mental ray for Maya, 3ds Max, and XSI: A 3D Artist's Guide to Rendering

Product Description

Turn 3D models into film-worthy digital animations by mastering mental ray rendering once and for all. This must-have guide is the only book on the market to focus exclusively on mental ray in Maya, 3ds Max, and XSI, and it's packed with techniques and insights you can't get anywhere else. Best of all, the book's advanced rendering concepts apply to other rendering software as well, including V-Ray, Brazil, Maxwell and RenderMan. Discover advanced lighting, camera, and workflow techniques that usually take professionals years to figure out.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #77049 in Books
* Published on: 2007-02-20
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 740 pages

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover
Render them speechless with this in-depth guide to mental ray

Turn 3D models into film-worthy digital animations by mastering mental ray rendering once and for all. This must-have guide is the only book on the market to focus exclusively on mental ray in Maya, 3ds Max, and XSI, and it's packed with techniques and insights you can't get anywhere else. Best of all, the book's advanced rendering concepts apply to other rendering software as well, including V-Ray, Brazil, Maxwell and RenderMan.

From scattering light to reducing render artifacts to deciphering rendering and shadow algorithms, you'll get a high-level look at advanced lighting, camera, and workflow techniques that usually take professionals years to figure out. This valuable book also covers the very latest on HDR image editing, viewing, and compositing tools—and features a sixteen-page color insert that showcases final rendered images.

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Get the fundamentals on light, cameras, and mental ray output
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Render from the host application or from the stand-alone renderer
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Explore the full array of mental ray shaders and shader libraries
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Get exclusive coverage of custom shaders that don't ship with any of the host applications
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Simulate light bounce with indirect illumination for more realism
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Apply textures, projections, and light profiles
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Perform subsurface scattering and Nuke compositing
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Master the fine points of Final Gather and ambient occlusion
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Create photo-realistic characters, objects, and landscapes

About the Author
Boaz Livny teaches mental ray and advanced Maya courses at New York's prestigious Center for Advanced Digital Applications and heads the Advanced Maya training at the New York Film Academy. He is also owner of Vision Animation Studios, providing film, TV, and media services for clients such as Nicktoons, AOL, The Wilderness, Cinema Factory, and more.
Customer Reviews

A Great Resource!5
I am fairly new to the CG game, going on about 9 months. I think this book is a great resource because it explains some of the lesser discussed topics in Mental Ray very thoroughly. I really enjoyed the background in Light Theory (how light is measured, how it travels, etc) and the background and explanation behind what you see when press the render button.

Some of the topics discussed in this book that are hard to find elsewhere are:
-Physical sub-surface scattering
-Participating Media effects such as Volumetric fog
-In depth analysis of every mental ray node and what function is carried out when the node is activated.

I thought this book was a bit daunting at first, but once I got through the first couple chapters (Precursors, and a tad boring) I found myself really enjoying reading the book. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in enhancing their current knowledge of rendering in mental ray. It is also one of the only books on the subject besides the more complex books by mental images.

Best Technical art book I own5
Despite the effort it has taken to read this book cover to cover; I could not have done it any other way.

The book is designed to let you jump around, but I wanted to have a full understanding of 'mental ray'. That said, much of this is over my head. Though I am a digital artist, I don't dabble much in code, but the great thing about this book is that its a balance of theory, code, and how to.

When something is wrong in my Mental Ray render, I may not know exactly what's wrong, but now I have an idea of possible culprits. I recommend this to any serious digital artist who uses Mental Ray.

Very Useful Book for 3D Artists5
I had been using mental ray for rendering for a long time but I still wasn't very clear on some of the principles of use. After reading this book I understood mental ray far better. The concepts are explained very clearly and it goes through the algorithms in great depth. Its too difficult for a beginner but somebody who is already experienced in mental ray and has a strong background in computing will find this book extremely helpful. The book showed me many more possibilities of use and improved my rendering quality. I love this book and highly recommend it.