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Welcome to another new video tutorial on 3ds max (Version 9 here)
Firstly, we will set MAX to Mental Ray. Click RENDER SETUP or press "F10"
Click the ASSIGN RENDER menu
Choose MENTAL RAY as the production renderer
Now we have to create a DAYLIGHT SYSTEM
In the CREATE PANEL select SYSTEM and DAYLIGHT
Clic YES to choose MR Photographic exposure control which will make the scene more realistic with the daylight
Simply Click and Drag to create it in the TOP VIEW
In the MODIFY panel choose MANUAL to move manually the sun
Then choose MR SUN and MR SKY
Clic YES to create the SKY !
Now if you render your scene you will have a blue sky, a sun and a grey ground
We will add some clouds in the sky so press "M" to launch the MATERIAL EDITOR
Now press "8" to launch the ENVIRONMENT & EFFECTS PANEL
Clic and Drag the MR PHYSICAL SKY to a slot in the MATERIAL EDITOR
Select INSTANCE so that your change are directly effective in the original material
UnClick INHERIT FROM MR SKY
Click NONE to use a personal MAP for the clouds
Select BITMAP and find your clouds in any picture format (jpg, bmp...)
We will use a map I have downloaded on the internet
You can see it have High Contrasted Clouds. Like a HDRI MAP
Now increase the OUTPUT AMOUNT to 3.0
Your sky is now created !
If I add some geometry you can see that shadows aren't black due to ATMOSPHERE LIGHT of the DAYLIGHT SYSTEM
We will now create a OCEAN, so SCALE a big PLANE
Press M, then clic on any empty slot and change the MATERIAL
Choose PROMATERIAL - WATER (select SEA OCEAN ) and click PUT MATERIAL TO SCENE
Now I try to render with some different sun orientation...
Decrease the VISIBILITY DISTANCE of your scene in the DAYLIGHT configuration menu to make it more realisitic
You can move the sun to have a different kind of result
The scene is a little dark here so we will solve that.
Press "8" and decrease the EXPOSURE VALUE
Ok the exposure is better but we can see that our horizon line is to high
Go to the material editor (press "M") and decrease the HORIZON HEIGHT
Now it's good ! You have a realistic Environment for all your exterior scenes !