Bokeh Effect in 3ds Max

8/6/2019 Bokeh Effect in 3ds Max

1/17

Bokeh Effect in 3ds Max01JUN2010

In this beginners tutorial were going tocreate a bokeh effect in 3ds Max. The term bokeh is familiar from photography. When depth of field is

shallow, part of the photo is blurred. Bokeh refers to that blur or the quality of it. There are a few different

methods of creating shallow depth of field in 3ds Max, but this time we concentrate on the Depth of Field

/ Bokeh camera shader which is a new feature in 3ds Max 2011. The Bokeh shader gives us nice tools to

control the quality and the look of the out of focus areas.

Step 1 Mental Ray RendererWere going to render the bokeh effect 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 The BackgroundWere going to create a simple 3d scene and finally add the bokeh effect to it. If you are just interested

about the bokeh effect itself, go ahead and skip to step 13.

Were going to create a simple scene with some text in it but first we create a background. Create a Plane

( Create panel > Geometry > Standard Primitives > Plane ) in the front viewport . Modify the Plane ( Make a

selection > Modify panel ) according to the following parameters:

Length: 200

Width: 300
http://www.polygonblog.com/bokeh-effect


2/17

length Segs: 1Width Segs: 1

Step 3 The Material for the Background PlaneOpen Material Editor ( Press m in keyboard ) and create the material for the plane:

1. Click Get Material button and select ( doubleclick ) Arch & Design (mi) from the list (Materials >mental ray > Arch & Design ).

2. Select the plane and assign the material to it.3. Color: dark gray ( RGB 0,16 0,16 0,16 ).4. Roughness: 0,2 ( smoothens the highlights )5. Reflectivity: 0 ( perfectly matte surface )


3/17


4/17

Step 5 3D TextAt this point the text is just a shape and cant even be seen in renderings. Lets turn it to a 3d surface. Add

Bevel modifier to the text ( Make a selection > Modify panel > Modifier List > Object-Space Modifiers > Bevel ). Apply

the following parameters ( Make a selection > Modify panel ) to the Bevel modifier:

Parameters

SurfaceCurved Sides: YES

Segments: 10 ( 3 is probably enough if you do only a low resolution render )

Smooth Across Levels: YES

Bevel Values

Level 1


5/17

Height: 4Level 2

Height: 1,1

Outline: -0,6


6/17

Step 6 Material for the TextOpen Material Editor ( Press m in keyboard ) and create the material for the text:

1. Click Get Material button and select ( doubleclick ) Arch & Design (mi) from the list (Materials >mental ray > Arch & Design ).

2. Select the text and assign the material to it.3. Color: beige/brown ( RGB 0,734 0,655 0,5 ).4. Glossiness: 0,75. Metal material: YES

Step 7 Prepare the Scene for RenderingLets prepare the scene for rendering:

Place the text into the center of the plane like in picture below.


7/17

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.

Step 8 First Test RenderNow is a good time to render the scene for the first time so hit render ( Main toolbar > Render Production ) and

you should see something like the picture below.


8/17

This is our first render so obviously there are some problems:

First of all the image is boring, there is nothing interesting

There are some rough edges because of low sampling values

Lets adjust the sampling settings to get a more polished render. Go to the render setup and increase

antialiasing quality by increasing Mental Rays 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. )

Now the aliasing issues are fixed and its time to illuminate the text. By the way, if rendering time is an

issue you could use the default sampling values for now and use these high quality settings only in the

final rendering.

Step 9 IlluminationCreate Mental Ray area omni ( Create panel > Lights > Standard > mr Area Omni ) in the front viewport and

apply the following parameters to it ( Make a selection > Modify panel ):


9/17

Intensity/Color/AttenuationMultiplier: 1,5 ( the intensity of the light )

Place the omni light according to the picture below.

When you render the scene you should get something like the picture below. Move the light if necessary.

The illumination is improved but the text is too dark and therefore merges with the background. Lets

address these issues with soft shadows and glare. Modify the omni light ( Make a selection > Modify panel ) to

get softer shadows:

Area Light Parameters


10/17

Radius: 10Apply Glare Camera Shader ( Rendering > Render Setup > Renderer > Camera Effects > Camera Shaders > Output >

Glare) Just turn the output shader on, the glare shader should be selected by default. Open Material Editor

( Press m in keyboard ) and drag and drop the Glare shader from Camera Shaders to an empty material slot

in Material Editor ( make sure to select instance when asked ). Make the following adjustments to the

Glare shader:

Quality: 4

Spread: 6

Render the scene the see the effect of these changes. Now shadows are softer and the text is brighter and

has a nice glow.

