Maya: Renderer Quickstart

Maya: Arnold, Renderman, Redshift

Welcome to this page covering quickstart guides to three renderers…

Arnold 5 (comes with Maya 2018)
Renderman 21 (free PLE download, Pixar’s Renderer)
Redshift 2 (free watermark version, requires Nvida GPU video cards)

*Big thanks to Ville Sinkkonen for letting us use his killer 2d design of his Pleased Dragon artwork. The 3d sculpt is by instructor Andrew Silke.

In Arnold, Renderman, and Redshift, you’ll learn how to…

– Create lights
– Render using the Render View
– Change render size and basic render settings
– Reduce noise in your renders
– Create shaders
– Edit shaders to produce different material types

It is only necessary to learn one renderer. If you are starting out, choose one renderer.

(Scroll down to here for the video tutorials)

 

File Downloads (Maya Files)

Pleased Dragon – Tutorial Start (.ma No Renderer 100.0 MB)
Pleased Dragon – Arnold 5 Final (.ma 100.0 MB)
Pleased Dragon – Redshift 2 Final (.ma 100.0 MB)
Pleased Dragon – Renderman 21 Final (.ma 100.0 MB)

 

Zoo Tools Pro – Light, Shader And Asset Managers

Create 3d Characters supports Arnold, Renderman and Redshift, and we make use of our Lighting and Shader Managers which is part of our tools called “Zoo Tools Pro”. Zoo Tools Pro comes free with any site purchase . The lighting and shader tools will help you to learn all three renderers under the same easy to use UI. But they are not mandatory. This page will still be helpful if you do not use Zoo Tools Pro.

Our scripted generic shader/light file format supports Arnold, RenderMan and Redshift. You can also convert between these renderers too with some limitations.

 

Buy Zoo Tools Pro for only $10!!

If you’d like to use Zoo Tools Pro, purchase our “Site Subscription”, then immediately cancel it for only $10, you’ll still have access for the whole month, and you can keep Zoo Tools Pro v1 forever! You can also download all our rigs and check out all tutorials too.

SUBSCRIBE NOW

 

Modern Renderer Information

The renderers here are usually considered “Offline Renderers” and produce superior rendering results, but they are not intended for games or very-fast real-time viewport navigation.

These renderers are “raytracing”, engines not “rasterisation”. Reserisation is used in games and for the viewports such as Maya’s “Viewport 2.0”. Raytracing speeds have gained over the last few years, and we are starting to interact with them in real time, even so, it’s important not to confuse this with games or the faster Maya viewport “Viewport 2.0”. All renderers will be moving into the viewport soon, but they are still not considered genuinely real-time.

These renderers are PBR or Physically Based Renderers; which means that their focus is on producing realistic images, though they also use some NPR features (non-photoreal/cell shading) as well.

The various raytracing renderers produce relatively similar results, and even we as professionals have a hard time picking which renderer was used to create an image. It is straightforward to switch renderers once you’ve learned one because they all borrow from the same core concepts.

 

Choosing A Renderer

Since most renderers produce images that are similar in quality, the choice of renderer can often come down to speed and cost, especially for students, individuals and small teams. Their features also play an important role, but rendering features are generally more important in large teams and the bigger studios.

 

Speed & GPU vs CPU

For speed considerations, it’s important to understand what GPU and CPU rendering is.

GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) rendering is a way of calculating on the video card, rather than the CPU (Central Processing Unit). GPUs work well with specialised in rendering tasks. As a result of graphics-specialisation GPU rendering is generally considered faster than CPU rendering.

GPU rendering is not different or lesser than CPU rendering, math is math, and the results can be identical. At this stage, Redshift is the only GPU renderer we teach, and you can only use it with the newer NVidia video cards, it does not come with a free version without a watermark.

So your hardware limitations and budget will play a role in deciding your renderer.

For simplicity, you can think of a Geforce 1070 video card in Redshift as being roughly three times faster than a dedicated CPU in Arnold or RenderMan, but this will vary greatly depending on the task.

There are technical limitations of GPU rendering, for example, the maximum measure of video-RAM (VRAM) on each video card can be a bottleneck for very large scenes. But with the newer Geforce 1070 and above cards there is at least 8BG of ram on each card, so this limit is less of a problem than it used to be.

 

GPU vs CPU Render Times

It’s challenging to compare the speed of renderers accurately, but here are our very rough estimates, these results will vary heavily on the scene and the renderer, the estimates are based off a standard image rendered in Arnold or RenderMan where a frame takes ten minutes.

The first results are Redshift rendering on a single Nvidia Geforce 1070 when compared to Arnold or Renderman on a 16 thread (8 core) 4ghz CPU.

16 thread (8 dual core) CPU at 4ghz (Arnold/RenderMan) = 10 mins per rendered image
Nvidia Geforce 1070 (video card) Redshift = 3 mins per rendered image

With two video cards…

16 thread (8 dual core) CPU at 4ghz (Arnold/RenderMan)= 10 mins per rendered image
2 x Nvidia Geforce 1070 (video cards) Redshift = 1.5 mins per rendered image

With four video cards…

16 thread (8 dual core) CPU at 4ghz (Arnold/RenderMan) = 10 mins per rendered image
4 x Nvidia Geforce 1070 (video cards) Redshift = 1 min per rendered image
* This is the machine used to demo on this page.

Both Arnold and RenderMan have also invested heavily in GPU rendering too, so it is only a matter of time before they also become GPU compatible.

 

Arnold 5

Arnold 5 is free and comes with Maya. There is no extra setup, and it’s a quality great CPU renderer and is used in many films commercials and TV shows. The free version has no batch rendering, so you can only render on one machine, and you must have Maya open and render with the “Render Sequence” functionality.

Arnold is still a CPU renderer and does not use GPU (video cards), Autodesk has let us know they are working hard to make the renderer GPU compatible possibly in Arnold 6.

 

RenderMan 21

Renderman 21 comes with a free PLE (Personal Learning Edition). It is Pixar’s renderer and is also heavily used on VFX films too, it is a CPU renderer at this time. You can render RenderMan’s free version on five machines, and it comes with a handy Render Manager that allows you to submit multiple rendering jobs. At the time of writing this, Pixar has released RenderMan 22, but it will be a few months before it’s available for non-commercial use.

RenderMan is still a CPU renderer and does not use GPU (video cards), Pixar has let us know they are working hard to make the renderer GPU compatible, most likely in RenderMan 23. Renderman 22 has already been released for anyone who buys it.

 

Redshift 2

If you have newer NVidia Video cards in your machine, Redshift 2 is a very fast renderer and is our main Renderer here at Create 3d Characters. The quality of this renderer is on a par with Arnold and RenderMan. Redshift 2 can be used for free but comes with an annoying watermark if you do not pay for it. It is a much faster renderer than Arnold 5 or RenderMan 21 so long as your video card supports it’s GPU options, that may change in the future as the other renderers also introduce their GPU features.

Redshift is becoming popular in the industry, and many studios use it in commercials TV series and feature films.

 

Other Renderers

There are many more renderers on the market, and it can be difficult to choose between them. A constantly changing landscape also means that predicting a dominant renderer is virtually impossible.

* VRay is a notable renderer missing from this page. We are currently not supporting VRay due to time limitations and that there is no personal free version. VRay is a great renderer, and we’d like to support it in the future.

Here are some other renderers available.

VRay Maya/3dsMax/Modo (CPU & GPU)
Octane Maya/3dsMax/C4d (GPU)
Iray Maya/3dsMax/Substance Painter (GPU & CPU)
FStorm Maya/3dsMax (GPU)
Carona 3dsMax (CPU)
Cycles Blender (CPU & GPU)
3dDelight Maya/3dsMax/Katana (CPU)
Mantra Houdini (CPU)
Modo Renderer Modo, Mari (CPU)
& many More

Contents (1:44 hrs)

1.1 – Arnold Lights
1.2 – Arnold Renderview
1.3 – Arnold Attributes
1.4 – ARN Render Settings
1.5 – Arnold Shaders
1.6 – ARN Car Paint
1.7 – Arnold Dragon 1
1.8 – Arnold Dragon 2
2.1 – Loading Redshift
2.2 – RS Render Settings
2.3 – RS Lights, Renderview
2.4 – Redshift Attributes
2.5 – Redshift Reduce Noise
2.6 – Redshift Shaders
2.7 – RS Car Paint
2.8 – Redshift Dragon 1
2.9 – Redshift Dragon 2
3.1 – RM Lights & Viewer
3.2 – Renderman Attributes
3.3 – RM Viewer Settings
3.4 – IPR Settings
3.5 – Final Render Settings
3.6 – Renderman Shaders
3.7 – RM Car Paint
3.8 – Renderman Dragon 1
3.9 – Renderman Dragon 2
3.91 – Renderman Dragon 3

Instructor

Andrew Silke

Software

Maya 2018, Arnold, Renderman, Redshift

Downloads

Dragon – Maya Start (100.0 MB)
Dragon – Maya Arnold 5 (100.0 MB)
Dragon – Maya Redshift 2 (100.0 MB)
Dragon – Maya Renderman 21 (100.0 MB)

Last Updated

August 2018

1. Arnold Quick Start (32 mins)

This section will get you started in the Arnold Renderer which has been included in Maya since version 2017. Arnold is an excellent renderer used in many VFX movies, games cutscenes and commercials.

This tutorial supports Arnold 5 which comes with Maya 2018. If you are using Maya 2017, you can upgrade Arnold for free, but you must do this manually.

