Environment Lighting 3DSMax

Sunny Afternoon - Twilight - Moonlight - Electrical -
Candlelight - Underwater
3D environment
lighting
‘3D Environment Lighting’ is a 6-part tutorial
series. Over the course of the six chapters, this
series will be detailing techniques on lighting
an environment under a number of different
conditions. Each chapter we will cover a
step-by-step guide to setting up lights, aimed
at portraying the scene in a specific manner.
The various chapters will be tailored to specific
software packages and each will aim to show
a comprehensive and effective way of lighting
an interior of a ship that includes both natural
and artificial light. These will include a sunny
afternoon, sunset, moonlight, electric light,
candle light, and finally a submerged submarine
light. The schedule is as follows:
Chapter 01
Natural Exterior Lighting
Sunny Afternoon
Chapter 02
Twilight
Chapter 03
Moonlight
Chapter 04
Artificial Interior Lighting
Electrical
Chapter 05
Candlelight
Chapter 06
Underwater
Chapter 01 Natural Exterior Lighting
Sunny Afternoon
Chapter 01 Sunny Afternoon
Fig 01
Sunny Afternoon
Welcome to the first part of this new set of

tutorials. This chapter, we’ll take a look at how
to set up “sunny afternoon” lighting for our 3D
environment. Before we start, I suggest we find
some good reference material for our project.
In Google, simply Search Images for “sunny
afternoon” to discover some pictures which will
give you an idea as to how light behaves at this
time of the day. Even better, why not just go
outside and examine how the light is behaving
in the real world? ...
1. Let’s start by taking a look at our scene. Fig 02

Open the Ship Cabin_Part1_Starting.max
scene (download can be found at the end of
this tutorial; click on the Free Resources logo)
(Fig01).
2. Examining the 3D scene, we can see that

there are three main light sources (Fig02); the
large opening in the ceiling, the small circular
window, and the rectangular window on the
back wall. We won’t consider the artificial lights
in the scene for this part, as this will be covered
in following parts of the tutorial.
3. We will use the Mental Ray renderer for our

scene, so let’s start by activating it before we Fig 03
get to work on the lighting in our scene. Open
the Rendering panel (use the F10 short-cut
key), scroll down into the Common tab, and click
on the button with the three dots in the Assign
Renderer roll-out menu. A browser window will
open; select Mental Ray Renderer and click the
OK button (Fig03).
www.3dcreativemag.com Page 4 Environment Lighting

Sunny Afternoon Chapter 01
Fig 04 4. Since we’ll be doing a lot of rendering tests
in this project, we can’t wait too long for each
render. We therefore need faster feedback to
make any adjustments and changes. So let’s
set the rendering size to 320 x 240 - this way it
will render faster. We’ll increase the resolution
only for the final renders. Open the Rendering
panel again and set the Output Size to 320 x
240 (Fig04).
5. If we render the scene now, we’ll see just the

Fig 05
default lighting since there are currently no lights
in the scene (Fig05).
6. Create a Target Direct light and position it as

Fig 06
shown in Fig06.

7. Enable Shadows and set its type to Ray Fig 07

Traced Shadows. Set the light Multiplier to 2
and change the colour to something like R=255,
G=246, B=218. You will also need to copy the
parameters for Hotspot and Falloff from those
detailed in Fig07.
8. Render the scene again (Fig08). Now we

Fig 08
can see our main light source (the Sun) coming
from above and casting shadows into the ship’s
cabin. The scene is almost totally black, so we
need to create at least one other light source
coming in from the two windows on the back
wall.
9. Create an Omni light and position it as

Fig 09
shown in Fig09, right between the two windows.
Make sure that the light is inside the cabin, as
we need it to light that area slightly. Set the
Multiplier to a low value, like 0.15, and its colour
to R=255, G=242, R=208. Make it cast Ray
Traced shadows and enable the Use and Show
options for the Far Attenuation. Also, set the
Start to 1,92 and the End to 9,44.

Fig 10 10. Render the scene again (Fig10). Now there
is much more light, especially at the back of
the cabin, but the scene is still way too dark.
We need some bounces of light over the entire
scene.
11. Create a sphere that surrounds the whole

Fig 11
scene (Fig11).
12. Make the sphere an Editable Poly object,

Fig 12
and then select the lower half’s polygons and
delete them (Fig.12).

13. Select all of the polygons (Ctrl + A) and flip Fig 13

them using the Flip command in the Command
Panel (Fig13). We’ll assign a self-illuminated
material to the sphere, so we need its polygon
to point inwards.
14. Open the Material Editor and create a new

Fig 14
Standard material. Name it “Dome” and change
its Diffuse colour to something like R=255,
G=245, B=203 (Fig14). Also, set its Self-
Illumination value to 100 (Fig14).
15. Open the Rendering panel and switch to

Fig 15
the Indirect Illumination tab and enable Final
Gather. Set the Preset to Draft and render the
scene. This time the render will take a little
longer, since we enabled the Final Gather
feature of Mental Ray. This option takes care
of the secondary bounces of light, or indirect
illumination. We have some more bounces of
light in the scene, but it’s still too dark (Fig15).

Fig 16 16. Set the Final Gather Multiplier to 3 and
render again. Now we have some more light,
but we need to tweak the FG parameters a little
(Fig16).
17. Set the Diffuse Bounces to 10 and render

Fig 17
again. Now there’s a fair amount of light in the
cabin, and we start to see objects that were
much too dark before, like the seat on the left
(Fig17).
18. Set the Diffuse Bounces to 20 and increase

Fig 18
the Direct Target light’s Multiplier to 4. Render
the scene again (Fig18).

