In this tutorial you will go through the process of modeling and rendering a Living Room in Autodesk Maya. You will learn to use Mental Ray, along with the new architectural materials, and also create realistic fur, implement studio lighting for nice and soft shadows and highlights, and then execute the final render.
Final Effect Preview
Step 1
Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade”.
Step 2
Inside the 'Hypershade' editor, with “Create mental ray Nodes" active, create a new “mia_material_x”.
Step 3
Open the 'Attributes' editor for the “mia_material_x”, and name the material "sofa". This will make sure your 'Hypershade' window stays organized.
Step 4
Under the “Diffuse” section, change the color to a beige tone.
Step 5
Adjust the settings below as shown:
Step 6
Scroll down to the “Bump” section, click on “Overall Bump”, and select the 2D “Mountain” texture.
Step 7
Change the “Bump Depth” value to '0.001', and then go to the “Bump Value” settings.
Step 8
Leave the default settings as they are.
Step 9
Check the 'Hypershade' editor to make sure everything is correct.
Step 10
Now assign the material you just created to both sofas.
Step 11
Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade” to open the 'Hypershade' editor.
Step 12
With “Create mental ray Nodes" active, create a new “mia_material_x”.
Step 13
Go to the 'Attributes' editor of the new material, name it "Table", and then change the following options:
Step 14
Now scroll down to the “Refraction” section, and change the following options:
Step 15
Apply the new material to the table.
Step 16
Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade”, and open the 'Hypershade' editor.
Step 17
With “Create Mental Ray" nodes active, create a new “mia_material_x”.
Step 18
Go to the 'Attributes' editor of the new material, name it "Legs", and select one of the presets named "Chrome". This will automatically create a chrome material.
Step 19
Apply the chrome material to the legs of the sofas, and also to the vase.
Step 20
Open the “Hypershade” editor.
Step 21
With “Create mental ray Nodes" active, create a new “mia_material_x”.
Step 22
Go to the 'Attributes' editor of the material we just created, name it "Table Base", and add a file texture to the "Diffuse Color" slot.
Step 23
Under 'File Attributes', click on the "Image Name" option to browse for a wood texture of your own choice.
Step 24
Apply the new material to the table base, and if you look closely, you will see that you need to adjust the UV mapping.
Step 25
Select the table base, then go to “Create UVs > Spherical Mapping”.
Step 26
The texture should now look much better.
Step 27
Now go to “Create > Polygon Primitives > Sphere” to create some geometry for the carpet.
Step 28
Position the sphere accordingly.
Step 29
Then scale it to an appropriate size.
Step 30
Open the 'Hypershade' editor”.
Step 31
With “Create mental ray Nodes" active, create a new “mia_material_x”.
Step 32
Go to the 'Attributes' editor of the new material, name it "Carpet", change the "Diffuse" color to a beige tone, and change the "Reflectivity" to '0'.
Step 33
Apply the new material to the carpet.
Step 34
Select the carpet object, go to the “Fur” tab, and select the “Sheep” preset.
Step 35
In the 'Attributes' editor of the "Fur" you just created, change the "Base" and "Tip" colors to beige.
Step 36
Go to “Create > Lights > Area Light”.
Step 37
Position the new "Area Light".
Step 38
Duplicate the "Area Light", and position the copy accordingly.
Step 39
In the 'Attributes' editor of both lights, change the "Intensity" to '0.450'.
Step 40
Scroll down to the “Raytrace Shadow Attributes” section, enable “Use Ray Trace Shadows”, and change the “Shadow Ray” to '15'. Again, do it for both lights.
Step 41
Position the camera as you see fit.
Step 42
Go to “Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings”, to open the “Render Settings” window .
Step 43
Inside the “Render Settings” window, change the “Render Using” option to “mental ray”. Then, under the “Quality” tab, change the “Max Sample Level” to "2", and under the “Multi-pixel Filtering” section, change the “Filter” to “Gauss”. Lastly, under the “Raytracing” section, change the following options:
Step 44
Go to the “Indirect Lighting” tab, and in the “Final Gathering” section, enable “Final Gathering”, change the “Accuracy” to "300", and adjust the “Point Density” to "0.200".
Step 45
If you render the scene now, you will see that it still needs more light.
Step 46
Go to “Window > Outliner”, to open the “Outliner” window, and then select your camera.
Step 47
In the 'Attributes' editor of the camera, scroll down to the “Environment” section, and change the “Background Color” to grey. This will make all of the surroundings brighter.
Step 48
If you render the scene, you should see that it looks a lot better. The carpet, however, still needs some work.
Step 49
Select the carpet, and go to the 'Attributes' editor of the fur. Change the “Density” to "50000", adjust the “Tip Color” to a whiter beige, and increase the “Length” to "1.200".
Step 50
If you are still not happy with the carpet at this point, you can try adjusting the "Fur" to your own settings. That's it! Hope you enjoyed the tutorial!!
