JAPANESE 3D ZEN STONES

In this tutorial we are going to create a serene japanese style 3d image in 3ds Max. We’re going to model a shiny dark pebble stones and create a balanced pile out of them. This is a simple tutorial where emphasis is on the lighting and materials. I am using 3ds Max 2011 but several older versions should work as well.

Step 1 Mental Ray Renderer

We’re going to render the image with Mental Ray. By default 3ds Max uses the Scanline renderer so we have to change that. Change the renderer to Mental Ray ( Rendering > Render Setup… > Common tab > Assign Renderer > Production > mental ray Renderer ).

Step 2 3d Stones

Create five geospheres ( Create panel > Geometry > Standard Primitives > GeoSphere ) in the top viewport. Modify the geospheres ( Make a selection > Modify panel ) according to the following parameters :

• GeoSphere001
  • Radius: 58
  • Segments: 12
  • Geodesic Base Type: Octa
• GeoSphere002
  • Radius: 44
  • Segments: 12
  • Geodesic Base Type: Octa
• GeoSphere003
  • Radius: 30
  • Segments: 12
  • Geodesic Base Type: Octa
• GeoSphere004
  • Radius: 38
  • Segments: 12
  • Geodesic Base Type: Octa
• GeoSphere005
  • Radius: 14
  • Segments: 12
  • Geodesic Base Type: Octa

Step 3 Scaling the Stones

Go to the front viewport and scale the stones ( Make a selection > Main toolbar > Select and Uniform Scale ) about the Y axis according to the values below. ( While the scale tool is activated, Click and drag from the Y axis of the transform gizmo to scale an object about an Y axis. While scaling, you can see the scaling % in the bottom of the screen. ).

• GeoSphere001: 21
• GeoSphere002: 46
• GeoSphere003: 59
• GeoSphere004: 15
• GeoSphere005: no need to scale this one

You don’t have to create exactly the same kind of stones. Feel free to experiment and to be creative.

Step 4 Deforming with the Noise Modifier

Add Noise modifier, one at a time to each stone except the first one ( Make a selection > Modify panel > Modifier List > Object-Space Modifiers > Noise ). By right-clicking you can copy and paste modifiers. Apply the following parameters ( Make a selection > Modify panel ) to the Noise modifiers.

• GeoSphere002
  • Noise
    • Seed: 11
    • Scale: 690
    • Fractal: YES
  • Strength
    • X: 40
    • Y: 40
    • Z: 40
• GeoSphere003
  • Noise
    • Seed: 11
    • Scale: 700
    • Fractal: YES
  • Strength
    • X: 60
    • Y: 60
    • Z: 60
• GeoSphere004
  • Noise
    • Seed: 6
    • Scale: 750
    • Fractal: YES
  • Strength
    • X: 40
    • Y: 40
    • Z: 40
• GeoSphere005
  • Noise
    • Seed: 6
    • Scale: 560
    • Fractal: YES
  • Strength
    • X: 60
    • Y: 60
    • Z: 60

( If you need more segments I suggest you add TurboSmooth above the Noise instead of raising the segments value. This method produces smoother surface. )

Step 5 Pile of Japanese 3d Stones

Create a pile of stones balancing on top of each other. It’s a typical arrangement of stones seen in many zen-like photos and illustrations. Move and rotate the stones as you see fit.

Step 6 The Water Around the Stones

Next we’re going to create a water surface and some ripples around the pebbles to make the scene more interesting. Create a Plane ( Create panel > Geometry > Standard Primitives > Plane ) in the top viewport . Modify the Plane ( Make a selection > Modify panel ) according to the following parameters:

• Length: 10000
• Width: 10000
• Length Segs: 20
• Width Segs: 20

Add Edit Poly modifier to the plane ( Make a selection > Modify panel > Modifier List > Object-Space Modifiers > Edit Poly ) and activate the Polygon sub-object level. Select one polygon approximately in the middle of the plane and delete it ( Press delete in keyboard ). Deactivate the Polygon sub-object level.

Step 7 The Ripples Around the Stone

Now we’re going to create a dense mesh for the ripple effect. Create another Plane ( Create panel > Geometry > Standard Primitives > Plane ) in the top viewport and apply the following parameters ( Make a selection > Modify panel ):

• Length: 500
• Width: 500
• Length Segs: 130
• Width Segs: 130

Place the new plane into the hole of the large plane. Add TurboSmooth modifier ( Make a selection > Modify panel > Modifier List > Object-Space Modifiers > TurboSmooth ) and then Ripple modifier to it ( Make a selection > Modify panel > Modifier List > Object-Space Modifiers > Ripple ). Go to the modify panel and apply the following parameters to the Ripple modifier:

• Amplitude 1: 2
• Amplitude 2: 2
• Wave Length: 25
• Decay: 0,02

Tip. If you need more polygons to your object you can just increase the iterations value in the Turbosmooth modifier.

