HOW TO INSTALL MENTAL RAY FOR MAYA ON YOUR HOME COMPUTER:

IF I NEED TO INSTALL EVERYTHING

If I already installed 2016, but not the MENTAL RAY PLUGIN

Notes for Today: And homework for Monday!

Today in class we covered the basics of lighting and rendering in Maya! As a note for yourself: If you need to work from home, you will need to download and install the MENTAL RAY PLUGIN for MAYA 2016. It can be found at this link!
Basic Lighting and Rendering:

To select: Create ——> Lights ——>  (type of light)

Types of Lights:

• Directional Light: Works like the sun. Light entire scene in one direction
• Intensity: On all lights: Will change the intensity of the light itself and the brightness of that intensity.
• Spotlight:  Works from a single infinite point. Lights in a cone shape, outward towards an object.
• Drop-off will change the softness of the light itself.
• Ambient lights: Creates a soft light that paints the entire scene in a specific blend of light and light color.
• Point Lights: Operates like a candle. A miniature star that emanates from a single, solitary point in space.  The light gets softer as it moves through the air.
• Area light:  A light that emits in a specific direction, marked by a box and an indicator.
• Volume Light: A light that emits all objects inside a cage. Light will not escape outside that wire cage.

THESE LIGHTS OPERATE AND CONTROL THE WAY LIGHTS AND SHADOWS EMIT.

NEXT, WE CONTROL THE WAY LIGHT BOUNCES OFF THE OBJECTS USING….

• Material Choice
• Renderer Choice

Materials:

• Blinn: Used to generate basic highlights and reflections
• Lambert: Used for a matted look.
• mia_material: The most commonly used shader for Mental Ray Rendering. Used to achieve a variety of effects — like glossiness, reflections, specularity — as well as textures (rubber, concrete, gold, metal, etc.)

Renders:

• Maya Software: Basic render that calculates lighting based on the software controls in Maya.
• Maya Hardware: Basic render that calculates lighting based on the hardware of the computer.
• Maya Hardware 2.0: New(ish) renderer that produces a much more realistic image much faster.
• Mental Ray: Lighting engine commonly used to achieve realistic lighting settings by taking advantage of a number of controls that effect the way light interacts with objects and cameras.
• Arnold: New render to maya that is also used for advanced lighting; used in other applications, comes as part of Maya as of this year.

RAYTRACING SHADOW ATTRIBUTES:

• Light angle: Adjusts the softness of the light.
• Shadow rays: Adjusts quality of the light.
• Ray Depth Limit:  The number of times light bounces off of objects before is dissipates into shadow.

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Homework for Monday: 

#1 Get reference of an interior scene.

 *photograph it from different angles*

#2 Build that scene using basic models.

#3 Light that scene as close to your reference as possible.

#4 Pick 2 objects in that scene. Model them with more detail.

Homework for Monday:

Continue working on your models! In addition to the two that you made last week, you are to create one new object of increased challenge and complexity. This model should be your best work, where your modeling craftsmanship is efficient (consisting of only the number of edge loops necessary), made up of an optimized number of pieces, and with no mistakes on the model!

In addition, revise the models you brought to class, increasing the level of quality and detail in your work!

Below is some additional notes on additional skills to use when you are modeling your objects. If you were absent, please speak with your classmates for additional notes.

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Modeling Techniques Part 2:

I. Modeling Modifiers:

• Fill Hole : Mesh —> Fill Hole  (Fills a hole created by selecting edges.)
• Bridge: Build a bridge with X number of polygons from one edge to another.
• Deleting Edges
• Rebuilding Edges
• To EDGE LOOP and DELETE : 
• Command + Right Click ->>>> Edge Loop Utilities —> To Edge Loop and Delete

II. Additional Modeling Principles

• Modeling from the Origin:  
• DUPLICATE SPECIAL!!! (Edit —> Duplicate Special)
• Selecting specific numbers along the TRANSLATE, ROTATE, and SCALE settings will allow you to make multiple copies of a single object
• Connect and the Modeling Toolkit
• Connect: Splits Polygons in half, thirds, fourths, etc.

III. Editing pivot points:

• D key: Edit Pivot Point
• X key: Snap to Grid