1. Photon Maps. This will examine the process of photon mapping to calculate global illumination and caustics. Intermediate/Advanced users will delve into material overrides, custom materials and workarounds. We’ll also look into caustics.

2. Final Gather. This has had a major overhaul in the latest release. Here we’ll concentrate on final gather process and techniques through a variety of examples. We’ll look at using final gather on it’s own with a standard scene, then we’ll look at how it works in conjunction with HDRI, and the new mr Physical Sky. Finally we’ll look at how to illuminate without the need for lights, instead we’ll look at self illuminated materials.

3. Exposure Controls. This section will be critical on being able to ‘balance’ the lighting of a scene. We’ll look at and discuss several options and go through reasons why one may be a better choice over the others.

This module will focus on more practical examples rather than theory. We’ll look at how to use photon mapping in production and animations as well as understand some methods to optimize render times and tune out artifacts. We’ll also look briefly into some material settings and methods to embellish and control the final image via photon shaders. We’ll also cover the similar use of the mental ray Physical Sky and go further into using self illuminated materials to get a GI solution with lower rendering times.

1. Standard Materials & the mental ray Connection. This will introduce the user to shaders via the mental ray connection and then ease them into mental ray materials.

2. DGS Material. We’ll first look at the DGS shader via the mental ray connection and then look at the DGS material. This will set the stage for the user to become familiar with materials and shaders.

3. Arch & Design Material. From the DGS material we’ll look at the workhorse Architectural and Design material in depth. This will be quite extensive and will also set the stage for ambient occlusion in module 6. We’ll then go through the other material types; Car Paint, Glass, Sub Surface Scattering materials, and finally the mental ray material. The mental ray material will be brief as we’ll have to go through modules 4 and 5 to understand shaders better before this material type is of any use.

In this module we will look at the Architectural and Design material in depth due to its power creating photorealistic images. We will also look at a variety of different settings via the mental ray connection and 3dsmax materials and at creating materials that will render faster and give the user more artistic control. This module will introduce some of the shaders that will be covered in the next module.

In this module we will spend a little bit of time reviewing shader types, third party shaders and a general introduction, with the majority of the module being spent covering the complete list of available shaders. We will cover half of the shaders and their possible uses in Part I and the remainder of the shaders covered in module 5 Part II. We’ll examine all the material shaders, shadow shaders, photon shaders, photon volume shaders, and volume shaders.

In this continuation from module 4 we will cover the remainder of the shaders, namely displacement shaders, light shaders, environment shaders, contour shaders, camera shaders, output shaders, and some others that are more hidden.

1. Exteriors. This will focus on methods for illuminating exterior scenes starting from standard lighting with final gather, final gather and the new mr Physical Sky, and finally ambient occlusion to simulate GI or add detail to existing renders.

2. Interiors I. Here we’ll look at using photon mapping with final gather to create GI solutions.

3. Interiors II. Next we’ll look at how to generate GI using only final gather.

4. mental ray Area Lights. As the title suggests, we’ll look at area lights and settings.

In this module we will take an in depth look at two interior and two exterior scenes and examine the rendering settings and optimizations that can be made to speed renderings times and increase efficiency. The module will also focus on tips and tricks to avoid pitfalls in an advanced workflow as well as light and object optimizatons.

1. Displacement. As the title suggests, we’ll look at how effective mental ray is at complex displacements. We’ll have a chance to go through normal mapping also.

2. Motion Blur. Here we’ll look at how motion blur is set up and how to optimize it.

3. Depth of Field. Here we’ll look at mental ray depth of field and how to set it up effectively.

4. Contours. Here we’ll look at some output shaders to generate vector hidden line images and the like.

5. Volumetrics. This will show how to set up volumetric effects within the scene.

6. Hair. Finally we’ll look at how we can use hair to generate grass and how mental ray can incorporate this effect.