You’ll learn how to…

– Create lights
– Render using the Render View
– Change render size and basic render settings
– Reduce noise in your renders
– Create shaders
– Edit shaders to produce different material types

VIDEO 1.1 : ARNOLD: LOAD & CREATE LIGHTS (3:33 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Introduction (0:00)
2. Loading Arnold (0:20)
3. Auto Load (0:40)
4. Arnold Shelf (1:10)
5. Create Area Light (1:35)
6. Manual Create Light (1:55)
7. Renderview (2:30)
8. Start IPR (2:35)
9. 3d Manipulation (2:45)
10. Brighten Light (3:00)
11. GI Bounce Note (3:20)
Information
This video shows how to load Arnold 5 (and above) and create area lights to render an object.
 

Loading Arnold

It’s best to turn the Autoload of Arnold to be off and only load it while using it; this is because Arnold puts attributes through every object in your scene which is not always wanted.

If you are modelling for a company or team that uses another renderer having Arnold “always on” can be annoying and it is difficult to remove from objects.

A good practice is to load render plugins only when you need them.

Plug-In Manager (ctl 3)
Autoload…
Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager > mtoa (Maya to Arnold) > Auto load > off (restart Maya)
Load…
Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager > mtoa (Maya to Arnold) > Loaded > on

 

Create An Area Light

To create an area light in Arnold use…

Create Arnold Area Light
Arnold (Menu) > Lights > Area Light
Or
Zoo Light Manager > Area Lights (Arnold) > Create Area Light

 

Start Rendering

To start rendering, open the Arnold Render view

Arnold RenderView
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView

 

3d Manipulation

Turn 3d Manipulation on to navigate in the renderview like your viewport…

Arnold 3d Manipulation
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView > Window > 3d Manipulation

 

Brighten The Light

Brighten the light with the Zoo Light Manager , or select the light and increase the exposure or intensity.
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Plug-In Manager Opens the Plugin Manager window
Window > Settings/Preferences > Plugin Manager 		ctl 3 (C3dC)
None (default)
Create Arnold Area Light Creates an Area Light in Arnold
Arnold (Menu) > Lights > Area Light
Or
Zoo Light Manager > Area Lights (Arnold) > Create Area Light
 None (C3dC)
None (default)
Arnold RenderView Opens Arnold’s RenderView
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Arnold 3d Manipulation Allows 3d Navigation in Arnold’s RenderView
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView > Window > 3d Manipulation 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Zoo Light Manager Zoo Tools Light Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Light Manager
or
C3dC Shelf > LightM 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 1.2 : ARNOLD RENDERVIEW (3:21 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Render Size (0:00)
2. Arnold Settings (0:20)
3. Half Precision (0:25)
4. Render Size (0:30)
5. RenderView Size (0:45)
6. Selecting Geo (1:10)
7. Save UI Threads (1:25)
8. 3d Navigation (2:25)
9. Start Stop Renders (2:30)
10. Update Full Scene (2:45)
Information
This video shows the basics of using Arnold’s Renderview.

 

Basic Render Settings

Set the resolution of your final image in the Arnold Render Settings (shift 5).

Arnold Render Settings (shift 5)
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > Arnold Renderer

Then change
> Common (tab) > Image Size > Width/Height/Presets
> Common > Final Output > Half Precision > On

 

Save UI Threads

Depending on the number of threads your machine has, it may be worth setting some threads for Maya so that your interactivity doesn’t slow down. You can set the number of CPU threads to spare in the RenderView.

Arnold Save UI Threads
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView > Render > Save UI Threads

 

Start Stop & Update

To Start And Stop renders use the play/stop icon in the top right corner of the Arnold RenderView .

To force update the whole scene if there are problems use Arnold Update Full Scene (ctrl u).

Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Arnold RenderView Opens Arnold’s RenderView
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Arnold Render Settings Maya’s Render Settings then switch to Arnold
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > Arnold Renderer
 shift 5 (C3dC)
None (default)
Arnold Set Test Resolution Sets the test resolution for renders in the Arnold RenderView.
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView > View > Test Resolution 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Arnold Real Size Sets Arnold’s RenderView to view at the current resolution
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView > 1:1 (icon) 		o (C3dC)
o (default)
Arnold Save UI Threads Saves processors from rendering making Maya’s interactivity smoother
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView > Render > Save UI Threads 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Arnold 3d Manipulation Allows 3d Navigation in Arnold’s RenderView
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView > Window > 3d Manipulation 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Arnold Run IPR Runs interactive rendering (IPR) in the Arnold RenderView window.
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView > Play (Icon) 		space (C3dC)
space (default)
Arnold Update Full Scene Refreshes Arnold’s RenderView with a force update
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView > Render > Update Full Scene 		ctrl u (C3dC)
ctrl u (default)
VIDEO 1.3 : ARNOLD: ATTRIBUTE LOCATIONS, ZOO TOOLS (1:01 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Zoo Light Attributes (0:00)
2. Zoo Shader Attributes (0:30)
Information
This video shows how the Zoo Light Manager attributes match to the Area Light and aiStandardSurface attributes.

Arnold matches well to the Zoo Light and Shader Managers; with a few notable differences…

– The “Light Visibility” does not exist in Arnold, geometry must be created with a shader
– There is no “Sphere” light setting in Arnold
– The aiStandardSurface “Clear Coat Color” is generally best left to white

 

Zoo Light Manager And Arnold Area Light Attributes

The following is a list of the Zoo Light Manager attributes and the matching Arnold Area Light attributes, as found in the attribute editor.

Name = (Transform Node) > Transform
Intensity = (Shape Node) > Arnold Area Light Attributes > Intensity
Exposure = (Shape Node) > Arnold Area Light Attributes > Exposure
Shape = (Shape Node) > Arnold Area Light Attributes > Light Shape
Normalize = (Shape Node) > Arnold Area Light Attributes > Normalize
Light Visibility = *Arnold does not have this feature
Color (Hue Sat) = (Shape Node) > Arnold Area Light Attributes > Color (Use Color Temperature Off)
Temperature = (Shape Node) > Arnold Area Light Attributes > Temperature (Use Color Temperature On)
Scale = (Transform Node) > Transform Attributes > Scale

 

Zoo Shader Manager And aiStandardSurface Attributes

The following is a list of the Zoo Shader Manager attributes and the matching aiStandardSurface attribute as found in the attribute editor.

Diffuse Color = Base > Color
Diffuse Weight = Base > Weight
—–
Spec Weight = Specular > Weight
Specular Color = Specular > Color
Roughness = Specular > Roughness
Specular IOR = Specular > IOR
—–
Clear Ct Weight = Coat > Weight
Clear Ct Color = Coat > Color (can only be white in Arnold)
Clear Ct Roughn = Coat > Roughness
Clear Ct IOR = Coat > IOR
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Zoo Light Manager Zoo Tools Light Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Light Manager
or
C3dC Shelf > LightM 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Zoo Shader Manager Zoo Tools Quick Shader Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 1.4 : ARNOLD: RENDER SETTINGS (4:25 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Noisy Renders (0:00)
2. Render Time (0:30)
3. Sample Settings (0:50)
4. Camera AA (1:05)
5. Transmission (1:40)
6. SSS (1:45)
7. Volume Indirect (1:55)
8. Specular (2:05)
9. Diffuse (2:15)
10. Light Samples (2:50)
11. Samples Summary (3:45)
Information
This video will show you the get-started settings to reduce noise in your render.

Arnold’s sample/quality settings are found under

Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings (shift 5)
> Render Using > Arnold Renderer (dropdown) > Arnold Renderer (tab)

The main settings are…

Camera (AA): Multiplies all sample types in the scene and handles Anti Aliasing too.
Diffuse: Noise in the color of objects, though not reflections like metal color.
Specular: Noise in the reflections, color of metals, any specualar shader settings
Transmission: Noise in see through objects like glass and refraction.
SSS: Subsurface Scattering, noise in SSS shader types.
Volume Indirect: Indirect noise in volumes like fog and clouds

Adjust light samples if any lights are casting blurry shadows.

1. Select The Light
2. Open the Attribute Editor (ctl a)
3. Go to the lights Shape tab
4. Arnold Area Light Attributes > Samples > Set this to 3 or 4 in most cases

Switch any settings that are not in the scene to zero, usually SSS, Transmission and Volume Indirect.
Then tweak the values until you reduce the noise in your image.

To achieve a clean render in most cases, you can raise Diffuse and Camera AA and Light Samples.
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Arnold Render Settings Maya’s Render Settings then switch to Arnold
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > Arnold Renderer
 shift 5 (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 1.5 : ARNOLD SHADERS (3:50 mins)

No. Video Points
1. aiStandardSurface (0:00)
2. Assign Shader (0:15)
3. Shader Mngr Assign (0:40)
4. Select Shader (1:15)
5. Shader Presets (1:25)
6. Specular Weight (1:55)
7. Roughness (2:10)
8. Diffuse Color (2:25)
9. Creating Metals (2:40)
10. Shiny Chrome (3:05)
11. Gold (3:20)
Information
This video will show you how to create and tweak shaders to achieve various material types in Arnold 5 and above. Arnold 5 comes with Maya 2018 but not with 2017, so if you’re using Maya 2017, you’ll need to upgrade Arnold manually which is free.

We’ll be exploring Arnold 5’s main shader called the “aiStandardSurface”.

 

Create And Assign Shaders

To create and assign the aiStandardSurface manually…

1. Select the object to be assigned.
2. Right Click Object > Assign New Material
3. Click Arnold in the sidebar
4. Click aiStandardSurface from the right list

Open the shader settings in the Attribute Editor (ctl a). To select the shader use the hotkey Sel Shader/Channel Node (ctrl shft n).

To create the aiStandardSurface shader using Zoo Shader Manager …

1. Open the Zoo Shader Manager
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager
2. Be sure Arnold is set in the top section
3. Select the Object to be assigned
4. Create And Manage Shaders > Create

 

Edit Shaders

Common shader settings are found in the Create And Manage section of the Zoo Shader Manager . These attributes match to settings on the selected object’s aiStandardSurface shader. See below for how these attributes match to the aiStandardSurface shader.

