to eliminate repetitive tasks and focus on creating remarkable images.

4. Atmosphere

Now this image is looking pretty good..

But there is something missing ..

FOG

Like straightening the verticals this can be done in both 3ds Max and Photoshop. Personally I prefer doing it in Photoshop. I feel like I have more control and it takes less render time. 

If you do want to do it in 3ds Max you can hit 8 on the keyboard to open the Environment Settings. Add fog and active it. 

But if you want to do it like me ..
 

Pretty cool, huh?

5. Paint with Plants
 

But what exterior image is complete with out plants, trees, grass, leaves, rocks..

I have saved the best for last. As I mentioned earlier it's all about saving time to allow you to be more creative.

This one is going to save you tons of time.

We are going to use pre-made models of grass in this example.
We create a ground plane and then use a brush to 'paint' grass randomly over the surface.
 

Let me explain..
 

Your Next Steps ..
 

I hope you enjoyed this article and learned a thing or two .. :-)

Are you a 3D Artist?

If yes .. Do you have a system to deliver top notch results everyday..?

This is what clients are looking for ..

Consistency ..

If you feel like uping your “game” ..

You can check out the full Vray Exterior Course here.

Make sure to get all my free resources below and implement the tips to speed up your workflow!

Click the button below to download the guide.

I agree to receive email updates and promotions.

Get Your Free 25 Page Exterior Guide

Render on!

20 Top Tips From The World’s Best 3D Artists

With 3D being an ever-changing landscape it can be difficult to know where to start.

I have been working in the industry for 10 years now and during that time I have been lucky enough to claim as friends and mentors some of the most talented 3D artists in the world.

Through this post I wanted to share some of their knowledge and wisdom with you, so if you are starting out in 3D, or simply have an interest in the subject, read on for 20 Top Tips from the cream of the crop.

I asked two questions:

1. What do you wish you knew when you started 3D?
2. What top tip can you share with us?

Here's what they said:

• Ismail Rebbane

• Klaas Nienhuis

• Neil Poppleton

• David Houston

• Patric Verstraete

• Dimitar Gongalov

• Paul Roberts

• Matt Guetta

• James Dowling

• Eldridge Felder

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Ismail Rebbane

What do you wish you knew when you started 3D?

One day, not long ago, I decided to start a website to share what I learned. To my surprise, it was me who started learning! The best way to learn is by sharing what you learned. It just forces you to document everything in a simple process, It works like magic, try it.

What top tip can you share with us?

As you already know, CGI, in general, is cool! Just by watching a new show reel that just comes out, or a software update can lead you to change you focus on a new topic! One of the things I regret is that I didn't focus on one area, I was learning VFX, sculpting, scripting, Visualisation etc.. you name it! the result was mediocre work. It's only when I started focusing on one industry that I improved. For me it was 3D Visualisation. You can always learn more topics, but one at a time.

---

Klaas Nienhuis

What do you wish you knew when you started 3D?

I didn't really start in 3D. I did it on the side and then that part of my work grew. I find it pretty difficult to find a good piece of advice. For me, being very specialized has worked out great but only with a solid network to collaborate with. I think I wish somebody had told me to put more effort in a good network of friends and businesses while specializing my skillset.

What top tip can you share with us?

The second part is easy, my top tip is to learn programming. Even if it's just a little bit. The stuff you can do with simple one-line scripts in 3ds Max is way more powerful than having a big toolbox of downloaded scripts.

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Neil Poppleton

What do you wish you knew when you started 3D?

Its all about enjoying the learning experience and ride.

What top tip can you share with us?

Be good at time management etc, but the best tool i have used almost every week for the past 17 years is PSD manager. A golden tool.

---

David Houston

What do you wish you knew when you started 3D?

When I started out I wish that Pinterest was available, its such and invaluable resource for collating project information, research and advice from other artists. Being able to share resource globally helps a great deal in planning and developing a project from a lighting and composition perspective.

What top tip can you share with us?

My best tool I use and probably my biggest hack now is a script called find and bind, it aligns any sun to the hot spot of an hdri in an instance. It also allows you to physically rotate the dome light and that automatically shifts the light position in both your dome light map and also your environment map. 

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Patric Verstraete

What do you wish you knew when you started 3D?

