Rendering with mental ray and 3ds Max, 2nd Edition

2.1 Introduction

Rendering with mental ray® in 3ds Max is often seen as a black art. In the last few releases of 3ds Max, Autodesk has done an admirable job of adjusting default parameters so that when you click the Render button you’re almost assured of a rendered image that is usable.

To be productive, however, you’ll need to learn which of the many parameters and settings will give you the most “bang for the buck.” In this chapter you’ll learn some of the methods of mental ray rendering along with some of the settings that will help optimize the rendering process.

The following topics will be covered:

•  Gamma correction

•  Final gather rendering

•  GI (global illumination) rendering

•  Ambient occlusion

•  Render presets

The major difference ...