19. Since we increased the light’s Multiplier, Fig 19

it is now “over-burning” the areas where it
directly hits the surfaces. So let’s change the
light’s colour to something warmer and more
saturated, like R=255, G=231, B=159. Also,
make sure that H=32, S=96, and V=255. Render
the scene again. Now it looks better (Fig19).
20. To add another little bit of light, we can

Fig 20
add some value to the Ambient light. Open the
Rendering/Environment tab and set the Ambient
value to a very dark colour, as shown in Fig20.
The brighter this value, the more over-exposed
the rendering will be, so do not exaggerate the
effect.
21. Now we can start making some test renders

Fig 21
with a higher resolution. Set it back to 640 x 480
and render the scene (Fig20).

Fig 22 22. Since we are getting close to our final
render, we now need to increase the level of
detail and quality. Let’s start from the Anti-
Aliasing filter. Open the Rendering panel and
go to the Renderer tab. Set the Filter to Mitchell
and the Min/Max to 16/64. Also, lower the
Threshold values as shown in Fig.22. This time
it will take a little longer to render the scene, but
you will see a lot of details that were lacking in
previous renders.
23. Now let’s raise the quality of the Final

Fig 23
Gather. Set the Preset to High and render again.
It will take even longer to render than before, but
the final image will be much better in terms of its
quality and detail (Fig23).
24. Now that we have a pretty good lighting

Fig 24
setup for our scene, we can start to tweak the
final render with 2D software, like Photoshop.
Open the rendered image in Photoshop,
duplicate the original layer and Desaturate it, as
shown in Fig24.

25. Adjust the Levels until you get something Fig 25

similar to Fig25. We just need to extract the
areas of the image with more light.
26. Change the Blending mode for the top layer

Fig 26
to Screen and apply a fair amount of Gaussian
Blur (Fig26).
27. Set the top layer’s opacity to a lower value,

Fig 27
and change the Hue & Saturation to something
warmer (Fig27).

Fig 28 28. Go back to 3DS Max now and reset the
Renderer to the Default Scanline. Create a new
Standard material in the Material Editor and
set its Diffuse colour to pure black. Assign this
material to every object in the scene. Select the
main Spot light, go to the Environment menu
and add a Volume effect. Pick the Spot light and
render the scene. You should get something
similar to Fig28.
29. Import this new render into Photoshop and

Fig 29
put it right between the top and bottom layer.
Also, set its Blending mode to Soft Light and its
Opacity to 69 (Fig29).
30. If you want, you can improve the exposure

Fig 30
of the picture with the Exposure tool in
Photoshop.

3D Environment Lighting
Chapter 01
Sunny Afternoon
Originally designed and modelled by:

Richard Tilbury
Tutorial by:
Luciano Iurino
For more from this artist visit:
www.pmstudios.it
Or contact them:
iuri@pmstudios.it
Chapter 02 Twilight

Twilight
Twilight Chapter 02
Fig 01
Twilight
1. This chapter, we’ll set up our lighting scene

to make it resemble a moody sunset. As usual,
we’ll use Mental Ray renderer to accomplish this
task. Open the Ship Cabin_Sunset_Start.max
scene included with this tutorial (download can
be found at the end of this tutorial; click on the
Free Resources logo) (Fig01)
Fig 02
2. First of all, let’s assign Mental Ray as our
renderer. Open the Rendering panel (you
can use the F10 shortcut key), switch to the
Common tab and go to the Assign Renderer
rollout (Fig02). Click on the button with the three
dots and select mental ray Renderer from the
list. Click OK to close the browser window.
Fig 03
3. Select the Walls and Ceiling objects and
hide everything else. This will help us achieve
a better visualisation whilst we create the lights
that we need for the scene (Fig03).

Chapter 02 Twilight
Fig 04 4. Create a simple Omni light and position it

as shown in Fig04, just above the opening in
the ceiling. This Omni light will simulate light
entering from the ceiling. It is not our key light,
so its intensity will be quite low.
5. Select the Omni light and change its

Fig 05
parameters, as shown in Fig05. Activate the
Shadows option, and set it to Ray Traced
Shadows. Set the Multiplier to something like
0,5 and it’s colour to R=254 G=190 B=146. Also,
enable the Use and Show options for the Far
Attenuation, and set them respectively to 0,0m
and 3,213m.
6. Now create another Omni light. This time,

Fig 06
it has to be a mental ray Area Omni, since we
need soft area shadows for our sunset. Position
this new light as shown in Fig06, on the back
wall area close to the windows. This Omni light
will be our main light, since it will simulate the
sun. Its intensity will be greater than the other
light, and together with the shadows it will give
our scene the mood we desire.

Twilight Chapter 02
7. Select the mental ray Area Omni light and Fig 07
change its parameters, as shown in Fig07.
Enable the Shadows and set them to Ray
Traced. Set the Multiplier to 1,2 and its colour to
R=255 G=199 B=150 (Fig07).
8. Open the Area Light Parameters rollout. Make

Fig 08
sure that On is checked and set the Type to
Sphere. Change the Radius value to something
like 0,54m and the Samples to U=10 V=10
(Fig08).
9. Before we start rendering the scene, we

Fig 09
need to change another small thing. Open the
Environment panel (use the <8> shortcut key)
and change the Background Colour to R=247
B=176 G=98 (Fig09).