 

Matte Shaders

Matte Material (Clothes, Dull Wood, Not Shiny)
Diffuse Color: The color of the object
Spec Weight: 0
Clear Ct Weight: 0

 

Reflective Shaders

Reflectivity in 3d is usually called “Specular”. The following shaders all use specular reflection to achieve their looks. The reflectivity is also dependant on the surrounding objects and or lights (including IBL Skydomes) in the scene.

Regular Plastic or Matte with a clear coat or shiny polish
Diffuse Color: The color of the object
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: White
Roughness: Tweak as per the plastic roughness
IOR: 1.5
Clear Ct Weight: 0

 

Metals

Note that the color of metal mostly comes through the specular color, not the diffuse color. For metals always set the diffuse color to black, or set the diffuse weight to 0.

The IOR value is essential in metals and can you can set it as follows…

IOR Settings
IOR = 1.5 : Plastic or Glass/Polished, not metal
IOR = 4 : Dull Metal
IOR = 12 : Shiny Metal
IOR = 20 : Very shiny chrome or very reflective mirror

Shiny Chrome or Mirror
Diffuse Color: Black
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: White
Roughness: Tweak for the shine level, 0 is very shiny, .6 is quite rough
IOR: 12 – 20
Clear Ct Weight: 0

Gold
Diffuse Color: Black
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: Gold (mid saturated yellow/orange)
Roughness: Tweak for the shine level, 0 is very shiny, .6 is quite rough
IOR: 12 or above
Clear Ct Weight: 0

Brass
Diffuse Color: Black
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: Mid Saturated Yellow/Orange
Roughness: Tweak for the shine level, 0 is very shiny, .6 is quite rough
IOR: 4 for dull brass, higher for shinier more polished levels.
Clear Ct Weight: 0

 

Zoo Shader Manager And aiStandardSurface Attributes

The following is a list of the Zoo Shader Manager attributes and the matching aiStandardSurface attribute as found in the attribute editor.

Diffuse Color = Base > Color
Diffuse Weight = Base > Weight
—–
Spec Weight = Specular > Weight
Specular Color = Specular > Color
Roughness = Specular > Roughness
Specular IOR = Specular > IOR
—–
Clear Ct Weight = Coat > Weight
Clear Ct Color = Coat > Color (can only be white in Arnold)
Clear Ct Roughn = Coat > Roughness
Clear Ct IOR = Coat > IOR
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Sel Shader/Channel Node Selects the shaders on sleected obj/s or selects the selected node in the channel box.
 ctrl shft n (C3dC)
None (default)
Assign Shader Select and Object and Right Click and go down the Assign Material section
Right Click Object > Assign New Material… > (Choose Shader)
Or
Zoo Shader Manager > Create And Manage Shaders > Create 		rgt clck (C3dC)
rgt clck (default)
Zoo Shader Manager Zoo Tools Quick Shader Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 1.6 : ARNOLD: SHADERS, CAR PAINT (1:49 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Car Shader (0:00)
2. Clear Coat Polish (0:15)
3. Reset Grey Shader (1:20)
4. Preset Shaders (1:40)
Information
This video will show you how to use the Clear Coat attributes to create a car shader effect in Arnold 5 and above.

Clear Coat mimics the glass polish layer of a real-world object, usually on top of the metal base. You can think of “plastic specular” as a type of clear coat, but in the case of plastic, only one specular layer is needed.

However, for metals based shaders that also have a polish layer, then two specular layers are required. We’ll need a metal base layer as well as a glass polish top coat. Car paint shader setups are a great example that uses the Clear Coat layer.

The Clear Coat attributes are just a duplicated set of specular (reflection section) settings. The values are identical to specular in most renderers. In Arnold, the color of the Coat layer is slightly different so good idea to leave it set to white. Most clear coat shader types will always be white anyway.

Car Shader
Diffuse Color: Black
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: The color or the car paint
Roughness: Usually rough .4 -.7
IOR: 8 or above
Clear Ct Weight: 1
Clear Ct Color: White
Clear Ct Rough: .1 (low values)
Clear Ct IOR: 1.5

 

Shader Presets

The Zoo Shader Manager comes with some shader presets. These are rough starting points for a variety of shaders, and we’ll improve the presets and let you create your own in the future.
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Zoo Shader Manager Zoo Tools Quick Shader Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 1.7 : ARNOLD: RENDER THE DRAGON, PART 1 (5:42 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Load Arnold (0:00)
2. Create Light (0:15)
3. Open Renderview (0:50)
4. Setup Camera (1:05)
5. Renderview Settings (2:00)
6. Brighten Light (2:45)
7. Create Shaders (3:30)
Information
This part 1 of 2 in the lighting of the dragon. You can download the Dragon Sculpt start file to follow along.

This video will show you how to…

1. Load Arnold
2. Create the light
3. Use the RenderView
4. Adjust the light’s intensity
5. Create the shaders
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Zoo Light Manager Zoo Tools Light Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Light Manager
or
C3dC Shelf > LightM 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Arnold RenderView Opens Arnold’s RenderView
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Create Camera Creates a new camera
 shft k (C3dC)
None (default)
Set Global Scene Resolution Sets the Global Resolution for the scene
Render Settings Window > Common > Image Size > Width/Height
or presets on the C3dC Shelf > Cam (right Click) > Set Resolution (assorted) 		Shft 5 (C3dC)
None (default)
Select Camera Cur View Selects the look through camera in the current viewport
Viewport Menu > View > Select Camera 		k (C3dC)
None (default)
Bookmark Camera Bookmarks the active camera’s location/orientation and settings
viewport shelf > bookmarks (icon) >
Left click to create, right click to set 		\ (hold) (C3dC)
\ (default)
Arnold Set Test Resolution Sets the test resolution for renders in the Arnold RenderView.
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView > View > Test Resolution 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Arnold Save UI Threads Saves processors from rendering making Maya’s interactivity smoother
Arnold (Menu) > Arnold RenderView > Render > Save UI Threads 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Zoo Shader Manager Zoo Tools Quick Shader Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Sel Shader/Channel Node Selects the shaders on sleected obj/s or selects the selected node in the channel box.
 ctrl shft n (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 1.8 : ARNOLD: RENDER THE DRAGON, PART 2 (8:52 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Load Shader Info (0:00)
2. Dragon Skin (0:15)
3. Add Specular (0:20)
4. Add Clear Coat (1:50)
5. Zoom Pan Cam (3:15)
6. Render Pan Zoom (4:05)
7. Eye Shader (4:45)
8. Render Settings (6:35)
9. Sample Settings (6:45)
10. Light Samples (7:25)
11. Render Full Frame (7:50)
12. Final Render (8:32)
Information
This part 2 of 2 in the lighting of the dragon. You can download the Dragon Sculpt start file to follow along.

This video will show you how to…

1. Adjust the Dragon Skin Shader
2. Adjust the Eye Shader
3. Set The Sample Settings
4. Render The Final Frame

 

Shader Settings

Skin Shader
Diffuse Color: Grey
Spec Weight: 1.0
Specular Color: White
Roughness: 0.55
IOR: 1.8
Clear Ct Weight: 0.05
Clear Ct Color: White
Clear Ct Rough: 0.4
Clear Ct IOR: 1.8

Eye Shader
Diffuse Color: Drk Grey
Spec Weight: 1.0
Specular Color: White
Roughness: 0.4
IOR: 1.8

 

Sample Settings

This scene requires low sample settings because of the low light intensity.

Render Settings Sample Settings

Camera (AA): 3 (usually can go higher)
Diffuse: 2 (usually can go higher)
Specular: 2
Transmission: 0
SSS: Subsurface 0
Volume Indirect: 0

Light Sample Settings…

1. Select The Light
2. Open the Attribute Editor (ctl a)
3. Go to the lights Shape tab
4. Arnold Area Light Attributes > Samples > 3
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Zoo Shader Manager Zoo Tools Quick Shader Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Pan And Zoom Camera Like a 2d Photoshop like zoom without changing the camera
Treat this like alt in navigation
Hold = zoom and pan with mouse
Tap = Toggle in and out of mode
View (viewport)> Camera Tools > 2d Pan Zoom Tool 		\ (hold) (C3dC)
\ (default)
Camera Clipping Planes Changes the near and far clip planes in the viewport
(select camera) > Attribute Editor (shape) > Cam Attributes > Near/Far Clip Planes
Also presets on C3dC (shelf) > Cam (right click) > Cam Clip Planes (assorted) 		\ (hold) (C3dC)
\ (default)
Arnold Render Settings Maya’s Render Settings then switch to Arnold
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > Arnold Renderer
 shift 5 (C3dC)
None (default)

2. Redshift Quick Start (31 mins)

This section will get you started in the Redshift Renderer .

Redshift is fast GPU renderer and it can be tested for free with a watermark. Redshift has been adopted by the industry and is now used in many commercials and films. It requires modern NVidia Video cards to run.

In this section you’ll learn how to…

– Create lights
– Render using the Render View
– Change render size and basic render settings
– Reduce noise in your renders
– Create shaders
– Edit shaders to produce different material types

VIDEO 2.1 : REDSHIFT: LOAD & RENDERVIEW (1:29 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Introduction (0:00)
2. Disable Arnold (0:20)
3. Load Redshift (0:45)
4. Redshift Renderview (1:10)
Information
This video shows how to load Redshift 2 (and above) and load the Redshift RenderView.
 

Turn Off Arnold

Before starting is good to turn off Arnold in the Plugin-Manager the Arnold plugin is “mtoa”. If Arnold is on, turn it off and turn Auto Load off too, then restart Maya. You should not see the Arnold in the top menu.