The best way to start in 3D is to get as much software as you can and play around with it, until you find the one which is best for you. I didn’t do that, I started with 3ds max. At that time it was 3ds Max 6 with the disks! So it was really hard to make progress because there weren’t any tutorials, or very few. So I started to learn it by myself.

Then go onto the web and join forums, find tutorials, get in touch with people and share your work and ask for feedback. It is important to get extra comments on mistakes that you don't see, and last but not least, never give up!

What top tip can you share with us?

Some plugins that everyone needs in 3D Visualisation ...
Forest Pack: Forest Pack does away with all the hassle by providing not only the scattering tools, but also large libraries of photorealistic trees and plants.

Rail Clone: Generate complex parametric objects including fences, stairs and floors faster than ever before.

Vray render-engine: I started off visualising using Mental Ray, but once I gave V-Ray a go, I never looked back.

Of course there are many scripts available, but the most important to me are ...

Floor Generator: This plugin will let you create individually boarded floors, perfect for wooden floors.

Image Composition Helper: Automatically visualise the Rule of Thirds inside the 3ds Max Viewport to instantly improve the look of both your 3D static renders and animation.

Relink Bitmaps: Easily relink missing files like bitmaps, VRayMeshes, Mental Ray proxies and VRayHDRI when they change directories or when you move computers.

---

Dimitar Gongalov

What do you wish you knew when you started 3D?

I would have liked to know - what is the best software to produce the most realistic images. What is the shortest way to super realistic images (is it modelling, texturing or lighting) I found that the order is light setup then texturing and finally modelling.

What top tip can you share with us?

My top scripts I cannot work without are...

VMC Script: I use this every day.

Turbo Reverse: For remodeling some ready made models.

---

Paul Roberts

Surprisingly Paul, Training Manager at iToo Software said.. 

"use RailClone and Forest Pack, it'll make all your dreams come true!"

---

Matt Guetta

What do you wish you knew when you started 3D?

When I begun I was always doing everything in the renderer. I've never been a 'Photoshop guy' but I really wish I knew how to uses passes, 32b exr etc. to use compositing to improve/edit my images. Would save me tons of render times and probably makes my life easier.

When I begin 3D I was mainly doing stills, now I'm mainly doing movies. From the beginning I've always worked with the idea of doing stills as I'll handle movies (no stamp, only mattes rendered etc.) and I really recommend doing all you can in that spirit.

Using a movie pipeline for stills will really help you to improve your workflow and makes your render better!

What top tip can you share with us?

In the past few months I've switched to ArionFX (Nuke/AE/PS) It lets you do a really nice Tone Mapping in post-production after tons of layers/passes adjustments. I really love this little plugin :)

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James Dowling

What do you wish you knew when you started 3D?

Putting useful things in the quads so you have them one click away. Some I have in mine are, insert loop, centre pivot to object. Copy and paste from file.

Change the space bar shortcut from 'selection lock toggle'. When I first started 3D Max I always hit it by accident and spent the following hour trying to work out what had happened.

Double clicking on an edge selects the whole loop.

Right click on any modifier and enabling Off in viewport to make your scene more manageable to navigate.

What top tip can you share with us?

Cleaner script for sorting out ClampTex and deleting Link Composites from imported CAD. ClampTex and Link Composites can kill loading and render times. 

---

Eldridge Felder

What do you wish you knew when you started 3D?

If I go back to starting off in 3D, I would have focused more on learning how to Unwrap. Today I have a much better understanding of it, and actually really enjoy unwrapping. But when I started it was something I found confusing. But now looking back at my beginner models, I could have pushed them a lot further if I had a better understanding of clean unwrapping. I also have a much better understanding of modeling and texturing as well, but I think unwrapping is very important.

What top tip can you share with us?

Depends on what is being created and the end user's experience. For pre-renders I would say V-Ray, Multiscatter, and Grow-FX could be all you need for really nice complex interior or exterior renderings. Phoenix FD by Chaos Group comes in handy as well when Fire or Water effects are needed.

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A massive thank you all of the awesome artists that contributed to this article. I would love to hear your answers in the comments below.