Chapter 02 Twilight
Fig 10 10. Now we can do a quick test render (Fig10).

As you can see, the two lights are not enough
to create our moody sunset lighting. We need
some light bounces all over the scene to
improve the general quality of the lighting...
11. Open the Rendering panel once again and

Fig 11
switch to the Indirect Illumination tab. Enable
Final Gather and set the Preset to Draft (we
don’t need high quality at the moment, it’s just
for testing). Set the Multiplier to 1 and its colour
to R=1,0 G=0,71 B=0,494. Also, set the Diffuse
Bounces value to 20 (Fig11).
12. Render the scene again. This time it will take

Fig 12
longer, which is because of the Final Gather
calculation that mental ray needs in order to
create the bounces of light (Fig12).

Twilight Chapter 02
13. Now we have a nice lighting situation, with Fig 13
a key-light, a fill-light and some light bounces.
We can now set up our final render with higher
values. Open the Rendering panel and set
the Preset to High. Change the Rays per FG
Point value to 350 (the default for ‘High’ is 500,
but we don’t need such a high value; you can
always try other values if you wish). Switch to
the Renderer tab and set the Minimum and
Maximum values for Samples per Pixel to
16 and 64 (Fig13). Change the Filter type to
Mitchell and the Spatial Contrast R, G, B and
A to 0,02. Also, switch to the Common tab and
set a higher resolution for the rendering, for
example 640x480 (or even higher if you wish
- just keep an eye on the rendering times; the
bigger the resolution, the longer it will take to
Fig 14
render the final image).
14. Render the scene again, and save the final

picture to use it later in Photoshop for post-
production (Fig14).
15. Now we need to render an Ambient

Fig 15
Occlusion pass to composite it with the rendered
image. Open the Ship Cabin_AO.max scene
file, included with this tutorial. A new material
was created (AO_Shader) and assigned to
every object in the scene. This material has
an Ambient/Reflective Occlusion shader in the
Surface slot. You can take a look at Fig15 to see
the shader’s parameters.

Chapter 02 Twilight
Fig 16 16. Render the scene to create the Ambient

Occlusion pass that we need (Fig16). Don’t
forget to render the AO pass with the same size
as the previously rendered picture.
17. Start Photoshop and import both the original

Fig 17
rendering and the Ambient Occlusion pass
(Fig17).
18. Switch to the Ambient Occlusion image.

Fig 18
Select all (Ctrl + A) and Copy (Ctrl + C). Switch
to the Original rendering and Paste the AO pass
above it (Ctrl + V) (Fig18).

Twilight Chapter 02
19. Change the AO Pass blending mode to Fig 19
Colour Dodge and its Opacity to about 58%
(Fig19).
20. Now select both layers and use Ctrl + E to

Fig 20
flatten them together (Fig20).
21. Duplicate the background layer and

Fig 21
desaturate the newly created layer (Fig21).

Chapter 02 Twilight
Fig 22 22. Change the Levels until you expose the

brightest areas of the image (Fig22).
23. Apply a fair amount of Gaussian Blur to this

Fig 23
layer and colourise it (Hue & Saturation), as
shown in Fig23.
24. Change the Blending Mode for this layer to

Fig 24
Linear Dodge and set its Opacity value to 56%
(Fig24).

Twilight Chapter 02
25. Select both layers and flatten them together Fig 25
(Ctrl + E). Create a new, empty layer and fill it
with a pure black colour. Use the Filter / Render
/ Lens Flare effect to create something similar
to Fig25.
26. Set the blending mode of the top layer to

Fig 26
Linear Dodge and adjust the Levels until you get
the desired effect (Fig26).
27. Finally, you can adjust the exposure to

Fig 27
slightly change the overall feel of the image
(Fig27).

Originally designed & modelled by:
Richard Tilbury
Tutorial by:
Luciano Iurino
www.pmstudios.it
Or contact them:
iuri@pmstudios.it
Chapter 03 Moonlight

Moonlight
Moonlight Chapter 03
Fig 01
Moonlight
This time we’ll create a typical moonlight setup

for the ship cabin scene, for which we’ll use the
Mental Ray renderer...
1. Open the Ship Cabin_Moon_Start.max scene

included with this tutorial (download can be
found at the end of this tutorial; click on the Free
Resources logo) (Fig01).
Fig 02
2. If you try to render the scene, you will get
something similar to Fig02, as there are still no
lights in the scene (Fig02).
Fig 03
3. First of all, let’s assign Mental Ray as the
renderer. Open the Rendering panel (F10) and
click on the button with the three dots in the
Assign Renderer roll-out. Select “mental ray
Renderer” in the window that appears, and click
OK (Fig03).

Fig 04 4. Create a mental ray Area Omni light and
position it as shown in Fig04, just above the
opening in the ceiling (Fig04). This will be our
Key light (the moon).
5. Enable the Shadows option (Ray Traced

Fig 05
Shadows) and leave the other parameters
as they are for the moment. In the Area Light
Parameters, make sure that the On option is
checked; set the Type to Sphere, the Radius
value to 0.1m, and the Samples to 10/10
(Fig05).
6. Let’s make a quick test render (Fig06). The

Fig 06
amount of lighting seems to be OK, and the
shadows too, but the colour is not right as it
should be something more blueish.