Plug-In Manager (ctl 3)
Arnold Unload…
Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager > mtoa (Maya to Arnold) > Loaded > off
Autoload…
Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager > mtoa (Maya to Arnold) > Auto load > off (restart Maya)

 

Load Redshift

Load Redshift through the Plug-In Manager …

Plug-In Manager (ctl 3)
Redshift Load…
Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager > redshift4Maya > Loaded > On
Keep Auto Load off, it’s good practice to only load renderers when you need them.

If you’ve installed Redshift correctly, you should see Redshift in the top menu.

 

Load Redshift Render View

To open the Redshift Render View window use…

Redshift Renderview
Redshift (menu) > Redshift Render View

Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Plug-In Manager Opens the Plugin Manager window
Window > Settings/Preferences > Plugin Manager 		ctl 3 (C3dC)
None (default)
Redshift Renderview Opens the Redshift Render View
Redshift (menu) > Redshift Render View 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Render View Opens the Render View as floating window
Window > Rendering Editors > Render View 		5 (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 2.2 : REDSHIFT: PRIMARY RENDER SETTINGS (2:00 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Render Settings Intro (0:00)
2. OpenExr (0:15)
3. Compression plz (0:20)
4. Render Resolution (0:25)
5. Disable Default Light (0:40)
6. Add GI (1:10)
Information
This video shows how to set up the essential Redshift Render Settings.

Redshifts’s main settings are found under

Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings (shft 5)
> Render Using > Redshift (dropdown)

Set these Render Settings before starting your render…

Common (tab) > File Output > Image Format > OpenExr
Common (tab) > File Output > Compression > plz
Common (tab) > Resolution > Presets/Width/Height (as desired)
Common (tab) > Misc > Enable Default Light > Off
GI (tab) > General > Primary GI Engine > Brute Force
GI (tab) > General > Secondary GI Engine > Brute Force
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Redshift Render Settings Opens the Render Settings window, then choose Redshift
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > Redshift
 shft 5 (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 2.3 : REDSHIFT: LIGHTS & RENDERVIEW (3:20 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Create Light Menu (0:00)
2. Light Manager (0:05)
3. Renderview (0:20)
4. Renderview Zoom (0:50)
5. Change Render Size (1:10)
6. Brighten Lights (2:00)
7. Exposure Note (2:10)
8. Create Camera (2:30)
9. Cam Lock Button (2:40)
Information
This video shows how to create a light and render the scene in the Redshift Render View.

 

Open Redshift Render View

Redshift Renderview
Redshift (menu) > Redshift Render View

 

Render Size

Redshifts Render Size is always 100% the size of the Render Settings, no matter the zoom size. To change the render size use the Redshift Render Settings (shft 5)

 

Create An Area Light

To create an area light in Arnold use…

Create Arnold Area Light
Arnold (Menu) > Lights > Area Light
Or
Zoo Light Manager > Area Lights (Arnold) > Create Area Light

 

Brighten A Light

Brighten the light with the Zoo Light Manager , or select the light and increase the exposure or intensity.
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Create Redshift Area Light Creates an Area Light in Redshift
Redshift (Menu) > Lights > Redshift Physical Light
Or
Zoo Light Manager > Area Lights (Redshift) > Create Area Light
 None (C3dC)
None (default)
Zoo Light Manager Zoo Tools Light Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Light Manager
or
C3dC Shelf > LightM 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Redshift Renderview Opens the Redshift Render View
Redshift (menu) > Redshift Render View 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Redshift Render Settings Opens the Render Settings window, then choose Redshift
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > Redshift
 shft 5 (C3dC)
None (default)
Create Camera Creates a new camera
 shft k (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 2.4 : REDSHIFT: ATTRIBUTE LOCATIONS, ZOO TOOLS (1:04 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Zoo Light Attributes (0:00)
2. Zoo Shader Attributes (0:30)
Information
This video shows how the Zoo Light Manager attributes match to the Area Light, and Redshift Material attributes.

Redshift matches nicely to the Zoo Light and Shader Managers; all settings match appropriately (see below).

* Note: At the time of this tutorial the Zoo Light Manager will always set exposure as intensity. We will update that in the future. Previous versions of Redshift v2 had no exposure setting.

 

Zoo Light Manager And Redshift Area Light Attributes

The following is a list of the Zoo Light Manager attributes and the matching Redshift Area Light attributes, as found in the attribute editor.

Name = (Transform Node) > Transform
Intensity = (Shape Node) > Intensity > Intensity Multiplier
Exposure = (Shape Node) > Intensity > Exposure (currently not implemented yet)
Shape = (Shape Node) > Area > Shape
Normalize = (Shape Node) > Area > Normalize Intensity
Light Visibility = (Shape Node) > Area > Visible
Color (Hue Sat) = (Shape Node) > Intensity > Color (Mode > Color)
Temperature = (Shape Node) > Intensity > Temperature (Mode > Temperature)
Scale = (Transform Node) > Transform Attributes > Scale

 

Zoo Shader Manager And RedshiftMaterial Attributes

The following is a list of the Zoo Shader Manager attributes and the matching RedshiftMaterial attribute as found in the attribute editor.

Diffuse Color = Base Properties > Diffuse > Color
Diffuse Weight = Base Properties > Diffuse > Weight
—–
Spec Weight = Reflection > Weight
Specular Color = Reflection > Color
Roughness = Reflection > Roughness
Specular IOR = Reflection > IOR
—–
Clear Ct Weight = Coating > General > Weight
Clear Ct Color = Coating > General > Color
Clear Ct Roughn = Coating > General > Roughness
Clear Ct IOR = Coating > General > IOR
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Zoo Light Manager Zoo Tools Light Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Light Manager
or
C3dC Shelf > LightM 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Zoo Shader Manager Zoo Tools Quick Shader Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 2.5 : REDSHIFT: SAMPLE SETTINGS (REDUCE NOISE) (5:14 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Default Passes (0:00)
2. Render Times (0:20)
3. Progressive vs Unified (1:20)
4. Progress/Bucket (1:45)
5. Max Min Samples (2:20)
6. Progressive Override (3:15)
7. Preview IPR Rendering (3:50)
8. Sample Overrides (4:25)
9. Light Samples (4:50)
Information
This video will show you how to reduce noise in your renders and give you an introduction into Redshift’s two rendering modes and sample settings.
 

Progressive vs Unified

Redshift has two rendering modes…

Progressive: Interactive (IPR Rendering mode), the play icon. Not efficient
Unified Sampling: Generally Bucket Rendering, not interactive, efficient.

 

Progressive Rendering

Progressive rendering is the interactive rendering mode. It’s activated when you press the Play button in the render view.

Progressive Rendering is interactive, but it’s not particularly efficient. Some rendering settings are not compatible with Progressive rendering.

To set the quality of progressive rendering open the Redshift Render Settings ( Redshift Render Settings , and go to the Output Tab.

Redshift Render Settings (shft 5)
Output (tab) > Progressive Rendering > Passes

The Passes level is set high by default, so in most cases, you can reduce it. Reduce using powers so 512, 256 or 128. The rendering will keep rendering until it hit’s the Passes limit. A lower number will mean the interactive mode will stop faster.

 

Unified Sampling

Unified Sampling is the method of rendering in Redshift when you hit the Render (first) Clapperboard icon. Unified will usually render in buckets or squares.

Unified sampling is generally more efficient than Progressive Rendering; however, it isn’t interactive. Some rendering features will only render using unified sampling.

Redshift Render Settings (shft 5)
Output (tab) > Unified Sampling > Min Samples
Output (tab) > Unified Sampling > Max Samples
Output (tab) > Unified Sampling > Adaptive Error Threshold

The default quality settings are Min Samples, Max Samples and Adaptive Error Threshold.

Raising the Min and Max samples in powers will give better quality and less noise so that the min samples is one-quarter of the max-samples is a good starting point. Lowering the adaptive threshold will also improve quality at the cost of slower renders.

 

Batch Rendering

Batch rendering, or rendering multiple frames to disk will always render using the unified sample settings. You can render using Progressive Rendering, by checking on “enable” under Progressive Rendering, though in most cases that’s not recommended.

 

Sample Overrides

Redshift can override the samples of a particular part of the renderer like Arnold. For example, you can use this if your SSS is causing noise, but everything else is fine. You can override samples in the Sampling Overrides Section of the Output tab.

Redshift Render Settings (shft 5)
Output (tab) > Sampling Overrides

For getting started settings, it’s not essential to override. For those coming from Arnold, the values should be set in powers so 16, 32, 64, 218 etc. Also, the sample override level for any category should be more than the Max Samples setting.

 

Light Samples

Like other renderers light settings you can also set Light Samples higher, you can set the value in the shape node of each light (attribute editor). Redshift defaults to 16 samples which are good for most situations.

1. Select The Light
2. Open the Attribute Editor (ctl a)
3. Go to the lights Shape tab
4. Area > Samples > set in powers 16, 32, 64, 128 etc
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Redshift Render Settings Opens the Render Settings window, then choose Redshift
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > Redshift
 shft 5 (C3dC)
None (default)
Redshift Renderview Opens the Redshift Render View
Redshift (menu) > Redshift Render View 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 2.6 : REDSHIFT: SHADERS (3:52 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Redshift Material (0:00)
2. Create Shader Manual (0:05)
3. Shader Manager Assign (0:40)
4. Select Shader (1:15)
5. Plastic Shader Setup (1:45)
6. Red Plastic (2:15)
7. IOR (2:45)
8. Metal Setup (2:55)
9. Shiny Metal (3:20)
10. IBL With Chrome (3:35)
Information
This video will show you how to create and tweak shaders to achieve various material types in Redshift.

