Recommendation: NSDT scene editor helps you quickly build 3D application scenes that can be redeveloped
1. Prepare the scene
step 1
Open 3ds Max . smart_phone.max open is provided with the tutorial.
Open 3ds Max
step 2
- Press M to open the material editor . Select an empty material slot.
- Click on the Diffuse channel. It will open the Material/Map browser window.
- Select Bitmap and click OK.
material editor
step 3
Select the screen.jpg image. This will be used as the phone screen.
texture
step 4
I used several omni lights in the scene.
lamp
step 5
Press Shift-Q or F9 to render the frame. This looks fine, but now there is no reflective sheen on the screen.
render scene
2. Create a reflective sheen
step 1
Create a plane with a length and width of 200 and 80 respectively .
create plane
step 2
Place this plane in front of the phone as shown in the image below.
put the plane in front
step 3
- Press M to open the material editor
- Select an empty material slot
- Set the diffuse color to gray
- Increase the self-illumination level to 100%
- Apply this material to a flat surface
material editor
step 4
With the screen material slot selected, click the reflection channel.
reflection
step 5
It will open the Material/Map Browser window. Select Ray Tracing and click OK .
Material/Map Browser
step 6
With the plane selected, right click and select Object Properties .
object properties
step 7
It will open the Object Properties window. Turn off the Visible camera option. Click OK .
visible to camera
step 8
Press Shift-Q or F9 to render the frame.
This time you get a strong reflective sheen on your phone screen. The reflective plane is there, but you can't see it in the rendered frame because you have turned off the "Visible" to camera option.
render scene
3. Specular Gloss pass rendering for compositing
step 1
If you want to control the visibility or intensity of the specular sheen, you'll need to render it as a separate channel so you can later use it in compositing software.
for a separate pass
step 2
Press F10 to open the Render Setup window. Click the Render Elements tab.
render settings
step 3
Click the Add button. Choose from Diffuse , Lighting and Reflections . Click OK .
render element
step 4
Click the Render button.
present
step 5
You will get three different passes called Diffuse , Lighting and Reflections . Save each of them as a TGA file format.
save pass
4. Compositing in After Effects
step 1
Turn on After Effects .
after opening effect
step 2
Import all 3 channels one by one and arrange them sequentially on the timeline.
import pass
step 3
Place the reflection layer on top of the diffuse layer. It looks very dark.
Sort wise layers
step 4
Change the Blending Mode of the reflection layer to Add . Now you see the reflective sheen on the screen. Since this Reflective Gloss Pass is a separate layer, you can easily control it without affecting any other layers.
Add blend mode
in conclusion
The reflective gloss channel adds beauty to the final output. There is a fairly easy setup. If you use it as a separate channel, it can be easily controlled in post-production software.
Original text link: How 3ds Max performs synthetic reflection glossy channel rendering (mvrlink.com)