K e y t o 3 D S u c c e s s

2nd e ed i it ti io n

K ey t 3D S S uc c t o 3 ce s s by Alexander Vasiliuk aka VRayGuide

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Dear reader, It is a great honour to link your desire with my intention to create this unique self-help e-book for aspiring 3D Artists. Here, Here, you will find several TOP secrets which have never before been revealed or listed in one place, as most professionals profess ionals like to keep them to themselves. All the information has been gathered, tested, and explored from thousands of different sources, in addition to my personal experience of the last 8 years of working in the Architectural visualization Industry. Making mistakes, failing, solving problems and eventually succeeding at those assignments could be a very painful learning process. Some of you might even give up and switch to something less stressful. It is my mission to keep you on o n the right track to that aspiration of becoming a truly significant 3D Artist, and share with you all my failures and successes, so they can be useful to you in achieving your final goal faster. Make the best of this e Book, and see yourself on the reaching excellence very soon  Enjoy reading, and always remember, if you want to do it Right! DO it like a PRO! Talk soon, Alex



























Content: Chapter #1 – Introduction

pages

4

Chapter #2 – What is V-Ray? How does it work and where is it going?

6

Chapter #3 – Fundamental Knowledge

11

Chapter #4 – System Configuration

14

Chapter #5 – Attitude

21

Chapter #6 – Character

28

Chapter #7 – How to avoid unpleasant working situations

35

Chapter #8 – How to get a JOB

39

Chapter #9 – Know your resources

46

Chapter #10 – Making of NUBA COR

51

Chapter #11 – BONUS #1 - Download NUBA COR

66

Chapter #12 – Exponential vs. Linear

68

Chapter #13 – Open your EYES and let them SEE

77

Chapter #14 – Freelance World

75

Chapter #15 – The most FAQ

78

Chapter #16 – Mind Set Paradigm

80

Chapter #17 – High Performance

84

Chapter #18 – Bonus #2 – VRay Master class 2011

96



























Chapter #1 - Introduction Let's begin. Let me give you a quick introduction to the right use of this eBook, just so you don’t get don’t get bored too much. You can always refresh your eyes by clicking on the additional information links. Here, you will find all my sources of inspiration, working materials, ways of getting professional feedback and much more… therefore be sure to look at the links and bookmark everything you find useful. This eBook has been created for a couple of reasons, and one of them is the lack of professional knowledge sources for V-Ray V -Ray users. Of course, there are forums and online "V-Ray Tutorials" that you can dig for hours and come up with some good results. But most of the time you just get more confused by trying out different techniques and getting your head full of unsolved problems or even worse, wrong techniques. Hey, I was there too, I’ve struggled every e very day for the past 8 years trying to find a good solution that will allow me to achieve "photo realistic" results. I’ve tried almost everything, from 3Ds Max to Cinema 4D, from Metal Ray to Final Render and other rendering engines. However, the more I was struggling the more I got confused, because I saw all those amazing images coming from the best 3D Artists world wide, and each one of them was using a different program. So then I got it. It didn't matter what program I used to achieve ac hieve the results; it was to do with how good my control over that program is. That was really the "AHA..!" moment, cos' what I really needed was to stop jumping and trying out all that technology around me, and just stick to one program that made made me feel most comfortable, and DIG it deep, till I would have full control over what I’m trying to achieve. So that’s what I did. did . I’ve asked myself what I want to do. Do I want to make games or movies, animation or architecture? What is the most inspiring thing that motivates me to continuously trying to improve myself? And that was simple, I wanted to do 3D



























Max and V-Ray (in the architecture industry of course). Well, I was not going to waste so much time, so, I got myself tons of learning material, Books, DVD’s, 3D Trainings, Live Seminars and lots of other useful sources like Critiques & Comments that were coming from professional forums, such as CGtalk and Evermotion (don’t worry I’ll post all the links below). Anyway, Anyway , all that was real fun but hard, I was struggling every day, sleeping in the class during my studies, cos’ I was sitting night after night till sunrise trying to figure that "3D photo realistic" thing out, I was working nights and days, searching for every possible training source for V-Ray (I'll post my sources later on). So after more than 8 years of working of working in the industry with 3Ds Max and 6 years using V-Ray I have finally found a proper step by step method that will lead me to a perfectly realistic 3D image, and it's these steps that I’m about to share with you. "Oh gush, that’s a relief…" That’s exactly how I would have felt myself if I found this eBook 6 years ago. Well it will not be that easy, you still have to do stuff, test, learn and understand how the stuff works in our real world, and afterwards apply it to 3D, but I can promise you it will be much easier and also much more fun to have a good "V-Ray Guide" to help you in your quest. So buckle up and get prepared to get yourself professionally educated and finally to become the next outstanding 3D Artist in the field, yes just like that, here we go! Here are some really good sources! Get to know our CG community, the best artist, interviews, good free V-Ray tutorials, and other cool stuff, just sign in, and start digging: www.evermotion.org – The #1 place for Arch. Vis. Artists. www.V-Ray.info – Cool stuff about V-Ray, news, interviews, tutorials. www.cgarchitect.com – One of the biggest Arch. Vis. communities. www.cgtalk.com – The biggest world wide CG community. www.cgarena.com – CG community, check their "Free tutorials" section. www.3Dtotal.com – CG community with lots of interesting stuff.



