We’ll be exploring Redshift’s main shader called the “RedshiftMaterial”.

 

Create And Assign Shaders

To create and assign the RedshiftMaterial manually…

1. Select the object to be assigned.
2. Right Click Object > Assign New Material
3. Click Redshift in the sidebar
4. Click RedshiftMaterial from the right list

Open the shader settings in the Attribute Editor (ctl a). To select the shader use the hotkey Sel Shader/Channel Node (ctrl shft n).

To create the RedshiftMaterial shader using Zoo Shader Manager …

1. Open the Zoo Shader Manager
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager
2. Be sure Redshift is set in the top section
3. Select the Object to be assigned
4. Create And Manage Shaders > Create

 

Edit Shaders

Common shader settings are found in the Create And Manage section of the Zoo Shader Manager . These attributes match to settings on the selected object’s RedshiftMaterial shader. See below for how these attributes match to the RedshiftMaterial shader.

 

Matte Shaders

Matte Material (Clothes, Dull Wood, Not Shiny)
Diffuse Color: The color of the object
Spec Weight: 0
Clear Ct Weight: 0

 

Reflective Shaders

Reflectivity in 3d is usually called “Specular”. The following shaders all use specular reflection to achieve their looks. The reflectivity is also dependant on the surrounding objects and or lights (including IBL Skydomes) in the scene.

Regular Plastic or Matte with a clear coat or shiny polish
Diffuse Color: The color of the object
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: White
Roughness: Tweak as per the plastic roughness
IOR: 1.5
Clear Ct Weight: 0

 

Metals

Note that the color of metal mostly comes through the specular color, not the diffuse color. For metals always set the diffuse color to black, or set the diffuse weight to 0.

The IOR value is essential in metals and can you can set it as follows…

IOR Settings
IOR = 1.5 : Plastic or Glass/Polished, not metal
IOR = 4 : Dull Metal
IOR = 12 : Shiny Metal
IOR = 20 : Very shiny chrome or very reflective mirror

Shiny Chrome or Mirror
Diffuse Color: Black
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: White
Roughness: Tweak for the shine level, 0 is very shiny, .6 is quite rough
IOR: 12 – 20
Clear Ct Weight: 0

Gold
Diffuse Color: Black
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: Gold (mid saturated yellow/orange)
Roughness: Tweak for the shine level, 0 is very shiny, .6 is quite rough
IOR: 12 or above
Clear Ct Weight: 0

Brass
Diffuse Color: Black
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: Mid Saturated Yellow/Orange
Roughness: Tweak for the shine level, 0 is very shiny, .6 is quite rough
IOR: 4 for dull brass, higher for shinier more polished levels.
Clear Ct Weight: 0

 

Zoo Shader Manager And RedshiftMaterial Attributes

The following is a list of the Zoo Shader Manager attributes and the matching RedshiftMaterial attribute as found in the attribute editor.

Diffuse Color = Base Properties > Diffuse > Color
Diffuse Weight = Base Properties > Diffuse > Weight
—–
Spec Weight = Reflection > Weight
Specular Color = Reflection > Color
Roughness = Reflection > Roughness
Specular IOR = Reflection > IOR
—–
Clear Ct Weight = Coating > General > Weight
Clear Ct Color = Coating > General > Color
Clear Ct Roughn = Coating > General > Roughness
Clear Ct IOR = Coating > General > IOR
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Zoo Shader Manager Zoo Tools Quick Shader Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Assign Shader Select and Object and Right Click and go down the Assign Material section
Right Click Object > Assign New Material… > (Choose Shader)
Or
Zoo Shader Manager > Create And Manage Shaders > Create 		rgt clck (C3dC)
rgt clck (default)
Sel Shader/Channel Node Selects the shaders on sleected obj/s or selects the selected node in the channel box.
 ctrl shft n (C3dC)
None (default)
Zoo Light Manager Zoo Tools Light Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Light Manager
or
C3dC Shelf > LightM 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 2.7 : REDSHIFT: CREATING GOLD, CAR PAINT & SHADER PRESETS (3:31 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Gold (0:00)
2. Rough Gold (0:25)
3. Brass (0:35)
4. Car Paint (0:50)
5. Clear Coat (1:20)
6. Green Car Paint (2:05)
7. Shader Presets (2:40)
8. Reset Grey (3:15)
Information
This video will show you how to create a gold and then explore the Clear Coat attributes to create a car shader effect in Redshift.
 

Gold

Gold
Diffuse Color: Black
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: Gold (mid saturated yellow/orange)
Roughness: Tweak for the shine level, 0 is very shiny, .6 is quite rough
IOR: 12 or above
Clear Ct Weight: 0

Brass
Diffuse Color: Black
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: Mid Saturated Yellow/Orange
Roughness: Tweak for the shine level, 0 is very shiny, .6 is quite rough
IOR: 4 for dull brass, higher for shinier more polished levels.
Clear Ct Weight: 0

 

Clear Coat

Clear Coat mimics the glass polish layer of a real-world object, usually on top of the metal base. You can think of “plastic specular” as a type of clear coat, but in the case of plastic, you’ll only need one specular layer.

However, for metals based shaders that also have a polish layer, then two specular layers are required. We’ll need a metal base layer as well as a glass polish top coat. Car paint shader setups are a great example that uses the Clear Coat layer.

The Clear Coat attributes are just a duplicated set of specular (reflection section) settings. The values are identical to specular in most renderers.

Car Shader
Diffuse Color: Black
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: The color or the car paint
Roughness: Usually rough .4 -.7
IOR: 8 or above
Clear Ct Weight: 1
Clear Ct Color: White
Clear Ct Rough: .1 (low values)
Clear Ct IOR: 1.5

 

Shader Presets

The Zoo Shader Manager comes with some shader presets. These are rough starting points for a variety of shaders, and we’ll improve the presets and let you create your own in the future.
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Zoo Shader Manager Zoo Tools Quick Shader Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 2.8 : REDSHIFT: RENDER THE DRAGON, PART 1 (4:47 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Load Redshift (0:00)
2. Create Light (0:25)
3. Render Settings (0:50)
4. Set Resolution (1:25)
5. Create Camera (1:45)
6. Redshift RenderView (2:20)
7. Brighten Light (2:50)
8. Assign Shaders (3:00)
9. Transfer Shader (3:45)
10. Final Intensity (4:30)
Information
This part 1 of 2 in the lighting of the dragon. You can download the Dragon Sculpt start file to follow along.

This video will show you how to…

1. Load Redshift
2. Create the light
3. Use the RenderView
4. Adjust the light’s intensity
5. Create the shaders
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Zoo Light Manager Zoo Tools Light Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Light Manager
or
C3dC Shelf > LightM 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Set Global Scene Resolution Sets the Global Resolution for the scene
Render Settings Window > Common > Image Size > Width/Height
or presets on the C3dC Shelf > Cam (right Click) > Set Resolution (assorted) 		Shft 5 (C3dC)
None (default)
Create Camera Creates a new camera
 shft k (C3dC)
None (default)
Redshift Renderview Opens the Redshift Render View
Redshift (menu) > Redshift Render View 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Zoo Shader Manager Zoo Tools Quick Shader Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 2.9 : REDSHIFT: RENDER THE DRAGON, PART 2 (6:05 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Lock Redshift Camera (0:10)
2. Select Shader (0:20)
3. Edit Dragon Skin (0:30)
4. Specular (0:35)
5. Clear Coat (1:05)
6. Cam Pan Zoom (2:45)
7. Render Pan Zoom (3:20)
8. Eye Shader (3:45)
9. Full Screen (4:45)
10. Unified Sampling (5:00)
11. Final Render (5:45)
Information
This part 2 of 2 in the lighting of the dragon. You can download the Dragon Sculpt start file to follow along.

This video will show you how to…

1. Adjust the Dragon Skin Shader
2. Adjust the Eye Shader
3. Check The Sample Settings
4. Render The Final Frame

 

Shader Settings

Skin Shader
Diffuse Color: Grey
Spec Weight: 1.0
Specular Color: White
Roughness: 0.55
IOR: 1.8
Clear Ct Weight: 0.05
Clear Ct Color: White
Clear Ct Rough: 0.4
Clear Ct IOR: 1.8

Eye Shader
Diffuse Color: Drk Grey
Spec Weight: 1.0
Specular Color: White
Roughness: 0.4
IOR: 1.8

 

Redshift Sample Settings

This scene uses low sample settings as the final image is dark.

Progressive Rendering (IPR)
Passes 128

Unified Sampling (Final Frame/Buckets)
Min Samples: 32
Max Samples: 128
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Zoo Shader Manager Zoo Tools Quick Shader Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Pan And Zoom Camera Like a 2d Photoshop like zoom without changing the camera
Treat this like alt in navigation
Hold = zoom and pan with mouse
Tap = Toggle in and out of mode
View (viewport)> Camera Tools > 2d Pan Zoom Tool 		\ (hold) (C3dC)
\ (default)
Select Camera Cur View Selects the look through camera in the current viewport
Viewport Menu > View > Select Camera 		k (C3dC)
None (default)
Redshift Render Settings Opens the Render Settings window, then choose Redshift
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > Redshift
 shft 5 (C3dC)
None (default)

3. Renderman Quick Start (40 mins)

This section will get you started in the RenderMan Renderer . This tutorial features Renderman 21. Renderman 22 is out, but it’s not available for non-commercial use yet.

RenderMan is Pixar’s renderer and is also used to render many VFX movies. You can use Renderman for free with a non-commercial license here , there is no watermark for RenderMan, so it’s easy to learn with the free version.

