Visual Development 1701

 This month, I learned how to use material nodes in Maya. I learned how nodes can be used alongside MILA materials to create very simple (such as the washers seen below), and very complex objects (such as the bottle seen below). Another important skill I learned is how to render in passes. Here I'll show you my finished scene and the passes I gave the renders in order for the image to be used to it's full potential in Nuke.

Here we have the IBL pass. Any and all lighting of the scene is coming from the Image Based Light I set up to encompasses my scene. It's rather dim, but gives off a generally useful light. It almost looks like night time.

Here we have the warm light pass. All light in this photo is coming from the little warm light I set up on the left side of the scene. Not too much intensity coming from this light either, but when used in Nuke, this scene could become quite warm. Reminds me of the glow of a candle.

And here we have the key light layer. The key light is the only light used in this pass, and is obviously the primary light in this scene as it illuminates much.

Put it together and what have you got? A rendered scene just for you.

In this image, we bring all three of the light passes together. Now if I were to take this project into Nuke, I could alter each pass individually to change the end result without taking the time to re-render anything in Maya. How great is that? Pretty dang great.

This month I did not have much excess time to experiment with my own projects, but I did manage to start an animation in which I began to use some of the lighting techniques I learned this month. I will definitely soon be implementing the UV mapping and detailing techniques used this month.