Chapter #2 - What is V-Ray? How does it work and where's it going? Here is a good start, for getting to understand the basic principles of your future working tools. Yes! You guessed it right! I’m talking about V-Ray. My advice to you on this one will be, "If you want to be professional, professional, don't miss the the perspective!" perspective!" Know the basics, know how to give simple explanations to those who come asking, and know what developments are going to take place in the future. If you can answer these questions, and back them up with evidence, it’s a good start for becoming a professional 3D Artist, in other words you have gained perspective! What is V-Ray? V-Ray is a "rendering engine" (according to the Wikipedia Wikipedia)) which was developed around 1997 in Bulgaria by two guys, Vladimir Koylazov and Peter Mitev. It was officially released for beta testing in 2001 when they established a company co mpany named "Chaos Group". Some of you might get confused in trying to explain those basic principles to someone new if the field, so here’s a more understandable explanation: Rendering is Rendering is the process of calculation that a computer performs to produce an image out of the 3D program's data. The "render" is the resulting image. An Engine is Engine is an application, a plug-in that can be installed inside the 3D program so that this calculation can be carried out. In other words, V-Ray is a plug-in that runs a mathematical algorithm of computation on a variety of 3D software so it can produce an "output", which is our image. How does it work? Just to keep this short and simple. V-Ray is a "ray tracing"-based engine, it emits "rays" and tracks them back, so the rays are being





























dot, the rays are traced, and thus the render "pixel" . Dot after dot, process proceeds until, in the end, we get our image. On what 3D software can I install V-Ray? Good news for you guys, cos’ V-Ray can be installed on almost every 3D application today. Well, at least the big boys are already using it, such as 3Ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, Sketch Up, Rhino, Blender. After beta testing is complete, complete , V-Ray should be available for Light Wave and Soft Image XSI too. Isn’t it just great? All that V-Ray does is spread all around to every available 3D application, and if you ask me it will be pretty much the same thing for all the applications, but it will highlight the advantages every individual 3D software offers, and what I mean by that is… "What is better – 3Ds Max or Maya?" Basically, every 3D software is designed to do some task better than the others. For example, 3Ds Max is very good for games and architecture, all the features that it has, has , are designed to make the working process easier, while on the other hand, hand , Maya is the leading program for creating 3D animation and character animation as it has all the necessary tools to make your life much easier when it comes to animation. Rhino and Blender are great for modelling and have plenty of extremely useful tools and features to speed up the modelling process. Sketch Up and Cinema 4D can also be very good for architecture. Both of these programs are getting stronger every day, but most of the working materials are designed for 3Ds Max and it is definitely the leading program in the Architecture the Architecture Visualization Industry … So you see, every program has its own advantages, but it all comes to the same point when you want to see what you have created. And yes, this is when you do that render thing and calculate the image from your 3D software.





























Well, Well, good! But I’ve heard that there are much better rendering engines, such as Mental Ray, Final Render, Brazil. Heck yeah! And no! It is exactly what I was talking about in the introduction chapter, " it it is not about what software you use, it’s about how you use it" (and it" (and what can you get out of it!). But let me just tell you something you might might be missing. With knowledge of VRay, it is much easier to get a job, plus it is the fastest rendering engine out there, and fast results matter! So, So , if you are a freelancer consider, consider, that "time is money" and and that is the main point of V-Ray. By explaining that to your customer you show that you have your priorities right. Wait. Wait. There is more… V-Ray V -Ray is about to become much faster, so fast that you will not need to spend hours of sitting and waiting for your render to be done, I’m talking about minutes, maybe even seconds, for a complicated image to be rendered. For those who w ho didn’t know, rendering is a process that depends on your computer hardware, so more RAM and a faster CPU mean shorter rendering times. Hey… Wait a minute, what about the graphic card? Well, that's kind of the point! Most of the graphic cards will provide you with better performance while working with 3D scenes, s cenes, and of course modern graphic cards also have RAM memory and can help during the kind of rendering called CPU Render (CPU = central processing unit). In other words, your processor provides all this power in order to produce the render, and it also has to operate o perate your entire system and all the software, everything you are using on your PC, at the same time. While you’re making a render, it is done by your processor, so you can imagine how hard it has to work in order to operate everything at once. Therefore it is very advisable to shut down all unnecessary programs while rendering, so basically you are stuck and paralyzed! Read a book, or take a walk.





