In this section, you’ll learn how to…

– Create lights
– Render using the Render View
– Change render size and basic render settings
– Reduce noise in your renders
– Create shaders
– Edit shaders to produce different material types

VIDEO 3.1 : RENDERMAN: LIGHTS & IT VIEWER (3:34 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Unload Arnold (0:00)
2. Load Renderman (0:30)
3. Create Light Manual (0:45)
4. Zoo Light Manager (1:00)
5. Load IT Renderview (1:25)
6. IT Image Tool (1:40)
7. Always On Top (1:55)
8. Update Note (2:40)
9. Resend IPR Hotkey (2:55)
Information
This video shows how to load RenderMan 21 (and above) and load the RenderMan’s RenderView called IT (Image Tool). Note* at the time of this video RenderMan 22 has been released but we are still waiting for a non-commercial version.

*Renderman’s updating has been improved a lot in the next version 22.
 

Turn Off Arnold

Before starting is good to turn off Arnold in the Plug-In Manager (ctl 3) the Arnold plugin is “mtoa”. If Arnold is on, turn it off and turn Auto Load off too, then restart Maya. You should not see the Arnold in the top menu.

Plug-In Manager (ctl 3)
Arnold Unload…
Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager > mtoa (Maya to Arnold) > Loaded > off
Autoload…
Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager > mtoa (Maya to Arnold) > Auto load > off (restart Maya)

 

Load RenderMan

Load RenderMan through the Plug-In Manager …

Plug-In Manager (ctl 3)
RenderMan Load…
Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager > RenderMan_for_Maya > Loaded > On
Keep Auto Load off, it’s good practice to only load renderers when you need them.

If you have installed RenderMan correctly, you should see RenderMan in the top menu, and the RenderMan shelf will also load.

 

Create An Area Light

To there are 3 area light types in RenderMan, to create a rectangle area light in RenderMan use…

Renderman Create Rect Light
Renderman (menu) > Lights > PxrRectLight
or Renderman (shelf) > light (right click) > PxrRectLight

You can also use the Zoo Light Manager to create an area light. In this UI you can switch between the three different light types rectangle, disc and sphere. RenderMan does not support the cylinder light type.

Zoo Light Manager
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Light Manager
or
C3dC Shelf > LightM

 

Load RenderMan’s RenderView (IT or Image Tool)

IT is RenderMan’s RenderView; it’s different from other renderers RenderViews as it’s a standalone application.

To load IT…

Renderman IPR IT Render (ctrl \)
Renderman Shelf > IPR (right click)

Once IT has loaded it’s a good idea to have the window always sit “on top”; this stops it falling behind Maya.

IT Window Always On Top (t)
Renderman IT (program window) > Window > Window Always On Top

The resend/update the scene to IT is Renderman IPR IT Render (ctrl \). You’ll always need to be in a 3d window to use this hotkey. We often create a small floating window that you can press the hotkey and force update. See the next video.
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Renderman Create Rect Light Creates an area light in renderman
Renderman (menu) > Lights > PxrRectLight
or Renderman (shelf) > light (right click) > PxrRectLight 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Zoo Light Manager Zoo Tools Light Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Light Manager
or
C3dC Shelf > LightM 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Renderman IPR IT Render Sends the current camera to Renderman’s IT WIndow for rendering and IPR updates
Renderman Shelf > IPR (right click) 		ctrl \ (C3dC)
None (default)
IT Window Always On Top Keeps the Renderman IT Window always visable ontop of other windows like Maya
Renderman IT (program window) > Window > Window Always On Top 		t (C3dC)
t (default)
VIDEO 3.2 : RENDERMAN: ATTRIBUTE LOCATIONS, ZOO TOOLS (1:24 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Zoo Light Attributes (0:00)
2. Zoo Shader Attributes (0:30)
Information
This video shows how the Zoo Light Manager attributes match to the Area Light and pxrSurface shader attributes.

Renderman matches well to the Zoo Light and Shader Managers; with a few exceptions…

– Renderman uses different area lights for Rectangle, Disk and Sphere lights, Zoo takes care of this for you
– There is no “Cylinder” light setting in Renderman
– The pxrSurface “Spec Weight” does not exist, we combine it with color to achieve the same effect
– The pxrSurface “Clear Coat Weight” does not exist, we combine it with color to achieve the same effect
– The specular and clear coat IOR values are hidden in the “Refraction Index Color” value slider

 

Zoo Light Manager And Renderman Area Light Attributes

The following is a list of the Zoo Light Manager attributes and the matching Renderman Area Light attributes, as found in the attribute editor.

Name = (Transform Node) > Transform
Intensity = (Shape Node) > Basic > Intensity
Exposure = (Shape Node) > Basic > Exposure
Shape = This does not exist in Renderman, create the other light types, Zoo handles this
Normalize = (Shape Node) > Advanced > Normalize
Light Visibility = (Shape Node) > Visibility > Camera Visibility
Color (Hue Sat) = (Shape Node) > Basic > Color (Enable Temperature Off)
Temperature = (Shape Node) > Basic > Temperature (Enable Temperature On)
Scale = (Transform Node) > Basic > Scale

 

Zoo Shader Manager And PxrSurface Attributes

The following is a list of the Zoo Shader Manager attributes and the matching aiStandardSurface attribute as found in the attribute editor.

Diffuse Color = Diffuse > Color
Diffuse Weight = Diffuse > Gain
—–
Note: Primary Specular > Specular Fresnel Mode > Physical
Spec Weight = (there is no specular weight, will be combined with color)
Specular Color = Primary Specular > Color
Roughness = Primary Specular > Roughness
Specular IOR = Primary Specular > IOR
—–
Note: Clear Coat > Specular Fresnel Mode > Physical
Clear Ct Weight = (there is no Clear Coat weight, will be combined with color)
Clear Ct Color = Clear Coat > Color
Clear Ct Rough = Clear Coat > Roughness
Clear Ct IOR = Clear Coat > IOR
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Zoo Light Manager Zoo Tools Light Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Light Manager
or
C3dC Shelf > LightM 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Zoo Shader Manager Zoo Tools Quick Shader Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 3.3 : RENDERMAN: IMAGE TOOL VIEWER SETTINGS (4:17 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Show UI Elements (0:00)
2. Monitor Controls (0:15)
3. Catalog, Inspector (0:25)
4. Fit Render Size (0:50)
5. Brighten Light (1:15)
6. Update Scene (1:20)
7. Tear Off Viewport (1:40)
8. Renderman Prefs (2:25)
9. Choose Renderview (3:50)
10. Save CPU Threads (3:05)
11. Tooltips (3:50)
Information
This video covers the fundamentals of the IT Viewer. You’ll see how to add and remove important UI elements with hotkeys. It also quickly covers the Renderman Preferences and how to create a tear off window to easily update renders.
 

Important IT UI Elements

Always make the window “on top”…

IT Window Always On Top (t)
Renderman IT (program window) > Window > Window Always On Top

Exposure and Gamma controls…

IT Monitor Controls
Renderman IT (program window) > Window > Montor Controls

The image list on the left hand side…

IT Window Catalog (c)
Renderman IT (program window) > Window > Catalog

The render details, render times and information…

IT Window Inspector (i)
Renderman IT (program window) > Window > Inspector

Fit the window to the current size…

IT Window Fit Image (ctrl f)
Renderman IT (program window) > View > Fit Image To Window

Zoom in zoom out and set the image size to be 100%

IT Window Zoom In (z)
IT Window Zoom Out (shift z)
IT Window Reset Zoom (home)

 

RenderMan Preferences

The RenderMan Preferences is found inside the Maya Preferences Window (alt 6). In the RenderMan section you’ll be able to set the directory of the RenderMan presets, spare CPU threads so that Maya keeps it’s interactivity while rendering, and choose which renderView you’d like to use, IT or Maya’s RenderView.

 

Tear Off Window To Update Renders

It’s handy to tear off a window of your render camera to easily update renders with Renderman IPR IT Render (ctrl \).

To tear off a window, switch the perspective view to be your render camera and then use

Tear Off Window Copy
Viewport Menu > Panels > Tear Off Copy…

Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Renderman IPR IT Render Sends the current camera to Renderman’s IT WIndow for rendering and IPR updates
Renderman Shelf > IPR (right click) 		ctrl \ (C3dC)
None (default)
IT Window Always On Top Keeps the Renderman IT Window always visable ontop of other windows like Maya
Renderman IT (program window) > Window > Window Always On Top 		t (C3dC)
t (default)
IT Monitor Controls Shows Exposure and Gamma in Renderman IT Window
Renderman IT (program window) > Window > Montor Controls 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
IT Window Catalog Show (toggles) the previous images and AOVs in the Renderman IT Window session
Renderman IT (program window) > Window > Catalog 		c (C3dC)
c (default)
IT Window Inspector Shows (toggles) the Renderman IT Render Information such as render time
Renderman IT (program window) > Window > Inspector 		i (C3dC)
i (default)
IT Window Fit Image Fits the Renderman IT Window to the size of the current window
Renderman IT (program window) > View > Fit Image To Window 		ctrl f (C3dC)
ctrl f (default)
IT Window Render Renders the current frame in Renderman’s IT Window (not IPR)
Renderman IT (program window) > Image > Render Again 		r (C3dC)
r (default)
Preferences Window Opens the Preferences And Settings window. Icon in bottom right (cog man running)
Windows > Settings/Preferences > Preferences 		alt 6 (C3dC)
None (default)
Render View Opens the Render View as floating window
Window > Rendering Editors > Render View 		5 (C3dC)
None (default)
Tear Off Window Copy Tears off a copy of the current window to make floating window
Viewport Menu > Panels > Tear Off Copy… 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
IT Window Zoom In Zooms In, inside Renderman’s IT Window
Renderman IT (program window) > Image > Zoom In 		z (C3dC)
z (default)
IT Window Zoom Out Zooms Out, inside Renderman’s IT Window
Renderman IT (program window) > Image > Zoom Out 		shift z (C3dC)
shift z (default)
IT Window Reset Zoom Resets the image to be 100% inside Renderman’s IT Window
Renderman IT (program window) > Image > Reset Zoom/Pan 		home (C3dC)
home (default)
VIDEO 3.4 : RENDERMAN: RENDER SETTINGS & IPR SAMPLES (4:13 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Render Settings (0:10)
2. Exr 16bit Color (0:20)
3. Set Resolution (0:45)
4. Enable Default Light (0:55)
5. Sampling (1:10)
6. IPR Samples (1:30)
7. IPR Max Samples (1:50)
8. Cancel Render (2:25)
9. Light Samples (3:00)
10. Render Again (3:15)
Information
This video shows you the basic Render Settings in Renderman, and it explains how to reduce noise in the IPR (interactive) render mode.
 

