Vray Materials - Diffuse - VISCORBEL

07/11/2015
VrayMaterialsPart1Diffuse/VISCORBEL
VISCORBEL
SUPPORT FOR 3D ARTISTS
March 27, 2015
Vray Materials Part 1 Diuse

I think its time to redo my vray material guide with updated techniques and software.
The old one is still valid and a good reference for how the vray shaders work, but there are a
few changes in my approach and understanding of the shading process.
Ill break this guide up into multiple posts so its not a huge essay that takes hours to read.
Lets start with the basics.
PBR or physically based rendering

PBR is currently a hot topic, everyone from Disney to game engines are using it. So what
exactly is PBR?
Until recently, the dominant approach in CG was using any means necessary to get the
nal render. If it looks good, its good. So theres a lot of guesswork for the settings and
a lot of artistic decisions that make the nal image. This method still works, but overall
the industry is slowly shifting towards a dierent approach PBR
http://viscorbel.com/vraymaterialspart1diffuse/
1/19
07/11/2015
For PBR the main idea is that you should use realistic data from real world to make your
3d scenes. This means realistic light intensities and realistic diuse/specular/etc settings
for your shaders.
The main advantage, I think, is that its harder to make your images look fake or CG.
The strict rules imposed by PBR make sure that the renderer is at least working with a
realistic inputs and thus is much more likely to create a realistic output. Im not saying
the images will look better (theres plenty of shitty real photos), but they will look more
realistic.
If your goal is to make realistic renderings, this is absolutely the way to go. If your
values are set right, you can spend more time working on the design, composition,
lighting and postwork things that actually matter.
So lets get started on the actual practical information:
Diuse
Diuse color is the light that is reected from an object in random DIRECTIONS
. Some
lightwaves are absorbed and some are reected, if dierent wavelengths are absorbed
by dierent amounts, the result is a colored.
Measured data from real world suggests that almost all surfaces reect 3~90% of the
light as Diuse color.
The main exceptions are metals, which do not scatter the light but instead bounce it right
back from the surface. Their Diuse should be set to pure black. At least for pure, clean, nonoxidized metals
Once we convert this to RGB range its something like [8;8;8] for blackest coal and
[230;230;230] for the whitest snow. Most surfaces fall somewhere in between. Even
things like paper sheet or white paint are only something like ~70% [179;179;179] and
85% reective [204;204;204] denitely no higher than that.
2/19
07/11/2015
If you are using Textures instead of color values, its a good idea to make sure that your
image falls within this range, but theres a catch Gamma
Photo sourced textures come with a burned in srgb gamma correction of 2.2. This
means that to get the image to look the same in 3ds max, it must be loaded with the
gamma setting of 2.2
The side eect of this is that the values you use in photoshop do not match with the
linear values that vray outputs. If your texture is medium gray in photoshop, the actual
amount of reected diuse light is going to be only 22% instead of 50%.
When we convert the diuse color range to sRGB, we get values of 50~243
The formula used: sRGB=(linearpercent/100)^(1/2.2)*255.
As an example, to get 4% reectance from an srgb texture we can use this calculation.
(4/100)^(1/2.2)*255=59
You dont actually have to do the math every time, scroll down for a chart that allows
you to easily convert between the two.
All these numbers seem complicated, but the things that you should take away from
this are:
Diuse is darker than we think it is most of the time.
The blacks are not as black as we think.
Make sure that gamma correction doesnt fu*k up your values
3/19
07/11/2015
To get a rough idea on where dierent material diuse brightness falls in linear and
srgb color space just use this handy little graph I made (click to enlarge)
Simply pick the color in photoshop and see the value in either of the gradients. This is
not something that you have to use as a law, but just to give you a basic approximation.
Nobody is going to get upset if your sand is 47% bright instead of 45%.
So how do we actually get the texture to fall within the range we need in Photoshop?
You need to use either Levels or Curves. Heres quick guide:
Open up your texture and decide the range where its values should t in.
For example heres a dirty concrete texture that should be about 75% reective or
[190;190;190] in srgb space.
Open it up in photoshop and press Ctrl+L for levels tool.