7. Go back to the mental ray Area Omni Fig 07
parameters and change its colour to something
like that shown in Fig07.
8. Render the scene again (Fig08). It looks

Fig 08
better, now.
9. Let’s change the Environment Background

Fig 09
colour (using the ‘8’ shortcut key) to the same
colour that we just gave to the Omni light, and
let’s render the scene again (Fig09).

Fig 10 10. Now we need some bounces of light all
around the scene. Let’s enable Final Gather in
the Indirect Illumination tab of the Rendering
panel. Set the Preset to Draft and render the
scene again (Fig10).
11. Since we need more light and bounces, we

Fig 11
have to increase the FG Mutliplier value to 2.
Also change the Mutliplier colour to something
blueish, as shown in Fig11. Increase the Diffuse
Bounces value to 20, or even more if needed.
12. Now there’s much more light. Select the

Fig 12
mental ray Area Omni and lower the Multiplier to
a value of about 0,85. Also enable the Use and
Show options for Far Attenuation and set their
parameters to respectively 1.41m and 11.032m
(Fig12).

13. The Key light seems to be OK. We now Fig 13
need some more light in the back of the room,
near the windows. Create a simple Omni light
and position as shown in Fig13. Also enable
Shadows (Ray Traced); set the multiplier to
0,09 and its colour to a bright blue. Enable Far
Attenuation Use and Show, and set their values
to 1.41m and 7,.392m. Render the scene again.
14. Now we have to set up a higher quality

Fig 14
render... Go back to the Indirect Illumination tab
and set the Preset to High. Set the Rays per
FG Point value to 350. Switch to the Renderer
tab and copy the parameters shown in Fig14.
Increase the image resolution (for example, to
640x480 or even more) and render the scene.
Save the picture to use it later on in Photoshop
for post-production work.
15. We also need an Ambient Occlusion pass

Fig 15
for compositing. Open the Ship Cabin_AO.max
scene and render it. The AO_Shader material
was assigned to every object in the scene, and
its parameters were set up to achieve a nice AO
solution (Fig15).

Fig 16 16. Render the scene and save this picture, too
(Fig16).
17. Start Photoshop and import both the original

Fig 17
render and the AO pass. Select the AO pass,
copy it, and paste it on the original rendered
picture (Fig17).
18. Change the blending mode for the AO pass

Fig 18
to Overlay (Fig18).

19. Use the Levels tool to adjust the levels until Fig 19
you are happy with overall look (Fig19).
20. Lower the Fill value to 52% (Fig20).

Fig 20
21. Collapse the two layers together and create

Fig 21
a copy of the Background layer. Desaturate it
(Fig21).

Fig 22 22. Adjust the Levels to expose the brightest
areas (Fig22).
23. Use the Gaussian Blur filter to blur this layer,

Fig 23
and then change its colour to something blueish
(Fig23).
24. Change the blending mode to Screen and

Fig 24
the Opacity value to about 47% (Fig24).

25. Flatten the two layers together and use the

Shadow/Highlight tool to improve the mood of
the picture (Fig25). 26. Also use the Exposure tool as a final touch
(Fig26).

Richard Tilbury
Tutorial by:
Luciano Iurino
www.pmstudios.it
Or contact them:
iuri@pmstudios.it
Chapter 04 Electrical
Chapter 04 Artificial Interior Lighting

Electrical
Electrical Chapter 04
Fig 01
Electrical
This Chapter we’ll see how to create an artificial

lighting situation for our ship cabin scene. As
usual, we’ll use 3ds Max and Mental Ray.
Before we can start, we need a little information
about how artificial light works. I suggest you do
a quick search in Google for reference images;
you’ll notice that large spaces are lit by a fair
number of light bulbs, which usually give general
lighting a strong, greenish component.
01. Open the ShipCabin_Part4_Start.max

scene file (download can be found at the end of
this tutorial; click on the Free Resources logo)
Fig 02
(Fig01).
02. The two main light sources will be the light

bulbs on the ceiling (Fig02).
03. Since we’ll be placing the lights right in the Fig 03

bulbs, we need them not to cast any shadows.
Select the three objects (the light bulb, the guard
and the base) and right click on them. In the
menu that appears, click on Object Properties.
Then disable the Cast Shadow option in the
Rendering Control area (Fig03).

Fig 04 04. Now we can create the first Omni light which
will act as a light bulb. Create a mental ray Area
Omni light and position it as shown in Fig04.
05. Leave the colour of the light as pure white

Fig 05
and its Multiplier at 1,0. Enable Shadows and
change the type to Ray Traced Shadows. In the
Decay section, set the type to Inverse and the
Start value to 0,8. Also enable the Show option
to have a visual aid in your scene. In the Far
Attenuation section, enable both Use and Show
and set the Start/End values to 1 and 8. Open
the Area Light Parameters roll-out and make
sure that On is selected. In the Type roll-out,
pick Sphere and set its radius to 0,14. Finally set
the Samples values to 5 (Fig05).
06. Now simply clone the Omni light and

Fig 06
position it right in the second light bulb (Fig06).

07. Open the Rendering panel and assign Fig 07
mental ray Renderer in the Production slot
(Fig07).
08. Render the scene to see how the two Omni

Fig 08
lights are behaving (Fig08).
Fig 09
09. The amount of light in the front is quite good,
but the back of the room is completely dark. We
therefore need to create another Omni light over
there (Fig09).

