I began to feel comfortable with the amount of clutter, however I still felt the lighting and mood of the image wasn’t quite there.

这种乱乱的还是小有感觉，只是缺点光影效果。

I began looking at a darker, more focused lighting, as well as using the clutter to lead the viewer’s eye right where I wanted it. I used the books to either side of the bottom corners to lead the viewer’s eye towards the chair, the curves of the lamp, also leas the viewer eyes down to the chair, add the expressed lighting highlighting to the chair and the subject of the image becomes apparent.

来点光线的明暗对比，角落灯提亮来强化主题，图的左右下方杂乱的书的布置有视觉引导作用。

The image was really getting somewhere and with a few more weeks, more clutter and some post production I was happy with the final product.

于是乎，小图的效果就到位了。

I don’t want to spend too much time on these subjects, as frankly I don’t do anything widely different, and there are a million and one tutorials that go through there stages already.

Everything is poly modeled using the standard 3dsmax tool, and I used Zbrush on furniture and cushions.

懒人一个，不愿建模，这类max多边形建模教程网上满地都是，只有坐垫跟家具用到了点Zbrush.

The biggest modeling challenge was to have the patience to model about 30 different books, each one in different shape and size, and then photograph each one, create a flat maps of the covers and unwrap them. I took a while, but was worth it to have custom made models that literally no one else in the world has. It makes your renders stand apart from everyone else, and I urge everyone to do so.

最累人的是做这一大堆不同大小和形状的书，哥为了与众不同，自拍封皮做材质，哥喜欢迪斯尼...

One of the newer features in 3dsmax is the inclusion of the MassFX physics system. I used it to get the stacks of books looking more natural than hand placing individual books. The first step was to create low poly geometry to represent each book, easily done with a box. Align the box to the high poly book and then link the high ply book to that box. In this way I run simulation on the low poly boxes, as opposed to the high poly book models, thus allowing the simulation to solve much quicker.

这里用到了 - MassFX physical system - ‘杂乱物理系统’，那随机杂乱效果是刚刚的，先做几个box代表书，让这些box跟高模的书对齐，这样在低模上模拟(Simulation)显然更快。

Once you’ve done this, select the low poly box model, open the modifer dropdown and, scroll down to ‘OBJECT SPACE MODIFIER’ and choose ‘MassFXRBody’. Select the Rigid body Type as “Kinematic’. Scroll down and you’ll find a ‘Mesh Type’ drop-down where you should select ‘composite’. Scroll further down the panel and you’ll find a ‘Physical Mes Parameters’... leave the options as they are, and hit the ‘Generate’ button. This will create a cage around your mesh for the simulation to react to. Now go to the ‘Animation’ menu > ‘Simulation - MassFX’ >‘Utilities’>‘Show MassFX Tools’.

然后选这些低模box，打开修改器列表，在‘object space modifier’ 下 选择 ‘ Mass FXRbody’。 Rigid Body类别选择 Kinematic. 接着在下拉菜单里找到 Mesh Type，里面选择Physical Mesh Parameteres，用默认选项，点击‘Generate’按钮来生成，这样就为模拟创建了个‘网格地基’作为基础模拟环境，然后在Animation 菜单里选模拟(Simulation) - MassFX - Utilities - Show MassFX Tools.

With the tools open, go to the ‘tool’ tab and hit the ‘play simulation’ button. Once you’re happy with the simulation, you can bake the key frames in the ‘Simulation Baking’ section. Please note that if you don’t add a ground plane into the scene, it will use 3dsmax’s default ground plane location in the simulation. I did a few different stacks and ran the simulations to end up with some options.

在这个工具里直接点击 ‘play simulation’ 按钮，当看到了满意的模拟效果，别忘记设定关键帧。要注意的是，如果没在场景里创建这个‘地基’，系统会把max默认的底面作为基础模拟环境。

 

Texturing · 贴图

Not a whole lot to tell here, I tend to use a lot of procedural textures, and knowing I was only creating stills, I tent to save out a whole bunch of mattes and paint dirt and detail in Photoshop.

I find this a quick and effective way of texturing. As I said earlier I did photograph a huge portion of my art books, and created flat images of them, then unwrapped the models and applied the texture.

懒得说太多，都是基本的方法，只是多花了时间自己拍书记封皮做素材，在ps里用蒙版做旧。

LIGHTING | 灯光

I almost always use HDRI’s to light my scene. They take longer to render but have a quality of lighting that cannot be matched. I use a VRay light ‘DOME” and add the HDRI as a map to this. I then render the scene with a Vray Camera, until the HDRI renders correctly exposed. Once I nailed this, it is the last time I touch any of the exposure settings on the Vray Camera.

哥向来都是用HDRI打场景光，虽然时间多了点，但是值得。用了个Vray的 圆顶光，加入HDRI作为贴图。渲染场景的时候用的是Vray相机，以得到准确的曝光，之后就不再需要用Vray相机调整过曝光。

I’m a big proponent of using my understanding of photography and real life lighting situations to affect the way I light and expose a scene If you are a 3D artist and have never used a DSLR, step away from the computer and pick up a camera of the fundamentals of creating a Photo Real image.

哥一直从摄影师的角度来作图，刚入行的补下摄影基础没有坏处。

Other than the HDRI dome setup, there are some Vray Sphere lights for the lamp and that is basically it.

场景里除了HDRI圆顶光源，也加了些Vray球形光给台灯，基本就这些了。

POST WORK | 后期

 

This is the stage where things really get together and form the final image. I render out the scene with a lot of elements. For this image I used the RGB, refraction, reflection, total lighting, Vray lighting, Vray Global Illumination, AO and specular. Plus, I render out wire color and about 20 individual matte files.

为了搞后期，哥辛苦渲出了一堆，有RGB，折射，反射，全局光等各种光以及蒙板通道，做张图容易不？

As you can see, the raw render is pretty flat and dull. The first thing I do is add the render passes to add some more pop, the highlights are accentuated and I start painting some more directionality to the lighting.

上图是原始渲染，若直接给客户直接会被KO，别急，下面就是鉴定奇迹的时刻。看到木有？给点阳光就灿烂。

 

Next, I make some individual adjustments by using mattes I rendered out of Vray to add more contrast to certain pieces with curves, or upping the exposure of  certain areas. All this is done in a non-destructive workflow with masks so I can re-adjust later.

I add some more grunge and dirt into area’s that look too clean or boring. I find this easier and more customizable than unwrapping the models and painting the maps inside 3ds max. Obviously, this doesn’t work for animations, but it’s quite effective for stills.

接下来就是用vray渲出来的通道和蒙板来调整局部明暗，该曝的地方就要曝，该做旧的局部就做旧，尽量都在ps里搞而不是max贴图里，后续调整也方便。

 

Next I add some basic color correction, curves for added contrast and a hue/saturation to remove some of the vibrancy of the reds and yellows.

曲线工具拉下对比，色相饱和度里降低下红黄色。

 

I then add some glows and more color correction using Magic Bullet Looks, and some flares to the light bulbs using Knoll Light Factory.

这里较色加光晕用到的是 Knoll Light Factory，插件自己下去，效果是刚刚的。

 

Some final adjustments to hue/saturation, color balance and exposure and the post work is done.

饱和度 色彩平衡 曝光 再微调下，哦了。