4/19
07/11/2015
1. Make sure the black and white points are adjusted to just touch the histogram on left
and right and adjust the output values.
2. Since the main color of clean concrete should be about 190, move the whites down to
195 (some dirt streaks seem brighter than actual concrete). Now move the blacks up to
about 65, since the dirt and grime is probably about as dark as dark soil, not darker.
Thats it the image should now be a realistic, usable Diuse map. The dierence is not
very strong in this case, but its noticeable. Overall texture is a bit darker, whereas
before it was too bright.
5/19
07/11/2015
If you are used to work with full 0~255 range of color in your scenes, the resulting
renders might seem at or low contrast.
While this might be the initial impression, working in a linear space gets you more than
enough color range to bring in some contrast in post.
So dont be afraid of at images coming out of your renderer, its nothing that some
simple postwork cant make as crisp and contrasty as any other workow.
Heres a simple example with coal-black material looking quite light in the render but
rich and dark after adjusting the curves.
6/19
07/11/2015
So thats it for the Part 1 Diuse

Stay tuned for the next part where Ill cover Reection settings!
VRay Tutorials
21 Comments
Austris
Linear workow and Gamma

Vray Materials Part 2 Reection
21 thoughts on Vray Materials Part 1 Diuse

March 27, 2015 at 8:33 pm
Jon Wendzina
Austris, thats awesome! Has your rethinking on materials got anything to do with
Grant Warwicks recent set of vray tutorials?
7/19
07/11/2015
Reply
April 2, 2015 at 9:32 pm
Austris
*looks like the comments made from admin page never actually
appear :/
Ive picked up some tricks from Grant, but my workow is dierent.
Ive also studied how things are done in other software and in game
engines so theres a lot information to process and these posts help
me put everything together.
Reply
March 27, 2015 at 8:58 pm
Vitali Yakimenko
Man thanks for the lesson !
Reply
March 28, 2015 at 8:29 pm
Marcio
Thank you! See you on next lesson!
Reply
8/19
07/11/2015
March 28, 2015 at 8:34 pm
Oscar
Awesome Lecture.
Reply
March 30, 2015 at 11:30 am
Lelio
Theres a little thing i want to ask.. Sorry in advance for the ignorance.
If we setup vrays output gamma to 1.0, so we work in VFB without displaying colors
in SRGB space.. We have the same problem?
Reply
April 2, 2015 at 9:40 pm
Austris
Not sure why you would do that, its not a proper setup for linear
workow. The nal linear image, should be gamma corrected for
viewing either directly in vray or in postwork.
Gamma 2.2 in vray color mapping settings just changes the way vray
does sampling. Its more ecient as it takes into account that the
image will be corrected to srgb.
You can still view the linear image in the vfb by not turning on the srgb
button and setting color mapping mode to none dont apply
anything
9/19
07/11/2015
The bitmap input gamma is an entirely dierent thing all photos

come with a burned in gamma correction so they must have the 2.2
inverse gamma applied anyway.
Reply
March 30, 2015 at 9:30 pm
Teun
Hi Austris,
Thanks for this great lesson.
In below link also an easy way for making diuse / albedo PBR textures.
http://www.cryengine.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=291&t=127206
In photoshop the right diuse-albedo value is the median. You can nd it in the
the histogram.
Also some interesting tips on how to set up photoshop.
Looking forward to your next lesson!
Thanks man!
Reply
April 2, 2015 at 9:42 pm
Austris
Thanks for the tip! Quite useful to quickly see the average pixel value :)
Reply
10/19
07/11/2015
April 2, 2015 at 10:02 am
Jackie
Hi Austris,
heres a dirty concrete texture that should be about 75% reective or [190;190;190]
in srgb space. may i know where can i get the 75% reective value, is there any
reference chart for all kind of material in real world?
Reply
April 2, 2015 at 9:45 pm
Austris
I just used the chart I made for the post. Pick with a color picker from
the srgb gradient somewhere around the concrete mark.
I think theres enough materials there to make an educated guess for
other materials that are not included. Just compare them to the ones
in the chart and decide how much darker/lighter they should be. Its
not an exact science, getting close enough is enough.
75% is actually the value corrected for srgb, linear reectance is only
about ~53%. Sorry if thats worded a bit confusing.
Reply
April 2, 2015 at 5:16 pm
Quan Nguyen
11/19
07/11/2015
Thank you!
Reply
April 4, 2015 at 10:35 pm
Robert
Tnx. :)
Reply
April 5, 2015 at 7:49 am
pfx
Short, sweet and to the point thanks for a great tutorial.
PFX
Reply
April 5, 2015 at 7:14 pm
Locb
Austris, thanks for this lesson.
Am i righ that in diuse slot we need to use albedo like this
https://corona-renderer.com/forum/index.php?topic=2359.0 ?
Reply
12/19
07/11/2015
April 7, 2015 at 1:02 pm
Teun
Hi Austris,
A Simple question:
I often have to make diuse textures in a specic Paint color. Like RAL9010 or
RAL7022. How would you handle those specic colors? I nd it quite hard to get the
values right in PBR?
Reply
April 7, 2015 at 1:15 pm
worm
Rather than trying to copy the colour numbers into the vray colour
picker, I would make a texture in photoshop which is the correct
colour, then use that as a map in the diuse slot.
Reply
April 7, 2015 at 1:41 pm
Austris
Hi,
those ral values are kind of subjective, as they are only correct when
used within a closed system they are correct when compared to each
other only.
13/19
07/11/2015
After a quick look at the range of the ral colors, it seems that they go
from jet black [10;10;10] to pure white [255;255;255] So it seems that
the lower limit is ok, but the upper limit is too bright for actual pbr.
Simple solution make a small color swatch bitmap in photoshop, ll it
with the ral color and using levels tool move the whites down to 236
(80 % linear which is maximum for acrylic paint). Save the bitmap and
use it as a map in vray. thats how I would do it.
Keep in mind that you need to do this for all ral colors you use,
otherwise the relationship between them is incorrect.
Reply
April 7, 2015 at 2:40 pm
Teun
Thanks for the quick reply guys. I really appreciate it. The
question was bothering me for a couple of months now.
I always make a RAL texture in photoshop (JPG from
Google, or a scan from a real RAL color chart). The
problem is in the bright values / images as Austris
explained above. The solution with the levels tool works
like a charm to resolve this problem. Thanks Austris!
But manually correcting all RAL colours somehow seems
wrong to me. If PBR is the way for physically correct
rendering, I just dont understand why it is so dicult to
reproduce these simple (RAL)colors in a way that it
14/19
07/11/2015
corresponds to reality. It feels strange to have a scanned