Fig 10 10. Modify the light parameters as shown in

Fig10. The important thing here is to lower the
intensity of the light (to about 0,25), and give it a
darker colour (Fig10).
11. Render the scene again. Now there’s some

Fig 11
light in the back, too (Fig11).
12. Open the Rendering panel and switch to

Fig 12
the Indirect Illumination tab. Enable Final Gather
and set its Multiplier to 5. Also change its colour
to a fairly dark green. Set the Bounces to 10 and
leave the Rays to 50 (this is just a test rendering
and we’ll increase the quality later) (Fig12).

13. Render the scene again. Now there’s much Fig 13
more light in the scene (Fig13).
14. Now we can increase the Rays to 500 to

Fig 14
have a better quality for the FinalGather solution
(Fig14).
15. Open the Rendering panel again and switch

Fig 15
to the Renderer tab. Set the Minimum/Maximum
values to 16/64 and the Filter type to Mitchell.
Also set the values for Spatial Contrast to 0,02
(Fig15).

Fig 16 16. Now we can render the scene with full

quality and save it as a picture (Fig16).
17. As usual, we also need an Ambient

Fig 17
Occlusion pass to composite it over the original
render in Photoshop. Open the ShipCabin_
Part4_AO.max scene file. In Fig17, you can see
the AO shader that was created and assigned to
every object in the scene.
18. Render the AO scene and save it as a

Fig 18
picture, too (Fig18).

19. Open both pictures (the original render and Fig 19
the AO pass) with Photoshop (Fig19).
20. Select the AO pass, copy it and paste it over

Fig 20
the original rendered image (Fig20).
21. Change the AO pass layer’s blending mode

Fig 21
to Overlay (Fig21).

Fig 22 22. Use the Levels tool to adjust the contrast of

the AO pass over the original image (Fig22).
23. Flatten all the layers together, then create a

Fig 23
copy of the Background layer and desaturate it
(Fig23).
24. Adjust the Levels to expose the areas with

Fig 24
more light (Fig24).

25. Change the blending mode to Linear Dodge Fig 25
and set the Opacity to 38% (Fig25).
26. Flatten all the layers together. Create

Fig 26
another blank layer and fill it with pure black.
Apply a Lens Flare filter, as shown in Fig26.
Move the flare over the light bulb on the furthest
left (Fig26).
27. Change the Blending mode for the Flare

Fig 27
layer to Screen and set its Opacity to about 90%
(Fig27).

Richard Tilbury
Tutorial by:
Luciano Iurino
For more from this artist visit::
www.pmstudios.it
Or contact them:
iuri@pmstudios.it
Fig 28 28. Duplicate the Flare pass and position it over

the second light bulb (Fig28).
29. Finally, you can use the Exposure tool and

the Shadow/Highlight tool to enhance the image
Fig 29
as you wish (Fig29).
Chapter 05 Candlelight

Candlelight
Candlelight Chapter 05
Fig 01
Candlelight
This time we’ll see how to light the ship cabin

with some candles. Only one candle will be
visibile, on the left of the room; the other two will
just light the scene and cast shadows, but will
be out of view (one on the right, and one in the
back of the room).
01. Open the 3DENV_Part5_Candle_Start.max

scene file. (Fig01)
Fig 02
02. First of all, we need to create a soft, ambient
lighting for our scene, which will resemble a
night time situation. Create a polygonal sphere
which surrounds all the scene. Select the lowe
half of the sphere and delete it. Select all the
remaining polygons and flip them to make them
point inward. (Fig02)
Fig 03
03. Open the Mat. Editor and create a new,
self-illuminated blueish material. Assign it to the
sphere. (Fig03)

Fig 04 04. Set Mental Ray as main renderer, and open

the Rendering panel. Switch to the Indirect
Illumination tab, enable Final Gather and set the
Multiplier to 5. Also, set the Multiplier color to a
dark blue and the Bounces to 10. (Fig4)
05. Render the scene. Now we have a basic

Fig 05
night lighting. (Fig05)
06. Let’s create the first candle light. Create a

Fig 06
mr Area Omni light and position it just above the
candle, on the left of the scene. (Fig06)

07 .Modify the light’s parameters as shown in
Fig07. Enable Shadows and make sure that
it’s set to Ray Traced. Set the Multiplier to 0,8
and the color to a bright yellow/orange. Set
the Decay type to Inverse and the Start value
to about 1,4. Also, copy the parameters for
Attenuation from Fig07.
08. In the Area Light Parameters rollout, enable

Fig 08
area shadows , set the type to Sphere, the
radius to 0,1 and U/V samples to 10/10. (Fig08)
09. Render the scene. The candle lighting now

Fig 09
looks pretty good. Now we need to add the other
two candle lights. (Fig09)

Fig 10 10.Create another mr Area Omni and position

it near the seat on the right of the scene. Make
sure that it’s just out of the view. (Fig10)
11.Modify its parameters as shown in Fig11.