I don’t think so! It’s close, close, and getting closer, and the good news is that Chaos Group are going to release the brand new "GPU render" technology this winter called VRay 2.0, and they will be the first to do it. The rendering process will be done much, much faster, so that renders which now take hours will be finished in several minutes. "I don’t believe you! Where is the proof?" The proof is right here, take a look at a video from the SIGGRAPH 2009 Chaos Group presentation Great! So this is how you show your "perspective" - you make clear explanations, and support them with evidence. Industry report-Summer 2010 right after new VRay announcement.





























In other words, You Know What You’re Doing! So how do you do it? It is simple, you’re signing on to those forums, news sites, you find them on Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn as well, and you simply follow. As soon as something really good pops up, you go and explore it! Read the article, see the video or whatever it is, and share it with people by giving your opinion. The more detailed this opinion, the more it will look like an expert reaction. I know that we’ve completely forgotten the title of this article, "What is V-Ray? V-Ray? How does it work and where’s it going?", but I want you to remember that this eBook is about becoming a professional 3D Artist, and I must explain this "behind the scenes" stuff, cos’ it’s made me write this eBook, eBo ok, and along with giving you useful technical information, it is important that you to understand how to use it correctly, in order to achieve that final goal… in becoming a… OK, OK… you got the point, enough chit chat... just make notes of those important things, it will be easier to remember that way. The next chapter is the real thing. Let me show you something that professionals discover after a couple of years working in the industry. Let me show you the real deal of being professional!





























Chapter #3 – Fundamental Knowledge In order to be a professional 3D Artist you've got to have that basic "Fundamental Knowledge" and to know how and where to use it, followed by a logical explanation of your actions. In other words, to have a good understanding of how things work in work in our REAL world; cos’ this is the real down-to-earth down -to-earth fundamental thing. That’s it. Turn off your computer, go to sleep. End of story. No really, that sounds sounds pretty clear but I’m pretty sure that not many of the professional 3D Artists can explain that… So let me just explain to you, you , why it is important to know that fundamental stuff. Let's assume for a second that you learned how to play tennis and now you y ou want to get into a tournament and play with the "big boys". But before you do that, you want to practice a little. Well, so you take your tennis racket, go to the court, and start to practice, but suddenly things start getting really rough! This is no longer your back yard where you could hit the ball against the wall for hours, this is more serious stuff going on here… you hear your trainer saying things like "Your foot is a mess, get back on your fundamental foot work"…"Your swing is a mess, you’re not going not going from the high to low, you’re going from high to high" … and then you realize that it’s really more difficlut than you thought, and you try to figure out, why is that? Well… this is just about it, "If " If you don’t know your fundamentals, you have to work twice as hard to make that shot " . This is the most common mistake, most of the beginners make it, and I've made it as well in the past.































Well personally personally I didn’t do it, but I see every day lots of users doing it. You think that using other people's rendering settings is going to help you becoming the greatest 3D Artist of all times? Well, I don’t think so. Sorry to disappoint, but it’s true. Have you ever tried reading and understanding the "rules of light" or the "rules of design" , and understand the basics behind those things? Well, believe me, if you do that it will be much easier for you to read a V-Ray manual and start practising your scene, cos’ you will know what you're after, and you will know what to expect after the rendering is complete. The biggest enemy of your success is your impatience, be patient and it will come. Some learn faster some slower, but at the end everybody gets it. Of course it is always good if there is someone to guide you, and to instruct you, that’s why I’m here, telling you this, and if you are still reading it, it means that you want to become a PRO, maybe the next big thing! So this is all theoretical, "You've got to learn the theory, before you start your car" . OK. I think you got it already, now to the question is, how do you do it. Quick basic rules that will not cost you any money: 1. Observation – you have to learn to observe "reality" correctly, and to picture with your mind everything your eyes see. Remember,





























2. Practice – the best way of practising to understand the light's behaviour is to paint it, so even if you can’t paint, do it! This is the most important procedure, when your are eyes eye s watching, transmitting information to the brain, and then you try to apply it on the paper, this is the best method for getting that fundamental stuff. If you have difficulties in seeing and applying what you see, take a picture, print it out, put it near by, and try to paint what you have pictured. The more you practice the better you get! Make it "rule number one", if you want to be good at CG first create it on paper, it doesn't have to be perfect, but you have to give it at least 2 weeks before you power up your computer and try to create something. Another good practice tool is your photo camera, and the better it is, the better practice you'll get. I’ve noticed that I could significantly improve my control over the "VrayPhysicalCam" "VrayPhysicalCam" by by practising with a real SLR camera. I've got a Nikon D70, it’s a bit old, but perfect to to get a full understanding of the f/number, shutter s hutter speed, ISO, depth of field, etc. You need to dig it first. This practice is the most effective one you'll ever get, and it’s fun, I’ve made it my hobby. The bottom line of all this is, if you read books, do tutorials, sit nights and days at your computer trying to figure stuff out, it will not bring you as far as "real-life" practice outside. In order to learn





























Chapter #4 – System Configuration This is the part where you see technological improvements in yourself and yourself and learn how to configure a system that perfectly suits you. These These things you’re going to discover mostly from making mistakes, on a "highway" of achievements until you get the desired results. Eventually, you will learn something from doing these mistakes, but it’s much better to learn from other people's mistakes, some of which I’ve already told you about in the previous chapter. Anyway, here's the deal, if you want to do 3D like a PRO, you have got to know your system, to know what you are working with and how to adjust it, so it will help you produce those high-end those high-end visualizations. visualizations. Setting up your workflow properly relies on a good fundamental knowledge. knowledge . In In order to create physically correct images you have to know what you are dealing with, and your hardware and software have to be set up correctly . Also, you'll need a good computer in order to create 3D images fast - the specific computer configuration will be covered at the end of this chapter. All right - let’s do it! Technology is something that is improving every day, but there are some principles that haven’t changed a bit for the last 8 years. One of the most important things in the professional workflow of a 3D





























Aha! Here, a nice piece of equipment comes in very handy, as it restores the colours and sets the monitor profile to the correct corre ct value of gamma 2.2. For monitor calibration, I use the eye-one display 2, 2, it’s a great calibration device and I’m personally very satisfied with it. I’ve tried to use "Spider", but gave it back and took the "eyeone display 2″ instead. So I strongly recommend it, if you want to have the right colours, and knock everybody off their feet with your images, calibrate your monitor. Now I know you might say… "But most people aren't doing it, how come I should?" Well, Well, simply because professional 3D Artists, who can really give you good feedback on your image, or accept you to work with them, do calibrate their monitors, yes, I’m talking about the big boys, so if you want to play in their league, you better come with the correct correc t colours. Monitor Calibration with EYE1 EYE1 Display 2





























Go to 3Ds Max, and at the main control panel, select "Customize –> Preferences –> Gamma and LUT" and make these changes.

OK now we have set our software to the professional mode. I’m sorry, but what did we do exactly? - We "Enabled Gamma /LUT colour correction" in our 3Ds Max program.































Congratulations! You are on the right track now! You've probably noticed that your materials editor have become much brighter, and it doesn’t feel right for your eyes, well I got some good news for you, it is the old colour management that was not right! Don’t worry, after a week you’ll get used to it, and you will be amazed to see how awful it looks with gamma 1.0. I went through this as well, so you'll get over it too, don’t worry.





























the door, and you cannot see anything, but not for long, if you keep standing there for about a minute your eyes will adapt to the environment so you can slowly start seeing something. Let’s analyze it, it, I’m not not a doctor but I assume assume that we have some sort of sensor in our eyes that adjusts its light sensitivity so it's good enough to see the details in extremely different situations. If it is very bright we still can see those shadowed places and they aren't overexposed on the white colour, while that's what probably would happen if we took a picture with a photo camera. Vice versa in a dark environment we're still able to see something, even though light is very low, though I really doubt that we could take a picture in such situation. Anyway, Anyway , the logic behind this is simple, this "eye "e ye sensor" allows the light to be less intensive in the dark/bright situations and that allows us to see more details, and the image that our brain creates is not overexposed or underexposed. That is what we want to





























So what we see here, here , is a simple example of a render with gamma 1.0 (3Ds Max default system configurations) and with gamma 2.2 (our manually managed professional configuration). co nfiguration). Just to analyse the phenomenon, we can draw a conclusion, that bringing gamma to 2.2 is the same idea as that of the "eye-sensor" that allows us to adapt to better environment lighting. In other words, the light does not have to work as hard in order to illuminate il luminate enough space, so that we can see all necessary objects. Just assume for a second what would happen if we tried to work with gamma 1.0? We would increase the intensity of the light in order to see all objects in the scene, but we'd probably get overexposed areas and burnt-out areas close to the light source. OK, nice! but, please, tell me why?





























The best you can get for a good price and with high performance is this, I’ve paid 1500$ for the entire system: QuadDualCore™ i7 processor i7 processor Motherboard ASUS Motherboard ASUS – P6T Graphic Card NVidia GeForce GTX260XXX or GTX 285 DIMM 6GB DDR3-1333 Tri-Kit (take (take it double = 12 GB RAM) R AM) Hard disk, really sent matter I took hd752lj 750 GB DVD-RW – lg gh-22lp20 Cooling system has to be a good one, nh-u12p se1366 Power supply as well, straight power bqt e6-600w I’ve added added 2 more fans just for air circulation, af12025 pwm And found a really cheap 23'' monitor, a Samsung Syncmaster However, if you can afford an Apple Cinema 30", I would do that if I were you. As to the mouse, I recommend a Logitech Revolution MX , it's really nice to the touch





























Chapter #5 - Attitude "Attitude" Attitude" describes how you arrange your work, how you plan your moves, how you find potential clients on the internet and how you work with them. This is really about the "Healthy way of Communication" Communication" , so that you don't damage yourself or your business, and earn a great reputation among the CG community. I’ll try to cover the most important things that you should know as a 3D artist. It will help to build your good name in the industry. Positioning yourself as an expert so that the other users see you as "The Man", who Man", who can answer and help others by providing really helpful solutions. I see this one as the best way of becoming a "PRO ". If you are able to do that right, you will no n o longer 3D V-Ray Artist ".































at your work place… So what you do is, turn on your computer and start importing files in to your program. "Ha, got you!" you!" No, no, no, it's the most common mistake #1. 1. Prepare yourself for a project: project : In order to plan your project well, and avoid unpleasant surprises, you must build an exact time-





























sketch to clients who have a good imagination and sketch understanding, but not everyone can "dig" it, it, so don’t forget that. The best way of course is to meet with the person and to do the "sketch" together, together, that way you both agree on the same thing at the same time. So the second thing you do, is finding references and creating a sketch.





























4. Work in Progress (WIP): (WIP): This is the best part of your work and you’re going to enjoy it the most if you did the previous stages well. I just want to repeat my self, please, do the preparing, collecting and planning, planning, it doesn’t have to be long process, only process, only if you decide so, if it must be quick and you don’t have much time, to do it quick, but do it in 5 – 10 minutes, what ever you've got, but do it! it will make your life a thousand times easier, and your clients a lot happier.





























it. it. "The client is always right!" if if you want to prove that you are right, show 2 variations and explain why yours is correct, if the client still wants to have it his way, the th en you should agree with that, cos’ its cos’ its his vision and he is paying you money to do your job. The most common mistake is to do something else just because be cause you think it looks better, this makes clients or bosses very angry, cos’ they spent their time explaining you how they want things to be, and they expect to get what you both agreed on. Doing something





























1200 pix on 800 pix, should be enough to criticise. Final tuning comes after you complete your mission of reaching the vision of your client, or your boss. 7. How to post your work on the internet: Well, congratulations! You did a good job! Now when everybody is happy you can finally post your work and get some social recognition. This is important stage in the development of your "3D artist persona", persona ", and I’ll get down to it in the next chapter of social media stuff, but here are



























































Chapter #6

Character





























Of course if we are talking about a very close person, you might get





























can shortly answer him, learn to say all relevant information about





























So don’t be in a hurry to make your own mistakes, and learn from











































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Anyway, after a long 8 hours the render was finally complete, I did use a bit higher parameters eventually for this particular render, with value of 3 on “Global on “Global samples”, but you should really be careful careful with that, cos’ it really doubles, or in my case triples all the samples that are taken in consideration, and I’m talking about, texture, light, all that are being sampled 3 timer more than it’s original value v alue if you put 3 on “Global switches”. So try not to over do it.

As you all can see, I’ve turned on the “Save separate render channels” on frame buffer, and activated more than tha n 14 passes on



























Post Production: My post works always begins from applying the basic color correction to the rendered image. You just might want to check the automatic options that Photoshop has got to offer. Stuff like, auto levels, auto color, auto contrast.

Just duplicate the layer and adjust it’s opacity in order to control the effect appliance. Regarding passes combination, there is really not that many options for adding passes one upon the other, most used one is the overlay. I suggest you just try to experiment with different mode options, and see what works better for you, because if I start to explain here about every pass and the way it can be used, I will end up with a writing a book. But believe me it’s not that complicated. For “Ambient Occlusion” I’ve used free “Lele’s”, drag and drop plugplug -



























in. Really easy to use, and works fine for me, for the last 4 years. You can get it here, www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/vrayambient-occlusion Just increase the camera ISO parameters in order to get bright enough exposure. While using it in Photoshop, put it on the “Multiple” mode, adjust the “Levels” in order to get more accurate density, and add some color balance to fit the ambience of ambience of the scene, and you are good to go. I’ve used Photoshop and Motiva Real Camera to Camera to get that wicked look of my images. Motiva is a free software that can be downloaded from their website www.motivacg.com feel free to explore it!

The best tip that I can give you on this stage is to practice drawing light, even making photographs (which is also considered as drawing with light) might improve your eye for getting the natural colors and the right exposure with contrast. I really could not understand, how the greatest 3D artists make such amazing visualizations, only by using Photoshop or After Effects on their post production stage. The answer is simple, they have developed their eye to get those natural colors, there is no secret, no trick. It's really as simple as that! They practice a lot! and I mean really nailed it down, to the point that saturated or under-exposed colors



























not get wrong colors any more. They just hit it right each time they do it. That’s it! So I’ll leave you with this thought “ON”. Just “practice the light” and you get there.

This is how the final image looks, you can visit my blog at www.vrayguide.com and check it out. There There some more renders that were made were made during this project. I hope you have enjoyed reading this “Making Of” NUBA – COR – COR project, and I wish it could help you somehow in becoming a truly amazing, the next Big Thing! Post a comment, question or a suggestion, if you think there is something that was unclear or can be done better. This was Alex, your VRayGuide. Have a sweet day, and always remember, if you wan to do it RIGHT! do RIGHT! do it like a PRO!



























Chapter #11 - Download NUBA COR Hey, I think this is what you have been waiting for, NUBA COR 3DsMax V-Ray Scene, free for commercial use! I’ve created created this scene especially for you, so you could check out the most valuable thing, LIGHTING & RENDERING settings. However, post production is needed in order to achieve the look in my final images, but believe me it’s not that far from origin. One important note, I've turned off the on "Global switches" , "Displacement" on because the sofa material also has displacement and it just won't render the close-ups. So turn it on when you want to re-render the long shots. Enjoy! This scene can be downloaded under the “ the “Welcome Welcome” ” tab tab in our platform. Also would like to remind you to check out the LIVE Webinars that we did in VRay in VRay Master class 2011. Enjoy!





























Hey, Hey, Hey  one year has passed since I’ve released 1 st edition of “Key to 3D Success” SO now is the perf ect ect time to make this update and share with you some FRESH techniques that can bring you to even higher level of performance, satisfied clients and the good life you have always wanted. In this update we are going to discuss multiple challenges/problems that many of you are facing or might be facing in the future of freelancing world. We are going to explore some professional platforms for working online; some of these platforms has brought me good co-workers co-worke rs and established really useful connections. We’re also going to talk about the “Mind Set Set -Paradigm”. Paradigm”. Something that I learned from the world’s leading leadi ng marketers. These techniques brought them their millions so I think that if you could use at least 20% of those methods you’ll all good to go. This update is based on the most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) that I’ve gathered during this year from fro m our students and off course my own discoveries that were made during “never ending learning process” process” , as you know already it’s better to learn from others mistakes than from your own! As a bonus you’ll get optimised NUBA scene for fast renderings, this scene went through bit map images map images optimization and rendering settings to allow slower computers take action and get HIGH-END rendering results. And off course the special bonus of this update is the VRay the VRay Master Class 2011 LIVE Webinars, over 8 hours of professional training. Where you’re going to see exactly how to deal with 3D renders and bring them to photorealistic level. OK, we all set and ready to begin the journey in to 2 nd edition of





























Chapter #12 – Exponential vs. Linear This one was tricky for many of you, therefore I’ve decided to write chapter plus video explanation about 2 main types color spaces in VRay, it’s a hard topic but if you dig it, you’ll get it! So you might ask what is better Exponential or Linear? What should I use? What if I get better result with Linear? Should I still setup my Gamma/LUT to 2.2? Do I still need to calibrate my monitor? Well the answer is simple, s imple, work with what can supply you with better results! It’s really doesn’t matter what do you use, as long as you get to produce photorealistic images, you’re in the right place. Now, I know that this is not what you wanted to hear, h ear, but it’s true! Nevertheless there is something that you should setup as your default statement, and that is gamma 2.2. Tell you the truth I haven’t seen PRO 3D Artist that do not use Gamma 2.2 in Arch. Viz. But I’m pretty sure that there will be such person, simply because awesome 3D renders were made with VRay 10 years ago, and this concept of setting up your system to gamma 2.2 wasn’t exist back in those days. It’s all was in Photoshop, getting the right colors and look to the image. So you see it really doesn’t matter as long as you reach the desired result and get to please your clients. Hmm..but what’s the real deal here, Exponential or Linear? Although the exponential method was represented in this eBook, and NUBA COR project got outstanding results, this is not the real LWF (Linear Work Flow), well at least it’s not physically correct when it comes to passes combination.





























This is when you get the exactly same image when you print it or see it on the monitor, yep, this what LWF is all about. Now the interesting thing, when it comes to passes combination “render elements”, is that you can can combine all passes in postpostproduction program (about 20 passes) and get the same image that looks exactly as your render. So here comes the trick, you can change the color of your lights, increase the reflections, or make more transparent the water only by changing the look of that particular pass (render element). And all this without re-rendering the image again. Big time saver! Pretty festinating ha? So by using exponential method we “burn” pixels in to our image, and therefore some pro 3D artist might claim that this is the wrong way to work, and only with Linear method “Physically correct” result can be achieved. However I’ve found unique way to use “render elements” (passes), (passes), in Photoshop and get pretty good results, NUBA COR is the perfect example for that. Anyways just so you know, professional post-production programs, like After Effects, Nuke, Fusion and so on, can combine your yo ur image (in a “Physically correct” way) only if you work with Linear method, as long as it comes to Photoshop same result cannot be achieved simply because Photoshop is not “node based system” it’s a layer based system, and you’ll you’ll hit the wall pretty soon if you try to perform same operations as if you were working with Nuke or Fusion. Ok I know that it might get a bit confusing, simply because it’s a huge subject and I can write a whole book on this subject, but as





























OK, now that we’ve gathered a bit information about how this LWF thing work, we can continue and see some advantages and disadvantages for Linear vs. Exponential methods. When it comes to Exponential, it’s pretty easy, you can render images as PNG or TIFF (JPG’s are compressed compress ed format and and not recommended for hi-res renders), 3Ds Max will save then with 16 bit channel, that is enough to make good color correction. You can also save 32 bit channel, that will allow you even deeper pixel depth, and you’ll be able to recover missing data, like lik e overexposed walls or too dark shadows. Anyways light and easy, do not take a lot of disk space and the work flow pretty smooth, just because you work with PNG 16 bit in Photoshop. Linear is a bit heavy for in compare to exponential. In order to use Linear work properly you need to save your render as OpenEXR or HDRI file, that allows you full control over exposure and gamma, but the images are very heavy and requires good working station. And when it comes to animations you’ll need proper computer to do the editing, color correction, passes combination and of course a lot of disk space. Anyways I find Linear method to be very heavy although it’s “Physically correct”, it was designed more for production studios and less for individuals. Here is short video that could bring more light for understanding this subject.





























Chapter #13 – Open your “EYES” and let them “SEE” This chapter is a continuity of what wh at we’ve discussed earlier, it really it really doesn’t matter what program or rendering method you use, all at the end comes to one place. Yep, I’m talking about Photoshop or other programs similar to that. Believe it or not, but at this ending point everyone is equal. It doesn’t matter how big your your knowledge is or how many methods you use, all at the end comes to one place. Yep, I’m talking about Photoshop or other program similar to that. Believe it or not, but at this ending point everyone is equal. It doesn’t doesn’t matter how advanced your knowledge in VRay or how many years of experience you have working in the architectural industry, if your eyes do not see the natural colors you will not be able to pull this off. Say WHAT? Yep, it’s all in your eyes. If you are able to observe any image and say this grass is too green or too saturated, the color of the stone doesn’t look natural it got too much red color in it, the wood looks over washed…if you are at this stage, then you have achieved PRO Level! Being Professional 3D artist is not only relays on speed of work of constructional modeling, modeling, it’s way beyond that. Good 3D artist is a combination of painter, photographer, composer / designer, if you’ve achieved perfection in all of these these three aspects, then you can surely claim PRO status.































putting your hands on real DSLR camera, same thing goes for camera angles – choosing frame. Design, is one of the most important aspect of good visualization, if you don’t have balance, color combination and harmony in you 3D image, realistic render will not make it better looking. Same works vice versa, if you have good design and cool camera angle this will compensate on the lack of rendering quality. In other words, good design looks better than just good render. So how can I practice those? Google is your best friend, start to research on those subject and you’ll find what suits you better. There is workshops, online on line webinars, eBook, private 1:1 trainings..etc. I do it all the time, I take courses in community colleges, because I like to work with people, and I take online workshops if the subject is rare to find in colleges, I also by books and DVD’s. This is a never ending learning process, and providing this knowledge to you gives me motivation and “hunger” to do better, and learn something new. A lot of times I felt like I’m drifting on the place, like I have learned a lot and there is very little till I reach the end, but every time I’ve





























I was average 3D artist till I started to take workshops and trainings. That significantly boosted my level of production, just because the material was well organised and took me the whole what from a-z, then all started to make sense. The problem with internet tutorials is that they teach specific subject, but not really concentrating on the whole process, it’s like l ike trying to build a puzzle without any reference refere nce picture. You collect different pieces here, and some parts there, but you do not understand how to connect them to one piece. So do yourself yourself a favour, don’t skip the basics, learn it from the professionals, be patient and knock down your fundamental knowledge first! Practice with your hands before you turn on the computer. So let’s wrap let’s wrap this up: In order to do good visualisation, LIKE A PRO, you need to have perfect vision for natural colors, harmony, balance and composition. This can be achieved by working with real worlds equipment. Analysing images is one thing; trying to recreate them is another. Don’t afraid to copy your favourite artists. favourite artists. Michelangelo was coping Leonardo Da Vinci, back in those times, this is how he got better and developed his own style latter on.

























































Chapter #14 – Freelance World Someone asked me: me: “ “How How much should should I charge for the project?” So I’ve answered: “How much are you worth?” Well actually what I’ve meant to say, is how much is much is your “time” worth? Different projects, different requirements, different skills level, hardware, software, working from home or having office to pay for… All this is taken in to confederation while calculation your price. So talking general all depends on the market. For example in Germany people take 1000-2000 Euro per image. In I n China/India $50-100...sometimes even less. It’s all depends all depends with what company do you work, some companies can pay good money some don't, so do your research on your client first, try to see with whom this company worked before, then you’ll be able to draw conclusions. In Russian market we take $500-800 per room, we supply 2-3 renders. When the room is ready it's easy to make more than one render to satisfy the client. Give it as a bonus, you’ll get much





























Here’s a simple procedure that is very essential for your market investigation. So you’ll be aware of competition and prices for different job offers. The easiest way is to make an account at freelancers platforms, likewww.freelancer.com likewww.freelancer.com www.odesk.com www.99deisigns.com

And see how much money those freelancers charge and how much money firm got to offer. From my knowledge prices range are between $15-60 per hour, depends on the country, Indian and































If you still couldn’t find something close to you, I warmly





























Chapter #15 – The most FAQ - Alex I have a problem, problem, my client is a good man, we we became good friends with the time, but he takes advantage of our relationship and delays with payments, what should I do? This is one of the common relationships that might happen with returning clients. You simply get to close to each other and business becomes casual. We try so hard to please them that at some point they might view this as a weak point. However, getting very close, with your client, and even becoming beco ming friends while working on collaborative project, is sometimes a very essential thing to happen. If I were in your place I would have a serious talk with your client, and I would try to show him the situation where I’m delaying the work and asking for payment up front, how does will make him feel?





























See how Pro Photographers use these techniques to hide or reveal object, direct eye and concentrate it where it needs to be. Personally, I like Residence Decoration Composition + Design = the main key to pretty images! -

My images are too dark or too light and sometimes I don’t even know till I get your feedback. What can I do to learn doing it the right way?

Exposure and lighting is an artistic approach, camera can control brightness and contrast, you only need to learn working with it  ISO is the first parameter in VRay camera that you want to change for enhancing the exposure. Most of my work done with shutter speed to 100 and f/number 4 (in rare occasions 5.6 or 2.8 -one fstop higher or lower). Anyways the most exposure control done with ISO, we can go higher as 1600 if needed in closed places.





























Chapter #16 – Mind-Set Paradigm You see well all human beings are made from molecules, actually the whole our world made from them, and as a fact all molecules are in constant vibration, in matter effect everything is in rotation in inside the molecule, and the distance between electrons is greater than the mass is self, so that means it’s all empty inside, but not quite it’s in rotation that causes instant vibration of everything, including our brain. However our eyes set to see things differently, we see and feel all as a solid mass. But that doesn’t mean that can’t communicate communicate on the same vibrational wave (level). Our mind set to communicate co mmunicate on “subconscious” level, however if will be able to make this communication from “conscious” level, level, will





























If you can meditate, do it. If you can pray, go ahead. If I f you can do some spiritual exercise, like Tai-chi, Tai-chi, that’s also cool  And if you don’t know what to do, do it like me: I take a piece of paper every evening before I go to bed and I write all the things that I’m proud of and appreciate in my life, li fe, then the second part of the page will be about thing that I want to happened in the future, f uture, but I talk about them like they happened already. This called “Future Programming”: Programming”: you setting up your mind to positive thinking and imagining that situation a s present, that’s how you can put stuff in to your “conscious” and “conscious” and when the time is right your brain will accept the situation as already happened, won’t get stressed or frustrated, and everything will go smooth as you “wrote on your paper”. Yep simple as that, you can write about your work, meetings, people contacts…anything willing to happened or achieve in your































And my favourite! Start random conversation in random places! Be funny, make people laugh, say creative things…etc. This will actually increase understanding of other people mind-set. Exercising this will make you feel comfortable and confident with your sayings and you will look natural in your message.

























































Chapter #17 – High Performance Have you ever asked yourself: “ Am I achieving things that that I could, based on my potential?” It can be in your daily work, relationship, business or creative stuff. SO “Are you achieving the highest level level of performance that you could?”





























Unfortunately this theory is not true. Most of the time it’s not about how much work you’re doing, it’s most of the time about what work are you doing AND HOW YOU’RE DOING YOUR WORK. This aspect consists from basic element that drive your motivation, one of them is “passion”! “passion”! Just think about your work: What excites you?





























And you’re probably willing to achieve excellence, by getting the things RIGHT! But your level of performance is not there yet. And you're probably the one who wants to make a difference, but you feel again that that you’re not achieving your level of potential. So the question is: How you can get there? Thanks to my research I’ll be able to share this with you right now.































being closed and nervous around people. My communication skills

























































Just imagine what if you could increase each one of them just by





























my training shoes on and go out (don’t forget to brush your teeth).





























No, I’m not insane.





































































































































































































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