V-Ray Next GPU for 3ds Max, update 1
2 Things... LA Motor Show and Next Update 1..... first impressions? well... once again..solid as rock.
Before jumping into the new features, i would like to share that i totally fell in love for compositing with lights (LightSelect mode Full) instead of passes.... this isn't a new feature from this last update or even from next but i´ll just drop it here for those who love to pimp it up the renders in post.
Composers spend most part of the time cleaning undesired speculars, reflections and grading certain parts of the car, by using this approach things seems to get more easy and having the chance to grade each light source individually makes more sense (once again nothing new here, just exited by changing a workflow that i followed for several years)
You can also notice that i only have 3 image passes, making it more simple and easy to shuffle out the final image, and also that Cryptomatte replaced the good old buddy MultiMatteElement (new feature in the bucket GPU, ill get there)
Same compositing principle down by rendering a separate LightSelect for the wheel highlights
Viewport IPR
I think that the feature that got the most WOW effect from the community was the viewport IPR, having the chance to raycast on your viewport while moving geometry its cool, just cool. This was the project i was currently working on during Vlado´s announcement, couldn't really resist to grab a print to show it later.
Cryptomatte render element (My favorite)
Recently i had to produce some kind of grid configurator for 26 porsche cars.
In total there was 4 light variations, each one in different 24 grid positions, yup... that´s 624 completely different renders with 4 light passes inside, that´s 2496 things that can go wrong, and honestly i dont see myself doing it again without the backup of Cryptomatte.
Lens Effects and New GPU dispersion
One thing that all the automotive artists have in common its their love for flares, bring those lens flares!...
The new obstacle image on Lens Effect brought me the option to archive a billion different artistic flares, plus, its more efficient time wise get it already on the beauty instead of adding/tracking stuff in post. (goodbye my dear friend VideoCoPilot Optical Flares, you will be remembered with love)
PS. EDIT. Got a bunch of people asking what images i was dropping on the obstacle image to archive these results.... answered to a few and they had a good laugh, people would think that i was using custom made textures... well...nop... who has time to make custom maps for flares? Dirt.!.!.!..... dirt textures... gives you a awesome random variation. Contrast, repetition and patterns always give awesome results...i cant really share it because they were bought.. here are some thumbnails (and the one i´ve used) to help you understand better what kind of images you should search for. Dont try to imagine, you will understand the behave once you start trying different textures. :)
New GPU dispersion
Its here and it works. Subtle effect but hey... the diference its on the details right? It improves the overall look on thicker glass such as precious stones. (didn't really had the chance to render something)
Faster fog with GPU
The new Fog renders faster and cleaner, in some cases you get faster render times just by adding it (crazy right?)
Check how nicely the new Lens Effect and the new Fog blend together.
Check how nicely the new Lens Effect and the new Fog blend together.
Bucket render
The bucket brought not only the option to get CryptoMatte running on GPU, but also usage optimization on distributed/local rendering. Having the option to add GPUs on 4K renders its not a game changer on performance, but on 32.000px renders(next 2 images)... well... imagine 24 GPUs rendering it on your lunch break.
Some of the billion variations...! LOL