Step 8 Prepare the Scene for Rendering

Let’s prepare the scene for rendering:

• Place the pebbles into the center of the ripple.
• Create a Target camera ( Create panel > Cameras > Target ) in the top viewport. Right-click on the Perspective view and press C in the keyboard to change it to the Camera view.
• Move the pebbles and the camera around to get something like pictures below.

Hit render ( Main toolbar > Render Production ) and you should see something like the picture below.

The colors of the objects don’t matter because we’re going to create materials for them.

Step 9 Material for the 3D Zen Stones

Press M in keyboard to open Material Editor ( Rendering > Material Editor > Compact Material Editor ) and create the material for the stones:

1. Click ‘Get Material’ button and select ( doubleclick ) ‘Arch & Design (mi)’ from the material list.
2. Select all the stones and assign the material to them.
3. Reflectivity: 0,6
4. Glossiness: 0,1 ( very blurry reflections )
5. Glossy Samples: 16 ( quality of the blurry reflections )
6. Add ‘Composite’ as diffuse color map ( Composite map is a container that lets you combine several maps as layers )
7. Add Smoke map to the first layer of the Composite Map ( large scale details )Size: 40# Iterations: 20Color #1: black ( RGB 0, 0, 0 )
   Color #2: dark gray ( RGB 15, 15, 15 )
8. Add second layer to the Composite map. Change the blending mode of the second layer to Addition. Add Speckle map to the second layer ( small scale details)Size: 0,2Color #1: dark gray ( RGB 10, 10, 10 )Color #2: black ( RGB 0, 0, 0 )

Step 10 Water Material

Select a new slot in the Material Editor and create the water material:

1. Click ‘Get Material’ button and select ( doubleclick ) ‘Arch & Design (mi)’ from the list.
2. Select both water planes and assign the material to them.
3. Select template from the drop-down list: Water, Reflective Surface.
4. Turn Bump map off ( we’re going to create calm water with just the ripple effect so we don’t need any additional waves ).

Now materials are ready. However, there’s no point in rendering the scene now because everything we have is almost black. Let’s create illumination and environment first.

Step 11 Illumination and Environment

We’re going to illuminate the scene with the Daylight system and use Mental Ray’s physical sky as environment map. Daylight is a system that mimics a real world sun. Create the Daylight system ( Create panel > Systems > Daylight ) in the top viewport. A new dialog appears. 3ds Max suggests that you use mr Photographic Exposure Control with EV=15. Just click YES. ( If the dialog doesn’t appear, apply the setting manually ( Rendering > Exposure Control )). Select the daylight, go to the modify panel, and apply the following parameters:

• Daylight Parameters
  • Sunlight: mr Sun
  • Skylight: mr Sky(A new dialog appears. 3ds Max suggests that you use mr Physical Sky. Just click YES. If the dialog doesn’t appear, apply the setting manually ( Rendering > Environment… > Common Parameters > Background > Environment Map ))
  • Position: Manual ( this setting allows us to place the sun manually, instead of using a real world location and time )

Place the daylight according to the picture below.

Render your scene to see something like the picture below.

Let’s examine our 3d zen render for a while. There are several problems that need to be addressed.

• The whole image is very dark
• Some ground can be seen in the horizon
• The bluish coloring isn’t appealing

( Note that these are artistic observations and your taste might be different. Feel free to experiment. )

Step 12 Tuning the Settings for Better Impact

Select the Daylight, go to the modify panel, and apply the following parameters:

• mr Sun Basic Parameters
  • Multiplier: 10 ( really strong sunlight )
  • Shadows
    • Softness: 20 ( softens the edges of the shadows )
• mr Sky Parameters
  • Multiplier: 5 ( brightens the sky )
• my Sky Advanced Parameters
  • Horizon
    • Height: -0,1 ( lowers the horizon )

Render the scene to see the effect of these adjustments.

Look closely and you’ll see the color variations in the stones. Smoke map produces the large scale variations and Speckle map produces the small scale variations.