Fundamental Render Settings

You can find RenderMan’s Render Settings in Maya’s Render settings window…

Renderman Render Settings (shft 5)
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > RenderMan

You’ll want to change some Render Settings at first.

Change to 16 bit (not 32 bit) exr…

RenderMan Render Settings > Passes (tab) > Add/Remove Settings (button) >
Pixel Type (double click) > OpenEXR Pixel Type > half

Add .exr compression

RenderMan Render Settings > Passes (tab) > Add/Remove Settings (button) >
OpenEXR Compression Type (double click) > zip or plz

Set The Image Resolution

RenderMan Render Settings > Common (tab) > Image Size >

Disable the Default Light

RenderMan Render Settings > Common (tab) > Render Options > Enable Default Light > Off

 

IPR Sample Settings, Reduce Noise

Renderman has two modes of rendering where you can set the quality settings independently.

Regular Samples: The final frame render settings, not interactive
IPR Samples: Sets the sample limit for interactive rendering

The IPR sample settings for interactive rendering are found in the Renderman Render Settings (shft 5).

Renderman Render Settings (shft 5)
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > RenderMan

> Sampling (tab) > IPR Samples > Max Samples

The primary control that affects the quality of your render is “IPR Samples > Max Samples”; this tells the renderer when to stop rendering interactively. So when the renderer hits the sample limit, it will stop/pause the rendering until you make a change.

In IPR mode the Min Samples always defaults to 0, so it’s technically not brute forcing as we say in the video, it is still rendering adaptively or more efficiently in the IPR mode.

Set the Max Samples in power increments, i.e. 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 etc. Higher values will reduce noise at the cost of render time.

Pixel Variance is the other setting in IPR Samples; we’ll leave this for another page. Either leave this at the default value of .05 or set it to match the Regular Sample setting which defaults to .01. A smaller value equals improved quality, but longer render times. In some circumstances lowering the Pixel-Variance means that you can also reduce the Max Samples.

Renderman Render Settings (shft 5)
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > RenderMan

> Sampling (tab) > IPR Samples > Pixel Variance

So to keep things straight-forward it’s best to keep the Pixel Variance value at the default .05 or match the Regular samples of .01.

 

Per Light Sample Settings

RenderMan keeps it’s individual light settings set to automatic (default is 0 and means automatic), so it may be worth raising the sample-setting of each light. Be careful overriding light sample settings, the documentation does not recommend changing this value in most cases. For simple scenes, we’ve seen a benefit to up the light samples to 4 for each light that casts a blurry shadow. Instead, you can also use the “Importance Multiplier” found in the same location. Importance Multiplier multiplies the automatic samples rather than overriding them.

RenderMan hides the light samples attribute; you can find the value for each light samples…

1. Select The Light
2. Open the Attribute Editor (ctl a)
3. Go to the lights Shape tab
4. Basic > Advanced > Light Samples > 4
or use
Basic > Advanced > Importance Multiplier > (increase this number above 1)
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Renderman IPR IT Render Sends the current camera to Renderman’s IT WIndow for rendering and IPR updates
Renderman Shelf > IPR (right click) 		ctrl \ (C3dC)
None (default)
Renderman Render Settings Opens the Render Settings window, then choose RenderMan
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > RenderMan
 shft 5 (C3dC)
None (default)
IT Window Cancel Render Stops Rendering in Renderman’s IT Window
Renderman IT (program window) > Image > Cancel Render 		escape (C3dC)
escape (default)
IT Window Render Renders the current frame in Renderman’s IT Window (not IPR)
Renderman IT (program window) > Image > Render Again 		r (C3dC)
r (default)
VIDEO 3.5 : RENDERMAN: SAMPLE SETTINGS FINAL FRAME (3:35 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Final Renders (0:00)
2. Min Samples (0:10)
3. Final Render (0:35)
4. Max Samples (1:10)
5. Pixel Variance (1:25)
6. Incremental (1:55)
7. IPR Pixel Variance (2:35)
8. Ray Depths (2:55)
Information
This video will show you how to set the sample settings to reduce noise for Final Rendering; this is not for IPR interactive modes, but for final frames. In IT you can press IT Window Render (r) to render a final frame, which will not be interactive.

 

General (Final Frame) Sample Settings, Reduce Noise

You can find the main quality settings for final renders here…

Renderman Render Settings (shft 5)
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > RenderMan

> Sampling (tab) > Min Samples
> Sampling (tab) > Max Samples
> Sampling (tab) > Pixel Variance
> Sampling (tab) > Dark Falloff
> Sampling (tab) > Incremental

If you are a beginner, you can usually leave Min Samples on 0 and increase Max Samples in powers so 128, 256, 512, 1024 etc. Higher Max Samples will improve the quality of your render at the expense of render time.

For simple settings leave Pixel Variance and Dark Falloff at their default values.

Turning the Incremental checkbox off will put the renderer in bucket mode where it renders in squares. Turning Incremental “off” will give you slightly more efficient renders in most cases, so it’s worth checking it off for final frames and batch rendering.

 

Ray Depths

The Default Ray Depths section of the Sampling Settings can be useful to understand.

Renderman Render Settings (shft 5)
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > RenderMan

> Sampling (tab) > Default Ray Depths >

Max Specular Depth: is the reflection and refraction depth amount, raise this number if your reflections or refractions (glass) is turning black.
Max Diffuse Depth: is the amount of bounce rays, interior scenes can benefit from higher values at the cost of speed.
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Renderman Render Settings Opens the Render Settings window, then choose RenderMan
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > RenderMan
 shft 5 (C3dC)
None (default)
IT Window Render Renders the current frame in Renderman’s IT Window (not IPR)
Renderman IT (program window) > Image > Render Again 		r (C3dC)
r (default)
VIDEO 3.6 : RENDERMAN: SHADERS (4:59 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Create Shaders (0:00)
2. PxrSurface (0:20)
3. Shader Manager Create (0:30)
4. Shader Presets (0:55)
5. Shader Setups (1:25)
6. Plastic (1:40)
7. Rough Plastic (2:00)
8. Metal Setup (2:35)
9. Shiny Chrome (3:10)
10. Add Skydome IBL (3:20)
11. IBL BG Vis (3:45)
12. Gold (4:15)
13. Push Shader (4:40)
14. Rough Gold (4:45)
Information
This video will show you how to create and tweak shaders to achieve various material types in RenderMan.

We’ll be exploring RenderMan’s main shader called the “PxrSurface”.

 

Create And Assign Shaders

To create and assign the PxrSurface manually…

1. Select the object to be assigned.
2. Right Click Object > Assign New Material
3. Click RenderMan in the sidebar
4. Click PxrSurface from the right list

Open the shader settings in the Attribute Editor (ctl a). To select the shader use the hotkey Sel Shader/Channel Node (ctrl shft n).

To create the PxrSurface shader using Zoo Shader Manager …

1. Open the Zoo Shader Manager
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager
2. Be sure RenderMan is set in the top section
3. Select the Object to be assigned
4. Create And Manage Shaders > Create

 

Edit Shaders

Common shader settings are found in the Create And Manage section of the Zoo Shader Manager . These attributes match to settings on the selected object’s PxrSurface shader. See below for how these attributes match to the PxrSurface shader.

 

Matte Shaders

Matte Material (Clothes, Dull Wood, Not Shiny)
Diffuse Color: The color of the object
Spec Weight: 0
Clear Ct Weight: 0

 

Reflective Shaders

Reflectivity in 3d is usually called “Specular”. The following shaders all use specular reflection to achieve their looks. The reflectivity is also dependant on the surrounding objects and or lights (including IBL Skydomes) in the scene.

Regular Plastic or Matte with a clear coat or shiny polish
Diffuse Color: The color of the object
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: White
Roughness: Tweak as per the plastic roughness
IOR: 1.5
Clear Ct Weight: 0

 

Metals

Note that the color of metal mostly comes through the specular color, not the diffuse color. For metals always set the diffuse color to black, or set the diffuse weight to 0.

The IOR value is essential in metals and can you can set it as follows…

IOR Settings
IOR = 1.5 : Plastic or Glass/Polished, not metal
IOR = 4 : Dull Metal
IOR = 12 : Shiny Metal
IOR = 20 : Very shiny chrome or very reflective mirror

Shiny Chrome or Mirror
Diffuse Color: Black
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: White
Roughness: Tweak for the shine level, 0 is very shiny, .6 is quite rough
IOR: 12 – 20
Clear Ct Weight: 0

Gold
Diffuse Color: Black
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: Gold (mid saturated yellow/orange)
Roughness: Tweak for the shine level, 0 is very shiny, .6 is quite rough
IOR: 12 or above
Clear Ct Weight: 0

Brass
Diffuse Color: Black
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: Mid Saturated Yellow/Orange
Roughness: Tweak for the shine level, 0 is very shiny, .6 is quite rough
IOR: 4 for dull brass, higher for shinier more polished levels.
Clear Ct Weight: 0

 

Zoo Shader Manager And PxrSurface Attributes

The following is a list of the Zoo Shader Manager attributes and the matching aiStandardSurface attribute as found in the attribute editor.

