Mastering mental ray®: Rendering Techniques for 3D & CAD Professionals

Chapter 8. Effects

In mental ray, camera effects can be any one of a variety of things, including lens shaders that distort or change the rays coming into the camera, output shaders that process the image after it is rendered, and volume shaders that simulate suspended particles in an environment. Effects produced with camera shaders have the advantage that they often process the rendered image or work with other rendered data, rather than work in true 3D, and can therefore produce effects much faster than a true 3D effect. One disadvantage to using effects in 3ds Max/Design rather than an application like 3ds Max Composite is that the effect is burned into the rendered image, so you can only change it by rerendering the scene.

In this chapter, ...