Step 10 Creating Particles

At the moment our scene is really flat so there is no point in adding a bokeh effect just yet. First well

create something that will be out of focus in the final rendering. Lets add some sparkles to the scene.

Create a super spray ( Create panel > Geometry > Particle Systems > Super Spray) in the top viewport and apply

( Make a selection > Modify panel ) the following parameters to it:

Particle Generation

Particle Quantity


11/17

Use Total: 1000Particle Motion

Speed: 4

Particle Timing:

Emit Start: -500

Emit Stop: 0

Life: 500

Particle Size

Size: 0,5

Particle Type

Standard Particles: Sphere

Step 11 Path for the ParticlesNext were going to create a spline and force the particles to travel along it. Create the spline:

Activate the Line tool ( Create panel > Shapes > Splines > Line ) and create a line with 4 vertices in the top

viewport. The first vertex should be farthest from the camera and the last vertex should be closest to

the camera.

Select the spline, go to the modify panel, and set Steps to 40 ( Interpolation > Steps ).

Activate Vertex sub-object level.

Select all four vertices, right click on them, and select Bezier from the menu.

Move the vertices and adjust the bezier handles to create a spline like in the picture below.

( For the sake of this tutorial its not required to create exactly the same kind of line. However, to be able see

the effect of a bokeh shader, at least some part of the spline should be close to the camera. )

Place the super spray to the starting point of the line.


12/17

Create a path follow object ( Create panel > Space Warps > Forces > Path Follow), go to the modify panel, and

apply the following parameters to it:

Current Path: Click Pick Shape Object and select the spline we just created

Motion Timing

Start Frame: -500

Travel Time: 500

Variation: 20 ( Some variation to the travel time )

Bind the super spray to the path follow object:

1. Activate Bind to Space Warp (Main toolbar > Bind to Space Warp )2. Click and hold on top of the super spray3. Release over path follow object

Particles should immediately follow the path like in the picture below.


13/17

Tip. If youd like the particles to stray away from the spline, try increasing the particle speed in super

spray and/or adjusting Particle Motion settings in the path follow object.

Step 12 Material for the ParticlesOpen Material Editor ( Press m in keyboard ) and create the material for the sparkles:

1. Click Get Material button and select ( doubleclick ) Arch & Design (mi) from the list.2. Select the super spray and assign the material to it.3. Turn self illumination on4. Orange (RGB 0,996 0,737 0,459)5. Luminance: 2


14/17

Render the scene the see the particles. The glow is really strong but wait till you see it with the Bokeh

effect.


15/17

Step 13 The Bokeh EffectApply Depth of Field / Bokeh Camera Shader (Rendering > Render Setup > Renderer > Camera Effects > Camera

Shaders > Lens > Depth of Field / Bokeh ). Open Material Editor ( Press m in keyboard ) and drag and drop the

bokeh shader from Camera Shaders to an empty material slot in Material Editor ( make sure to select

instance when asked ). Make the following adjustments to the Bokeh shader:

Focus Plane: The distance from the camera to the text ( 301 in my case ). The easiest way to measure

the distance is to align the camera target with the text and check the camera target distance from

the camera parameters ( Select the camera > Modify panel > Parameters > Target Distance ). Focus plane is

the area of the scene thatll appear sharp in the rendering.

Radius of Confusion: 2 ( The amount of blurriness )

Samples: 32 ( The quality of the blur. ) This value has a dramatic effect to the rendering time. If the

rendering takes too long, decrease this value. I rendered my image with 256 samples to get silky

smooth noise free bokeh. The downside was the 7h rendering time with my quad core 2,33GHz

Q8200.


16/17

Now were ready to render the final image with the bokeh effect. I made some adjustments in Photoshop

as well:

Brightness: +25

Contrast: +40


17/17

Lets continue in the discussion. Patience with the rendering!

Documents

Bokeh Effect in 3ds Max