RAL color image and then using the levels tool to make it
darker so that it renders physically correct.
Im probably thinking way too much about something
unimportant Time for some sleep ;-).
Reply
April 7, 2015 at 6:08 pm
Austris
Well think of it this way the ral colors are
there to represent colors of paint (or
pigment in plastics, varnishes, etc.)
The paint itself is not the brightest possible
object in the world, the whitest paint is still
darker than snow and other super bright
things.
Vray uses a larger range of values to
represent all the possible brightness range,
even things darker and lighter than the paint
pigments could ever be.
Since the ral system doesnt need to show
any colors that are brighter than it could
actually show (since its impossible) it takes
the whitest pigment as max rgb value Its
just using a scale thats dierent from the
one we use in vray.
15/19
07/11/2015
Reply
April 8, 2015 at 6:48 am
Teun
Thanks Austris.
I now fully understand.
Leave a Reply
Comment
Your email address will not be published. Required elds are marked *
Name *
Email *
16/19
07/11/2015
Website
I'm not a robot

reCAPTCHA
Privacy - Terms
Post Comment
Search
Your Account
Access Your DOWNLOADS
Categories
3Ds MAX Tutorials
Marvelous Designer Tutorials
Misc
Photoshop Tutorials
VRay Tutorials
ZBrush Tutorials
Recent Posts
VrayTriplanarTex = awesome
Using Real World Map size with UV unwrapped models
Vray Materials Part 3 Metals
17/19
07/11/2015
Vray Materials Part 2 Reection

Vray Materials Part 1 Diuse
Linear workow and Gamma
Color Correcting textures in 3Ds MAX
UE4 my rst attempt at realtime archviz
2015 SIA VISCORBEL
18/19
07/11/2015
rSSwhOCHX9cYZuXNHH5BJ
19/19

Vray Materials - Diffuse - VISCORBEL

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Vray Materials - Diffuse - VISCORBEL

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

07/11/2015

SUPPORT FOR 3D ARTISTS

March 27, 2015

Vray Materials Part 1 Diuse

PBR or physically based rendering

Open it up in photoshop and press Ctrl+L for levels tool.

So thats it for the Part 1 Diuse

Linear workow and Gamma

21 thoughts on Vray Materials Part 1 Diuse

April 2, 2015 at 9:32 pm

March 27, 2015 at 8:58 pm

March 28, 2015 at 8:29 pm

March 28, 2015 at 8:34 pm

March 30, 2015 at 11:30 am

April 2, 2015 at 9:40 pm

The bitmap input gamma is an entirely dierent thing all photos

March 30, 2015 at 9:30 pm

April 2, 2015 at 9:42 pm

April 2, 2015 at 10:02 am

April 2, 2015 at 9:45 pm

April 2, 2015 at 5:16 pm

April 4, 2015 at 10:35 pm

April 5, 2015 at 7:49 am

April 5, 2015 at 7:14 pm

April 7, 2015 at 1:02 pm

April 7, 2015 at 1:15 pm

April 7, 2015 at 1:41 pm

April 7, 2015 at 2:40 pm

corresponds to reality. It feels strange to have a scanned

April 7, 2015 at 6:08 pm

April 8, 2015 at 6:48 am

I'm not a robot

Vray Materials Part 2 Reection

2015 SIA VISCORBEL

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen