VRAY Lighting

Saying farewell to Scanline!

VRAY, also known as Visual Ray was created by Chaosgroup, which is a Bulgarian Company established in Sofia in 1997. It started out as a software plugin aimed at Architectural visualization, but later started enhancing its features for studios. Many companies such as Blur Studios and Blizzard use VRAY in their work. This is because VRAY is a plugin that has its own render engine provided with its own set of:

• shaders

• lights

• environment

• exposure

• caustics

• camera effect

• global illumination (GI)

• frame buffer

VRAY was a completely new system of work for us at the beginning of the trimester. So, learning about the kind of work produced through VRAY was completely mesmerizing because the level of detail that can be achieved with VRAY! And that was the best part about this trimester - learning about VRAY!!!

However, when it came to the detailed study about lighting, that's when things got pretty tricky. There are a couple of render passes for each particular shot that needs to be taken into account. Render passes are elements that are broken into different types of images that will enhance the overall look of a scene in post production. These include Alpha, Denoiser, Lighting, Light Selct, Diffuse, Bump, Ambient Occlusion and way more.

The difference between an EXR file and a normal JPG (Hatton, 2015)

These passes come into play manly in post production. Each render pass allows the image to be controlled differently. As part of our LO's, we are expected to produce a scene shot with all the necessary render elements. I have a couple of shots in mind for this but will only be choosing one. I would also want to practice this into my own personal work as a final rendered image. With this knowledge, it will be super helpful in the future to produce the quality of work desired and set by industry standards.

Around week 9, we had an industry professional, named Hysum, who visited SAE and shared some insight into the industry lifestyle for animation in the UAE. He told us what was necessary for a spot on portfolio that would guarantee to grant us jobs in the industry. These include:

• Real estate - Room Designs

• Outdoor scenes - environments

• Products

• Characters - models and designs

All of these would be greatly done in VRAY.

Therefore, VRAY will surely become a regular practice for us as we proceed with animation. It is sure to become a whole lot easier as we learn about various elements that VRAY has to offer such as procedural mapping, caustics, and more in-depth shaders. Overall, I am glad that we are taught how to use VRAY and guided whenever we face issues with certain factors.

References:

Hatton, P. (2015) New and Exciting Features of V-Ray 3.0 - V-Ray render elements & After Effects [article]. Retrieved from https://3dtotal.com/tutorials/t/new-and-exciting-features-v-ray-30-render-elements-after-effects-paul-hatton-3ds-max