Lighting and Rendering in Maya

Mental Ray Techniques with Jeremy Engleman

Sample Clip

$108

Lighting a Hallway. Production Techniques for Efficient, Directable Lighting

  • Duration: 62 min

Emphasizing production concerns, Jeremy lights an interior scene with only 13 lights. He demonstrates in real-time step-by-step how to use a minimal number of spot and point lights to recreate all direct, indirect and "sweetening" light sources for a hallway. This technique uses no Global Illumination or Final Gather, producing a fast, stable, predictable and directable result. Jeremy shows how to work with lighting in IPR and Mental Ray.

Procedural Plums in Sunlight with Procedural Water Drops

  • Duration: 60 min

In Procedural Plums, Jeremy discusses how to build rich, useful procedural networks, making efficient use of your time in IPR, displacement mapping water and water material, and a simple sunlight lighting rig.

Dusty Simplified Glass in Overcast Light with Procedural Cork

  • Duration: 68 min

In Simplified Glass, Jeremy discusses how to use a simple Blinn shader for truly effective glass. Dust on the bottles leads to a concise overview of layering materials, which is further enhanced with Maya fur. Included is a deep discussion of area lights and the principles of raytrace recursion.

Subsurfacing Sushi: Procedural Fish and Rice, or Finally, a Use for Maya Wood

  • Duration: 95 min

In Subsurfacing Sushi, Jeremy creates fish from Maya's wood procedure. He then delves into the network of the Mental Ray fast_simple subsurface scattering material. Even subsurface pros will learn something as hidden and underused parameters are uncovered from "the depths." The lesson concludes with Depth of Field as a post process in Photoshop.

Styrofoam Helicopter: Mental Ray Physical Sun/Sky and Rotational Motion Blur

  • Duration: 76 min

In Styrofoam Helicopter, Jermey covers Mental Ray's Physical Sun & Sky and issues revolving around its use including texture gamma, proper use with sss shaders, tone mapping, and rendering with clouds and backgrounds. Jeremy also explores linear motion blur as it applies to complex rotation.

These videos are available as Digital Downloads only, at a resolution of 1024x768. Software requirements: QuickTime Movie Player (Version 7.0 or higher).

Jeremy Engleman

3D Painter

Jeremy has been working professionally in computer graphics since a one gigabyte hard drive was considered massive. Having worked in games, multimedia, print and film, Jeremy is currently working for Dreamworks Animation as a look development artist. Jeremy has worked for many clients including Sting, Peter Gabriel, Dodge, Penguin-Putnam, Duncan Studio, Disney and more. He has worked on award winning projects such as Vigilante 8, Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Leicester, Riven: The Sequel to Myst, The Patriot, Sinbad, Shark Tale, Flushed Away, The Guardians, and How to Train Your Dragon.