Personally I think that black and white image works better in this case. Let’s go to the mr Photographic Exposure Control settings ( Rendering > Exposure Control > mr Photographic Exposure Control ) to make the image black and white:

• Image Control
  • Color Saturation: 0 ( saturation of the colors of the whole image )

Render your scene to see the image in black and white.

Step 20 Render the Final Japanese 3d Zen Image

If you look closely you’ll see some jagged edges. Let’s adjust the sampling settings to get a more polished render. Go to the render setup and increase antialiasing quality by increasing Mental Ray’s sampling values ( Rendering > Render setup… > Renderer > Sampling Quality ):

• Samples per pixel
  • Minimum: 4
  • Maximum: 64
• Filter
  • Type: Mitchell ( For most scenes the Mitchell filter gives the best results. )

Render the image and you’re done. That’s it for today. Let’s continue in the comments!

3D MOUNTAIN IN 3DS MAX

In this 3ds Max tutorial we’re going to create a simple 3d mountain. The mountain geometry will be created from a simple plane with the displace modifier and it will be textured with a combination of procedural maps. The image will be finalized by strong sidelight and some volumetric clouds. I’m using 3ds Max 2011 but many older versions should work just as well.

Step 1 Mental Ray Renderer

We’re going to render the mountain with the Mental Ray. By default 3ds Max uses the Scanline renderer so we have to change that. Change the renderer to the Mental Ray ( Rendering > Render Setup… > Common tab > Assign Renderer > Production > mental ray Renderer ).

Step 2 3D Mountain Geometry

Create a Plane ( Create panel > Geometry > Standard Primitives > Plane ) in the top viewport . Modify the Plane ( Make a selection > Modify panel ) according to the following parameters :

• Length: 200
• Width: 200
• length Segs: 200
• Width Segs: 200

( We need a dense (80k faces) mesh because we’re going to deform it with the displace modifier and Gradient Ramp map. )

Step 3 Mountains with the Displace Modifier

Add Displace modifier to the Plane ( Make a selection > Modify panel > Modifier List > Object-Space Modifiers > Displace ) and apply the following parameters:

• Displacement
  • Strength: 100
• Image
  • Map: Gradient Ramp

Open Material Editor ( Rendering > Material Editor > Compact Material Editor ). Drag and drop the Gradient Ramp map from the Displace modifier into a material slot in Material Editor and select ‘instance’ when asked. Apply the following parameters to the Gradient Ramp map:

1. Double click on the Flag #1 and change the color to white
2. Double click on the Flag #3 and change the color to black
3. Gradient Type: Radial
4. Noise: Amount: 0,3
5. Noise: Size: 6
6. Noise: Turbulence
7. Noise: Levels: 10

Finally go to the ‘Output’ section, click ‘Enable Color Map’ and adjust the color map according to the picture below. ( to adjust a point, right-click on it and change it to ‘Bezier-Corner’ point. )

Tip: To adjust the small details of the mountain you can change the ‘ Phase’ in the Noise settings.

Step 4 Mountain Material

We’re going to create a snowcapped mountain with snow also at the base. The material will be created from scratch and it will use only procedural maps found in 3ds Max. We’ll utilize Gradient Ramp diffuse map to create color variations and Composite bump map to create lots of small scale details. So let’s select an empty material slot and create the material. You can just copy the settings from the picture or read the explanations below the picture.

1. Select the mountain and click ‘Assign Material to Selection’
2. Diffuse Color: Gradient RampFlag #1: Color: RGB 180, 180, 180 Position: 0Flag #2: Color: RGB 180, 180, 180 Position: 15
   Flag #3: Color: RGB 100, 100, 100 Position: 22
   Flag #4: Color: RGB 100, 100, 100 Position: 39
   Flag #5: Color: RGB 180, 180, 180 Position: 49
   Flag #6: Color: RGB 180, 180, 180 Position: 100
   ( Click on the color gradient to add a new flag. Right-click on a flag to modify or delete it. )
   Gradient Type: Radial
   Noise Amount: 0,1
   Noise Type: Turbulence
   Noise Size: 1
   Noise Levels: 10
   ( It’s a good idea to make a test render now to see how the diffuse map looks like )
3. Bump: Composite ( The Composite map is used to combine several maps together )
4. Add Smoke map to the first layer of the Composite Map ( large scale details )Size: 5# Iterations: 20
5. Add second layer to the Composite map. Change the blending mode to Addition and Opacity to 70. Add Speckle map to the second layer ( medium scale details )Size: 4Color #1: white
   Color #2: black
6. Add third layer to the Composite map. Change the blending mode to Addition and Opacity to 60. Add Speckle map to the third layer ( small scale details )Size: 0,003Color #1: white
   Color #2: black

( We combined three different maps to create large, medium, and small scale details to the bump map. This method produces more realistic bump map than a single map would. )

Make a test render to see how the 3d mountain looks like with the diffuse and bump maps. At the moment there are several problems with the rendered image:

• The mountain looks really boring and flat
• Sampling quality isn’t high enough for the small scale details
• There are some unnaturally sharp edges in the outline of the mountain

Next we’re going to fix these issues.