Fig 11
The important thing here is the color (a darker
orange) and the Multiplier (0,75). Make it cast
shadows (Ray Traced), enable area shadows
and copy the parameters for the Attenuation
from Fig11.
12. Render the scene again to check this new

Fig 12
light, too. (Fig12)

13. Now create a third mr Area Omni and Fig 13
position it in the back of the room, just behind
the stairs. (Fig13)
14. Copy the parameters for this light from

Fig 14
Fig14.
15. Render the scene again. (Fig15)

Fig 15

Fig 16 16. The back light is too low, so we need to

increase its multiplier and set a brighter color.
(Fig16)
17. Render the scene. Now the back light seems

Fig 17
to be ok. (Fig17)
18. The room is still too dark, so we need to

Fig 18
increase the general ambient light. Open the
Environment panel and set the Env. Color as
shown in Fig18. Render the scene again.

19. Now we can set the parameters for the final Fig 19
rendering. Open the Rendering panel and switch
to the Indirect Illumination tab. Set the Rays
value to 350. Switch to the Renderer tab and
copy the parameters for the sampling quality
from Fig19.
20. In Fig20 you can see the final rendererd

Fig 20
image. Save it as a picture.
21. We also need an Ambient Occlusion pass

Fig 21
to composite it over the original rendering. This
will help to enhance the details of the rendering.
Open the 3DENV_Part5_Candle_AO.max scene
file. In Fig21 you can see the parameters of the
AO shader that was created and assigned to

Fig 22 22. Render the AO pass and save it as a

picture, too. (Fig22)
23. Now open both the original rendering and

Fig 23
the AO pass with Adobe Photoshop. (Fig23)
24. Select the AO pass, copy it, and paste it

Fig 24
over the original rendering. (Fig24) Change its
blending mode to Multiply and use the Levels
tool to adjust its contrast.

25.Select the Background (original rendering) Fig 25
layer and duplicate it. Desaturate it and adjust
its Levels to expose the brightest areas. (Fig25)
26.Apply a fair amount of Gaussian blur to this

Fig 26
new layer; use the Hue & Saturation tool to
colorize it with a yellow/orange color and change
its blending mode to Overlay. Also, decrease its
Opacity value to about 69%. (Fig26)
27.Flatten all the layers together. If you wish

Fig 27
you can use the Exposure tool to improve the
exposure of the final image. (Fig27)

Richard Tilbury
Tutorial by:
Luciano Iurino
For more from this artist visit::
www.pmstudios.it
Or contact them:
iuri@pmstudios.it
Chapter 06 Underwater

Underwater
Underwater Chapter 06
Fig 01
Underwater
In this last 3D Environment tutorial we’ll set up

a nice underwater scene for the ship cabin. Just
imagine it sunk and laying on the ocean bed.
You can find a lot of references all around the
web (for example, the “Titanic” movie) to see
how light behaves underwater, and most of all
the colours that you will need to use to give your
scene more realism.
1. First of all, let’s open the 3DENV_Part6_

Underwater.max scene file (Fig01).
Fig 02
2. We need to set up a basic lighting, and
then we can concentrate on obtaining a nice
underwater scene. Open the Rendering panel
(F10) and in the Common tab scroll down to the
Assign Renderer rollout and assign mental ray
Renderer as shown in Fig02.
Fig 03
3. Create a polygonal sphere, select its lower

half and delete it. Select all the remaining
polygons and flip them to make them point
inward.

Fig 04 4. Open the Material Editor (M) and create a

new Standard material of a blueish color. Also,
set its Self-Illumination parameter to 100%.
(Fig04)
5. Open the Rendering panel again and switch

Fig 05
to the Indirect Illumination tab. Enable Final
Gather and set its Mutliplier to 10. Also change
its color to a nice green. Set the Rays per FG
Point to 100 for now (we’ll increase it later for
the final rendering).
6. If we render the scene now (Fig06), you’ll

Fig 06
notice that it’s way too bright and greenish. It’s
because we don’t have any “real” light source
in the scene, so all the lighting is up to the Final
Gather solution we just created.

7. Create a mr Omni Light and position it Fig 07
anywhere in the scene. Make sure that it’s
disabled (uncheck the On option).
8. Render the scene again. As you can see, now

Fig 08
it’s much too dark. We can now start working
on this solution to create our desired lighting
situation.
9. Move the mr Omni Light in the right position

Fig 09
(just above the opening in the ceiling, as shown
in Fig09) and copy the parameters from the
picture in the middle of Fig09.

Fig 10 10. Render the scene. Now it looks much better,

and the colors start to look fine. The shadows
are just too sharp, we need to blur them a little
with the Area Light feature.
11. Reach for the Area Light Parameter rollout

Fig 11
in the Light properties, make sure that it’s set
to On. Also check if the Type is set to Sphere.
Increase the Radius value up to 0,25m and the
Samples values (both U and V) to 10.
12. Render the scene again. This time we can

Fig 12
increase the rendering resolution to 640x480 to
have a better feedback on the overall quality of
the picture.

13. Now we’re ready to set the parameters for Fig 13
the final rendering. Open the Rendering panel
and pump up the Rays per FG Point value to
500. Switch to the Renderer tab and copy the
parameters from the right picture in Fig13.
14. Here is our final rendering pass. We can

Fig 14
save it for later use in Photoshop.
15. Now open the 3DEnv_Underwater_Volume.

Fig 15
max scene file.

