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

Click on the image to open a High-Rez version.

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!!