Tip. If you’d like to create vegetation to the base of the mountain you could change the color values of Flags 5 and 6 ( in the Gradient Ramp map) to green.

Step 5 The Lighting

Soon we’re going to create more serious renders so let’s create a camera. Create a Target camera ( Create panel > Cameras > Target ) in the top viewport and place it according to picture below. Right-click on the Perspective view and press C in the keyboard to change it to the Camera view.

We rely heavily on the bump map so we desperately need more interesting illumination for the mountain. Create ‘mr Area Spot’ ( Create panel > Lights > Standard > mr Area Spot ) in the top viewport, place it according to picture below, and apply the following settings to it.

• General Parameters
  • Shadows: ON
  • Shadows: Ray Traced Shadows
• Intensity/Color/Attenuation
  • Multiplier: 2,5
  • Color: RGB 255, 248, 221
  • ( These settings create really strong light with warm yellowish color )
• Spotlight Parameters
  • Hotspot/Beam: 15,2
  • Falloff/Field: 17,2
  • ( Just big enough to cover the mountain. Increase values if needed. )
• Area Light Parameters
  • Type: Disc
  • Radius: 250
  • ( the higher the value, the softer the shadows. If you do a high resolution render and experience graininess in the shadows you can increase the ‘Samples’ values to fix it )

Render your mountain to see the effect of the Mental Ray area spotlight.

Now the left side of the mountain is completely black and it fades into the background. Let’s fix that by adding a fill light. Create ‘Omni’ light and place it to the left side of the mountain and apply the following setting to it:

• Intensity/Color/Attenuation
  • Multiplier: 0,7

Render a test image to see the effect of the fill light. Move the Omni light if necessary.

Compare this to the render in step 4 to understand the importance of lighting.

Step 6 More Polished Look

Next we’re going to increase the quality of the mountain geometry and adjust the sampling settings to get more polished render. Go to the render setup and increase antialiasing quality by increasing Mental Ray’s sampling values ( Rendering > Render setup… > Renderer > Sampling Quality ):

• Samples per pixel
  • Minimum: 4
  • Maximum: 64
• Filter
  • Type: Mitchell ( For most scenes the Mitchell filter gives the best results. )

Select the mountain, go to the modify panel, and add TurboSmooth modifier to smooth out the hard edges of the model. Render your mountain to see the effect of these adjustments.

Step 7 Volumetric Clouds Around the Mountain

As a final thing we’re going to add some clouds around the mountain to create more depth and better sense of scale. Create four sphere gizmos ( Create panel > Helpers > Atmospheric Apparatus > SphereGizmo ) in the top viewport. Apply the following settings to the gizmos:

• SphereGizmo001
  • Radius: 61
  • Hemisphere: YES
• SphereGizmo002
  • Radius: 47
  • Hemisphere: YES
• SphereGizmo003
  • Radius: 79
  • Hemisphere: YES
• SphereGizmo004
  • Radius: 50
  • Hemisphere: YES

Place the gizmos according to the picture below. SphereGizmo001 is on the left and SphereGizmo004 is on the right.

Let’s go to the atmosphere settings ( Rendering > Environment… > Atmosphere ) to add some clouds:

• Click ‘Add…’ , select ‘Volume Fog’, and click OK.
• Gizmos:
  • Click ‘Pick Gizmo’ and click on the SphereGizmo001. Repeat for all sphere gizmos.
  • Increase ‘Soften Gizmo Edges’ to 1.
• Volume:
  • Color: RGB 255, 248, 221 ( The same as in the spotlight )
  • Max Steps: 200 ( Increases the quality of the effect )
• Noise:
  • Type: Turbulence
  • Size: 40

Just hit render and your 3d mountain image is complete. I made some small adjustments in Photoshop:

• Smart Sharpen Filter
  • Amount: 40%
  • Radius: 0,5 pixels
• Contrast
  • +25

I hope you enjoyed it! I’d love to hear how the tutorial is working for you!