Fig 16 16. This scene was created to render the

Volume Light effect. There are different ways
to get this task done; we could use Mental
Ray’s own volume effect, but it would require
longer rendering times. So I choose to use the
standard volume light effect of 3dsmax. In this
scene a pure black material was assigned to
17. Open the Environment panel (8 shortcut

Fig 17
key). As you can see, a new Volume Light
effect was created and both the Directional
lights present in the scene were assigned to it.
(Fig17). Have a look at all the other parameters
marked in red in Fig17 and copy them in your
scene.
18. Render the scene. Everything is pure

Fig 18
black and here is our Volume effect. Save
this rendering as a picture for later use in
Photoshop.

19. We also need an Ambient Occlusion (AO) Fig 19
pass to enhance the details in the rendering.
Open the 3DEnv_Underwater_AO.max scene
file and refer to Fig19 to see the AO shader
that was created assigned to every object in the
scene.
20. Here is the AO Pass rendering. Save

Fig 20
this picture, too. We’ll composite it later in
Photoshop over the original rendering.
21. Lastly, we need one more pass to composite

Fig 21
the final image. We need some particles and
bubbles all over the scene, otherwise it won’t
look like an underwater scene. Open the
3DEnv_Underwater_Particles.max file. In this
scene a pure black color material was assigned
to everything (just like before with the Volume
pass), and some particle systems were created
and put here and there in the scene.

Fig 22 22. If you select the particle systems and open

their Object Properties, you will notice that the
Motion Blur effect is enabled; this was done
to give the bubbles and particles some motion
effect, since we’re doing a static rendering and
not an animation.
23. You can also check the material that was

Fig 23
created and assigned to the particles.
24. Render this last pass and save it as a

Fig 24
picture. (Fig24) Now we’re ready to composite
all the passes together in Photoshop or similar
2D applications.

25. Let’s start with the AO Pass. Open the Fig 25
original rendering and the AO Pass.
26. Copy the AO Pass and paste it over the

Fig 26
original rendering. Change the Blending Mode
for the AO Pass to Multiply and set its Opacity
value to 70. (Fig26)
27. Flatten the two layers together. Import the

Fig 27
Volume pass and paste it over the Background
layer. (Fig27). Change the Blending Mode to
Linear Dodge and set the Opacity value to 79%.

Fig 28 28. Flatten the layers again. Import the Particles

pass and paste it over the Background layer.
Change the Blending mode to Linear Dodge and
change its opacity until you’re happy with the
result. You can make the bubbles and particles
more or less evident; it’s really up to you.
29. Flatten everything once again, and create

Fig 29
a copy of the Background layer. Desaturate it
and use the Levels tools to adjust its levels like
shown in Fig29.
30 .Apply a fair amount of Gaussian Blur to the

Fig 30
top layer and change the Blending Mode to
Linear Dodge. Also change the Opacity value
to 83%.

31. You can also colorize the top layer with a Fig 31
blue colour.
32. Finally, use the Exposure tool to enhance

Fig 32
the exposure of the picture (Fig 32).
This concludes our environmental lighting

series. I hope you found it of some use.

3D Environment Lighting
Part 6 - Underwater
Originally Designed & Modelled by

Richard Tilbury
Tutorial by:
Luciano Iurino
www.pmstudios.it
Or contact them:
iuri@pmstudios.it
Introduction:
The aim of our training DVD’s is to provide the artist with the most comprehensive set of lessons available. This is
achieved by presenting the training material in the form of:
- step-by-step tuition.
- on-screen visual and audio instructions.
- ongoing forum support from the author.
- full-screen resolution flash movies.
All aspects of creating the finished projects are taught in a way that artist of all levels will be able to learn at their own
pace. Once these techniques have been learnt , they can be equally applied to all your future modelling and texturing
projects.
- Section 1: The Basics - Using the Interface.

- Section 2: Modelling - Head, Nose, Horns & the Eyes.
- Section 3: Mapping & Unwrapping.
- Section 4: Texturing - Painting Skin, Eyes & the Horns.
- Training by in-house 3D Artist Richard Tilbury.
- Over 3hrs 30mins of comprehensive training.
- Printable step by step PDF.
- Suitable for all levels of artist.
- Section 1: The Basics - Using the Interface.

- Section 2: Modelling - Head, Nose, Horns & the Eyes.
- Section 4: Texturing - Painting Skin, Eyes & the Horns.
- Training by Julian Sarmineto - Sony Picture Imageworks.
- Over 3hrs 30mins of comprehensive training.
- Printable step by step PDF.
- Section 1: Modelling.
- Section 4: Texturing.
- 8hrs 30mins of comprehensive training.
for more products in our range visit http://www.3dtotal.com/shop

: volume 2
Available Now Only!

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Features 58 of the finest digital

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Patrick Beaulieu
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Buy the book to see just

how they create their
incredible imagery!
Hardback 21.6cm x 27.9cm in size
for more products in our range visit http://www.3dtotal.com/shop 288 Full Colour premium paper pages
Introduction:
The ‘Eva Wild Series’ – Our aim in this series is to pro-
vide comprehensive lessons to produce a complete fully
rigged, textured and anatomically correct female char-
acter. This series fits well into 3 DVDs with 3 separate
professional 3ds Max instructors taking you through each
if their specialties in very detailed step by step processes
making this training suitable for artists of all levels.
Part 1 - Modelling:
- Complete step by step modelling of the Eva Wild character.
- Teaches the importance of studying human anatomy.
- Provides clear diagrams showing muscle flow and bone structure.
- 14 hours of comprehensive training.
- Suitable for artist of all levels.
Part 2 - Texturing, Mapping & Clothing:

- Complete step by step texturing process of the Eva Wild
character.
- Modelling and Texturing of Eva Wild garments.
- Lighting the character.
- 4 hours and 47 mins of comprehensive training.
Part 3 - Rigging & Animation

- Complete step by step of setting up a fully animatable
rig for the Eva Wild character.
- Creating a walk Cycle.
- Creating a simple face morph.
- 7 hours and 43 mins of comprehensive training.

