Randomize textures in V-Ray for Maya

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Maya 2018 | V-Ray 3.6

Connect the different texture options as inputs to a VRayMultiSubTexNode and connect it to the wanted material input.
In the VRayMultiSubTexNode attributes, set Get ID From to Random by Render ID.
* Press add new item in the VRayMultiSubTexNode attributes to add one or more inputs to the list.

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Maya V-Ray GPU texture resizing

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Maya 2018 | V-Ray 3.6

By default V-Ray for Maya, when Production Engine is set to CUDA (GPU), resizes all the textures to 512×512 in order to save GPU memory.
Naturally, this may cause the textures to appear blurry and lacking detail in the rendered image.

To avoid this,
In Render Settings > V-Ray tab > Production renderer,
Set GPU Resize Textures to Full Size Textures, so the textures will not be resized at all (but consume more memory),
Or On-demand mipmapping, so the textures data will be optimized to reduce memory consumption (but not quality) in a pre-render process.

Note:
To get full size textures in IPR mode, do the same in the IPR tab

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Using VRayMtlHair3 shader with nHair in Maya

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Maya 2018 | V-Ray 3.6

  1. Select the nHair object.
  2. In the Attribute Editor, in the hair system shape attributes.
    Open the Attributes menu, and choose VRay > Hair Shader.
  3. Create a VRayMtlHair3 shader.
  4. Connect the shader to the Hair Shader slot under VRay Extra Attributes in the hair system Shape Node attributes.

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Related:
V-Ray for Maya and XGen

Simple Toon shader setup in Maya & Arnold

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Maya 2018

Use a Surface Luminance node as a V coordinate input value for a Ramp (V Ramp) node containing the toon colors.

* Note that the Clamp node is important so results will be ass expected, it clamps the Surface Luminance values to 0.99 so the V coordinate will nor cycle back to the beginning of the Ramp.

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Related:
Toon Shading in V-Ray for Maya

Arnold for Maya Motion-Blur

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Maya 2018 | Arnold 5

  1. In the Render Settings window, Arnold Renderer tab, under Motion Blur,
    Check ‘Enable’.
  2. Set the ‘Length’ attribute to set the Motion-Blur size.
    * the default length of 0.5 means the Motion-Blur will be calculated as a result of a photographic exposure duration of half of a frame duration, or 180 degrees in cinema camera terminology.
  3. Raise the number of Keys to accurately simulate Motion-Blur for very fast rotational motion like helicopter propellers and car wheels.

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Note:
To generate a Motion Vector (Velocity) AOV (also referred to as ‘Render Element’ or ‘Pass’), in order to add the Motion-Blur effect in a compositing software:

  1. The ‘motionvector’ AOV must be added to the AOVs list in the AOVs tab of the Render Settings window.
  2. Motion-Blur must be enabled in the Motion-Blur part of the Arnold Renderer tab in the Render Settings window.
    * Otherwise motion vectors will not be calculated.
  3. In the Diagnostics tab of the Render Settings window, under Feature Overrides, check ‘Ignore Motion Blur’, so Motion-Blur will not be rendered.

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Related posts:

Arnold for Maya Depth of Field (DOF)

Saving multi-channel EXR file with Arnold for Maya