Tools Mentioned

• PSD manager

• Pinterest

• Find and Bind

• Forest Pack

• Rail Clone

• Vray

• Floor Generator

• Image Composition Helper

• Relink Bitmaps

• VMC Script

• Turbo Reverse

• ArionFX

• Multiscatter

• Grow-FX

• Phoenix FD

Hey, I'm Jake. I am a 3D Visualisation Render Artist and CGI Consultant. 

Over the years I have been blessed to have worked on extraordinary projects with dream clients from all around the world. From Super Yachts in Monaco to Private Jets and Luxury Apartments in London.

I now like travelling the world whilst freelancing, writing about 3D, teaching through my video training and giving talks.

The Future of 3D Visualisation

"Then you better start swimmin' Or you'll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin'"

Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-changin'

I love playing with the latest technologies and discovering future trends in the CGI industry. It is a fast moving field and you have to keep up if you want to be on top of your game. But it is easy to get carried away with the new 'super powers' these tools give you. With software getting easier to use more interior designers and architects are willing to try there hand at creating renders with good results. Is this bad news for the Visualisation Artist?

In a recent interview with the University of Creative Arts, I was asked my views on the future of the 3D Visualisation. This got me thinking about the future of the industry in terms of the artist and not the technology. I remember Lon Grohs of Choas Group saying at last years End User Event in Utrecht

"The last 10% is art, that matters, 90% is the tools"

I then started pondering the idea that we could be reaching a new era of art. Just like we did at the beginnings of the impressionism era. During this time we saw the invention and then the wide spread use of cameras. This made the need for highly realistic paintings less in demand, pushing artists to develop unique and creative styles rather than strive for realism. With talent and patience many extraordinary 3D artists are proving photorealism can be achieved. Meaning it is only a matter of time before more will follow in their footsteps. Once something has been proved possible many will then have the belief that it can be accomplished. In the same way the The Four-minute mile running barrier was broken, "It was first achieved in 1954 by Roger Bannister in 3:59.4. The "four-minute barrier" has since been broken by many male athletes, and is now the standard of all male professional middle distance runners."

Software is developing so rapidly that most interior designers and architects without much prior 3D knowledge will easily be able to turn their ideas into realistic renders. This could mark a turning point from photorealism to a more unique style like companies such as Mir and Luxigon  have developed.

If we take Disney for example the have the skills to create highly realistic renders but in recent shorts such as Paperman and Feast they have opted to go for more stylised looks.

When cameras first arrived there were professionals with expensive equipment and a vast understanding of the equipment to take pictures. Then it become a lot more accessible for the majority of people to take pictures. But there was still room for professional, uniquely skilled cameramen and there still is today. So what does this mean for the professional cameramen of the virtual world? We need to develop unique styles, a photographer does more than aim and click a button and so should we. If you fear that anyone being able to create realistic 3D renders is going to be detrimental to your profession you are looking at it all wrong. Everyone being able to create 3D renders is going to push you to get better, create better images and as a whole will benefit you as a creative and the industry.

I bet you spend considerably less time now setting up lighting and modeling furniture than a few years ago. The time freed up will enable us to be more inventive in how we use our individual creative uniqueness.

Anything that enables us to work less like machines and enable us to think more creatively is a pro in my eyes.

The future is good and is looking better because technology is becoming easier to use. This opens up visualisation to a wider audience and rather than fearing software that enables more people to create high quality images we should be happy. This will mean less monotonous work for us and in turn our work will improve because we will have to develop our artistic uniqueness rather than our skills with the software.

Many Thanks to Tom Glimps @tomglimps and Simone Giampaolo @SGiampaolo for there help with this article.

Harpers Bazaar and a BMW rendered in Corona A7

A couple of pieces to report this month, firstly I went to EUE in Utrecht back in June, as usual it was great to catch up with the CG heads and learn lots of interesting things about 3D. Particular highlights were meeting Eric de Broche of Luxigon fame and Nils Norgrens from Neoscape's talk on leadership and starting a company. Write up coming soon. Whilst I was at EUE I bumped into Adam Hotovy who was kind enough to give me an early release of Corona A7. I took it for a spin with the new BMW i7. Corona is unbelievabley easy to use, get the conversion script from the forum and pretty much hit render and your good. I left it overnight and this is what I got, I did some minor color adjustments in Photoshop, but here that is now built in to the release version.

Harpers Bazaar also did a piece on the super yacht I have been working on recently. The images they used included a double page spread and some older interior images.