Introduction:
Michel Roger’s famous ‘Joan of Arc’
tutorial re-written for Maya by Taylor
Kingston, Cinema 4D by Giuseppe
Guglielmucci & Nikki Bartucci,
Lightwave by Vojislav Milanovich and
Softimage by Luciano Iurino and
3DCreative Magazine.com.
If there has been one single tutorial

that has educated and inspired more
budding 3d artists than anything else,
this complete step by step project by
Michel’s must be it. The community
is in debt to him.
These 120 plus page, Downloadable PDF’s are

designed for ease of use to help beginners and
intermediate level of artist alike in the creation
of a female character. The tutorial takes you
through the process of modelling, texturing and
mapping to finally adding bones.
Chapter 1: Modeling of the Body
- Body
Chapter 2: Modeling of the Head
- Head, Ear & Assembly
Chapter 3: Modeling of the Accessories
- The Sword & Armour Legs
- Armour Bust, Hair & Glove
- Accessories & UVW Mapping
Chapter 6: UVW Mapping
- Sword, Clothing, Armour & Body
Chapter 7: Texturing & Hair
- Eyes, Skin & Hair
Chapter 8: Bones & Skinning
- Bases, Hierarchy & Skinning
Image by Michel Roger

Introduction:
A Collection of the finest independent animated
movies and commercial trailers. The DVD includes
work from a whole number or different sources,
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- Running Time: 3hrs 8 mins

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- Running Time: 3hrs 8 mins

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Downloadable Tutorial EBook
Introduction:
The original character of the Swordmaster
was created by Seong-wha Jeong and we
had 3DTotal’s in-house 3d artist Richard
Tilbury, re-create the character in 3dsmax
as well as create the textures in Photoshop,
in our new precise, step-by-step tutorial for
highly polished, low polygon game character
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ing. We have also converted the tutorials into
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them, the principles should be easily followed
in nearly all other 3D applications.
The Swordmaster tutorials is spread over 8

Chapters which outline, in detail, the process
for creating the Swordmaster below are the
details.
image by Seong-wha Jeong
Chapter 1: Modelling the Head

Chapter 2: Modelling the Torso
Chapter 3: Modelling the Arms & Legs
Chapter 4: Modelling the Clothing & Hair
Chapter 5: Modelling the Armour
Chapter 6: Mapping & Unwrapping
Chapter 7: Texturing the Skin & Body
Chapter 8: Texturing the Armour & Clothing

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Sunny Afternoon - Twilight - Moonlight - Electrical -

Welcome to the first part of this new set of

1. Let’s start by taking a look at our scene. Fig 02

2. Examining the 3D scene, we can see that

3. We will use the Mental Ray renderer for our

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 4 Environment Lighting

5. If we render the scene now, we’ll see just the

6. Create a Target Direct light and position it as

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 5 Environment Lighting

7. Enable Shadows and set its type to Ray Fig 07

8. Render the scene again (Fig08). Now we

9. Create an Omni light and position it as

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 6 Environment Lighting

11. Create a sphere that surrounds the whole

12. Make the sphere an Editable Poly object,

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 7 Environment Lighting

13. Select all of the polygons (Ctrl + A) and flip Fig 13

14. Open the Material Editor and create a new

15. Open the Rendering panel and switch to

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 8 Environment Lighting

17. Set the Diffuse Bounces to 10 and render

18. Set the Diffuse Bounces to 20 and increase

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 9 Environment Lighting

19. Since we increased the light’s Multiplier, Fig 19

20. To add another little bit of light, we can

21. Now we can start making some test renders

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 10 Environment Lighting

23. Now let’s raise the quality of the Final

24. Now that we have a pretty good lighting

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 11 Environment Lighting

25. Adjust the Levels until you get something Fig 25

26. Change the Blending mode for the top layer

27. Set the top layer’s opacity to a lower value,

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 12 Environment Lighting

29. Import this new render into Photoshop and

30. If you want, you can improve the exposure

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 13 Environment Lighting

Originally designed and modelled by:

Chapter 02 Natural Exterior Lighting

1. This chapter, we’ll set up our lighting scene

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 17 Environment Lighting

Fig 04 4. Create a simple Omni light and position it

5. Select the Omni light and change its

6. Now create another Omni light. This time,

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 18 Environment Lighting

8. Open the Area Light Parameters rollout. Make

9. Before we start rendering the scene, we

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 19 Environment Lighting

Fig 10 10. Now we can do a quick test render (Fig10).

11. Open the Rendering panel once again and

12. Render the scene again. This time it will take

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 20 Environment Lighting

14. Render the scene again, and save the final

15. Now we need to render an Ambient

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 21 Environment Lighting

Fig 16 16. Render the scene to create the Ambient

17. Start Photoshop and import both the original

18. Switch to the Ambient Occlusion image.

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 22 Environment Lighting

20. Now select both layers and use Ctrl + E to

21. Duplicate the background layer and

www.3dcreativemag.com Page 23 Environment Lighting

Fig 22 22. Change the Levels until you expose the