Photoreal CARS and METALS in iray attempts

NoName99

Hey Everyone,
I've been experimenting with iray the past few day and trying to get photoreal car and metals.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: MANY MANY MANY THANKS to SICKELYIELDS awesome tutorial, that really saved my behind.

I'm hesitant to post these because I'm not totally happy with my results, but I figured I would in case reading about my mistakes saves someone else some time.

Also, if anyone has any ideas or has figured out how to get some serious photoreal metals, please share your thoughts on this.

THE KEY POINTS I'm taking away from all this is:

TO RENDER AN ALPHA CHANNEL WITH IRAY:
UNDER RENDER SETTINGS: SET DRAW DOME TO OFF,
UNDER ENVIRONMENT: SET VISIBLE IN RENDER TO OFF

Here's a more detailed breakdown of my workflow attempts.

A) UNDER RENDER SETTINGS:
1) I Imported an HDRI Image as an ENVIRONMENT MAP
2) Set ENVIRONMENT MODE to DOME AND SCENE
3) Set DOME MODE to FINITE SPHERE/W GROUND
4) Under RENDER MODE I kept it on the default PHOTOREAL

B) Under the ENVIRONMENT TAB on the LEFT HAND SIDE of the screen:
5) I Imported the same HDRI Image as a BACKGROUND IMAGE by clicking on the BACKGROUND TAB.
6) I kept VISIBLE IN RENDER to ON for the first few renders - (I soon discovered this was a mistake.)

C) BACK UNDER RENDER SETTINGS:
7) I set the ASPECT RATIO of the render to match the ASPECT RATIO of the BACKGROUND IMAGE
8) I created a NEW CAMERA

E) My BACKGROUND IMAGE was shot on a CANON FULL-FRAME SLR with a 24MM LENS, so I matched my 3D CAMERA to match it:

9) Under the PARAMETERS TAB > CAMERA > FOCAL LENGTH, I set the FOCAL LENGTH and WIDTH to 24mm.
10) I imported CAR RANGER by DAZ ORIGINALS and PETIPET into my scene.
11) I adjusted the CAMERA in the MAIN VIEWPORT to match the angle of the BACKGROUND IMAGE.
12) I selected the CAR RANGER, and Under the SURFACES TAB, I applied SHADER CLEANER, removing all DEFAULT SHADERS AND MATERIALS

13) I individually selected and applied different IRAY SHADERS to individual parts of the car.
Examples:
- For the Cars Body, I applied SHADERS > IRAY > CAR PAINT > MIDNIGHT BLUE
- For the WHEELS: SHADERS > IRAY > METAL > TITANIUM
- For the TIRES: SHADERS > IRAY > RUBBER > SHINY
- For the WINDSHIELDS: SHADERS > IRAY > GLASS > SOLID CLEAR

F) RENDERING THE CAR AS A PNG ON AN ALPHA CHANNEL - (HERE'S WHERE I GOT
STUCK!!!!)

I rendered out my first render, and noticed my BACKGROUND IMAGE was part of the RENDER,
and it was BRIGHTENED.

Back under the ENVIRONMENT TAB, I turned VISIBLE IN RENDER to OFF.

I renedered out again and this time the background image was gone, but the ENVIRONMENT MAP
was rendered as a background.

This REALLY confused me!! It took me awhile but eventually I figured it out:
UNDER RENDER SETTINGS > ENVIRONMENT > DRAW DOME > OFF

I tried another render, and it worked, by clicking VISIBLE IN RENDER to OFF, and DRAW DOME to OFF, the Car rendered out onto a PNG with an ALPHA CHANNEL.

G) I imported my BACKGROUND IMAGE and CAR RANGER RENDERS into AFTER EFFECTS for light postwork.

I still haven't been able to figure out why when rendering the car out on an ALPHA CHANNEL, the shadows are more intese then when the car is rendered with the background.

Jabba

Lovely job

NoName99

Rendered this one overnight, definitely some grain showing up in certain areas.

NoName99

Jabba101 said:

Lovely job

Thanks, I appreciate that!

Ralf1958

dinopt said:

Rendered this one overnight, definitely some grain showing up in certain areas.

To obtain less grainy Images you Need to set the max Render time up higher. In Default mode it's set to 7200 Seconds (2 hours). This means Iray stops to render after this time. I tried Setting it up to the max possible and it worked out very well. stopping after the necessary time to complete the Image.