Diffuse Color = Diffuse > Color
Diffuse Weight = Diffuse > Gain
—–
Note: Primary Specular > Specular Fresnel Mode > Physical
Spec Weight = (there is no specular weight, will be combined with color)
Specular Color = Primary Specular > Color
Roughness = Primary Specular > Roughness
Specular IOR = Primary Specular > IOR
—–
Note: Clear Coat > Specular Fresnel Mode > Physical
Clear Ct Weight = (there is no clear coat weight, will be combined with color)
Clear Ct Color = Clear Coat > Color
Clear Ct Rough = Clear Coat > Roughness
Clear Ct IOR = Clear Coat > IOR
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Assign Shader Select and Object and Right Click and go down the Assign Material section
Right Click Object > Assign New Material… > (Choose Shader)
Or
Zoo Shader Manager > Create And Manage Shaders > Create 		rgt clck (C3dC)
rgt clck (default)
Zoo Shader Manager Zoo Tools Quick Shader Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Renderman IPR IT Render Sends the current camera to Renderman’s IT WIndow for rendering and IPR updates
Renderman Shelf > IPR (right click) 		ctrl \ (C3dC)
None (default)
Sel Shader/Channel Node Selects the shaders on sleected obj/s or selects the selected node in the channel box.
 ctrl shft n (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 3.7 : RENDERMAN: SHADERS, CAR PAINT (2:50 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Car Paint Setup (0:00)
2. Clear Coat (0:15)
3. Roughen Clear Coat (1:20)
4. Clear Coat Weight (1:45)
5. Reset Shader Grey (2:05)
6. Summary (2:20)
Information
This video will introduce you to the Clear Coat attributes so you can create a car shader effect in RenderMan.

Clear Coat mimics the glass polish layer of a real-world object, usually on top of the metal base. You can think of “plastic specular” as a type of clear coat, but in the case of plastic, you only need one specular layer.

However, for metals based shaders that also have a polish layer, then two specular layers are required. We’ll need a metal base layer as well as a glass polish top coat. Car paint shader setups are a great example that uses the Clear Coat layer.

The Clear Coat attributes are just a duplicated set of specular (reflection section) settings. The values are identical to specular in most renderers.

Car Shader
Diffuse Color: Black
Spec Weight: 1
Specular Color: The color or the car paint
Roughness: Usually rough .4 -.7
IOR: 8 or above
Clear Ct Weight: 1
Clear Ct Color: White
Clear Ct Rough: .1 (low values)
Clear Ct IOR: 1.5

 

Shader Presets

The Zoo Shader Manager comes with some shader presets. These are rough starting points for a variety of shaders, and we’ll improve the presets and let you create your own in the future.
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Assign Shader Select and Object and Right Click and go down the Assign Material section
Right Click Object > Assign New Material… > (Choose Shader)
Or
Zoo Shader Manager > Create And Manage Shaders > Create 		rgt clck (C3dC)
rgt clck (default)
Zoo Shader Manager Zoo Tools Quick Shader Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Renderman IPR IT Render Sends the current camera to Renderman’s IT WIndow for rendering and IPR updates
Renderman Shelf > IPR (right click) 		ctrl \ (C3dC)
None (default)
Sel Shader/Channel Node Selects the shaders on sleected obj/s or selects the selected node in the channel box.
 ctrl shft n (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 3.8 : RENDERMAN: RENDER THE DRAGON, PART 1 (5:25 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Load Renderman (0:00)
2. Create Light (0:25)
3. IPR Render IT (1:10)
4. Create Camera (1:30)
5. Cam Icon (2:00)
6. Render Cam1 (2:30)
7. Tear Off Copy (2:40)
8. Update IT IPR (2:55)
9. IT Options (3:05)
Information
This part 1 of 3 in the lighting of the dragon. You can download the Dragon Sculpt start file to follow along.

This video will show you how to…

1. Load Renderman
2. Create the light
3. Use Renderman’s RenderView program called IT
4. Adjust the light’s intensity
5. Create the shaders
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Zoo Light Manager Zoo Tools Light Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Light Manager
or
C3dC Shelf > LightM 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Renderman IPR IT Render Sends the current camera to Renderman’s IT WIndow for rendering and IPR updates
Renderman Shelf > IPR (right click) 		ctrl \ (C3dC)
None (default)
Create Camera Creates a new camera
 shft k (C3dC)
None (default)
Camera Res Gate Setup Matches the camera film gate to resolution gate
And sets the overscan to 1.05 (toggle)
C3dC (shelf) > Cam (button) 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Tear Off Window Copy Tears off a copy of the current window to make floating window
Viewport Menu > Panels > Tear Off Copy… 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
IT Window Catalog Show (toggles) the previous images and AOVs in the Renderman IT Window session
Renderman IT (program window) > Window > Catalog 		c (C3dC)
c (default)
IT Window Inspector Shows (toggles) the Renderman IT Render Information such as render time
Renderman IT (program window) > Window > Inspector 		i (C3dC)
i (default)
IT Window Fit Image Fits the Renderman IT Window to the size of the current window
Renderman IT (program window) > View > Fit Image To Window 		ctrl f (C3dC)
ctrl f (default)
VIDEO 3.9 : RENDERMAN: RENDER THE DRAGON, PART 2 (5:01 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Shader Goals (0:00)
2. Dragon Skin Shader (0:30)
3. Specular (0:45)
4. Clear Coat (1:45)
5. Render Settings (2:30)
6. .exr Settings (2:50)
7. Cam Resolution (3:20)
8. Sample Settings (3:55)
9. Test Render (4:40)
Information
This part 2 of 3 in the lighting of the dragon. You can download the Dragon Sculpt start file to follow along.

In this video, you’ll learn how to…

1. Adjust the Dragon Skin Shader
2. Set The Sample Settings

 

Shader Settings

Skin Shader
Diffuse Color: Grey
Spec Weight: 1.0
Specular Color: White
Roughness: 0.55
IOR: 1.8
Clear Ct Weight: 0.05
Clear Ct Color: White
Clear Ct Rough: 0.4
Clear Ct IOR: 1.8

 

Renderman Sample Settings

Main Sample Settings
Min Samples: 0
Max Samples: 128
Pixel Variance 0.01
Dark Fallof 0.025

IPR Sample Settings
Max Samples: 128
Pixel Variance 0.01
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Zoo Shader Manager Zoo Tools Quick Shader Manager Window
Zoo Tools Pro > Rendering > Shader Manager 		None (C3dC)
None (default)
Renderman Render Settings Opens the Render Settings window, then choose RenderMan
Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings >
Render Using > RenderMan
 shft 5 (C3dC)
None (default)
Set Global Scene Resolution Sets the Global Resolution for the scene
Render Settings Window > Common > Image Size > Width/Height
or presets on the C3dC Shelf > Cam (right Click) > Set Resolution (assorted) 		Shft 5 (C3dC)
None (default)
Renderman IPR IT Render Sends the current camera to Renderman’s IT WIndow for rendering and IPR updates
Renderman Shelf > IPR (right click) 		ctrl \ (C3dC)
None (default)
VIDEO 3.91 : RENDERMAN: RENDER THE DRAGON, PART 3 (4:56 mins)

No. Video Points
1. Render Half Resolution (0:00)
2. Pan Zoom Camera (0:20)
3. Render Pan Zoom (0:55)
4. Eye Shader (1:30)
5. Prepare Final Render (3:00)
6. Incremental Off (3:55)
7. Final Render (4:35)
8. Render Time (4:50)
Information
This part 2 of 3 in the lighting of the dragon. You can download the Dragon Sculpt start file to follow along.

In this video, you’ll learn how to…

1. Use the camera feature Pan And Zoom Camera (\ (hold))
2. Adjust the eye shader
3. Render the final frame

 

Shader Settings

Eye Shader
Diffuse Color: Drk Grey
Spec Weight: 1.0
Specular Color: White
Roughness: 0.4
IOR: 1.8
Command Menu/Description Hotkey
Renderman IPR IT Render Sends the current camera to Renderman’s IT WIndow for rendering and IPR updates
Renderman Shelf > IPR (right click) 		ctrl \ (C3dC)
None (default)
IT Window Fit Image Fits the Renderman IT Window to the size of the current window
Renderman IT (program window) > View > Fit Image To Window 		ctrl f (C3dC)
ctrl f (default)
Pan And Zoom Camera Like a 2d Photoshop like zoom without changing the camera
Treat this like alt in navigation
Hold = zoom and pan with mouse
Tap = Toggle in and out of mode
View (viewport)> Camera Tools > 2d Pan Zoom Tool 		\ (hold) (C3dC)
\ (default)
Select Camera Cur View Selects the look through camera in the current viewport
Viewport Menu > View > Select Camera 		k (C3dC)
None (default)
IT Window Catalog Show (toggles) the previous images and AOVs in the Renderman IT Window session
Renderman IT (program window) > Window > Catalog 		c (C3dC)
c (default)
IT Window Render Renders the current frame in Renderman’s IT Window (not IPR)
Renderman IT (program window) > Image > Render Again 		r (C3dC)
r (default)
IT Window Inspector Shows (toggles) the Renderman IT Render Information such as render time
Renderman IT (program window) > Window > Inspector 		i (C3dC)
i (default)
Next Up In… Maya: Generalist Intermediate
← 20. Texture Overview
↵ Maya: Generalist Intermediate
22. Rig Ref Animation →
Next Up In… Generalist Advanced
← 6. Croc Retopology
Video Introduction
↵ Generalist Advanced
8. Styracosaurus Concept →
Video Introduction

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