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Tutorial Series

Still Life – The Basics of MachStudio™ Pro

Complete Tutorial

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Introduction

Welcome to the MachStudio™ Pro Still Life tutorial. There are many features in

MSP that will help optimize your workflow and demonstrate the methodology

designed to put more control in your hands.

This lesson takes you through the fundamentals of building a scene, introduces

the MSP interface and shows how to create a camera and environment light.

Note: All of the tutorial assets are located in the Studio GPU\Tutorials

folder. The location of this folder depends on the OS and if MachStudio Pro

was installed for all users or a single user. The following table displays the

possible paths.

If your version of MachStudio Pro was installed for all users:

Operating

SystemPath

Windows XP (32

bit and 64 bit)Documents and Settings\All Users\ Shared Documents

Windows Vista (32

bit and 64 bit)Users\Public\Public Documents

Windows 7 (32 bit

and 64 bit)Users\Public\Public Documents

If your version of MachStudio Pro was installed for asingle user:

Operating

SystemPath

Windows XP (32

bit and 64 bit)Documents and Settings\USER_NAME\ My Documents

Windows Vista (32

bit and 64 bit)Users\USER_NAME\ Documents

Windows 7 (32 bit

and 64 bit)Users\USER_NAME\Documents

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Lesson 1 Building the Scene

In this lesson, we are going to build the scene, review the GUI, and go over

camera basic controls.

Step 1 Set Viewport Render Preferences

After launching MSP, set preferences for the Viewport in the Viewport Render

preferences dialog box, which by default should already appear as one of the

panes on the screen. If you accidentally close it, select View > Viewport

Render Preferences to launch it. In general, it is recommended that you

keep this open as you work.

1. In the Viewport Render Preferences dialog box, under Lighting, deselect

theMultipass lighting option.

2. Under Passes, deselectRender Reflections.

3. Under HDR, make sure HDR Antialiasing is selected.

4. Under Ambient Occlusion, make sure the Enable AO option is deselected.

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Step 2: Loading Objects

Now that we’ve set the render preferences, load all the objects into the scene.

1. From the main menu, select Create > Load Objects.

The Open File dialog box opens.

2. Browse to Studio GPU > Tutorials> StillLife > Assets and select all

.gxb files.

3. ClickOpen.

All Objects will load into the scene.

Advanced Tip: Scene files (.MAB) and Objects (.GXB) will load automatically if

you drag them from windows explorer and drop them on the Viewport window

in MSP.

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Step 3 Camera Basics

Go through each of the commands listed below to familiarize yourself with the

camera movements. The basic camera controls are as follows:

l Alt + left mouse button – Tumbles the camera.

l Alt + right mouse button – Pans the camera across the scene.

l Alt + left and right mouse buttons – Zooms in and out of the scene.

Advanced Tip:MSP's camera controls can also be set to use Maya or 3D studio

Max camera controls. Select Edit> Preferences and make selections in the

Interface section.

Step 4 Focusing on Objects

We’re going to pick an object in the scene and use the hotkey command to

focus on it.

1. Click on the table in the scene.

2. Zoom (Alt + left & right mouse buttons) out of the scene.

3. HitAlt + F.

This will focus on the table.

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Step 5 Overview of the Scene Manager

The scene manager contains everything in the scene. Every time you click on

something (e.g. Editor Camera) in the scene manager, its properties display in

the object properties dialog box. The scene manager uses the following

hierarchy:

l AO – Selecting AO allows you to adjust the AO properties.

l Cameras – Includes all the cameras (perspective or orthographic) in the

scene.

l Environment Lights –Includes all ambient lighting in the scene.

l Fog - Depth and height based Fog.

l Lightsets – Includes all lightsets you create.

l Objects - Includes all objects in the scene.

l Point Lights - Includes all point lights you create.

l Projected Lights – Includes all projected lights you create.

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Step 6 Environment Lighting Overview

All objects we loaded into the scene have been assigned to the default

environment lighting. Let’s go over how environment lighting affects the scene.

1. In the Scene Manager, under Environment Lights, selectDefault. The

default light’s properties display in the object properties dialog box.

2. Click on the diffuse color picker and view the results. This color change

affects the ambient lighting of the scene.

Altering the Specular Color adds ambient specular light to the scene,

which only affects the specular component of the shader. This

contribution can only be seen while multipass lighting (F2) is turned on.

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Step 7 Adding an Environment Light

Now that we’ve reviewed how the environment light affects the scene, let’s

create an environment light and assign objects.

1. Select Create > Environment Lights.

2. Select the newly created environment light in the Scene Manager and in

the object properties dialog box, name it SET and hit enter.

The environment light will now appear as SET in the Scene Manager.

3. In object properties, select the objects tab and assign all objects except

for the Sky_Dome-002.

Note: This adds these objects to this new environment and removes

them from the default environment light.

We will now repeat the process to create an environment light for the sky

dome.

1. Select Create > Environment Lights.

2. Select it in the scene manager, name it SKY and hit enter.

3. Select objects tab and assign the Sky_Dome-002.

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Step 8 Adding a Camera

We are now ready to add the first camera.

1. Select Create > Perspective Camera.

The newly created camera (CAM01) is added under Cameras in the scene

manager.

2. In order to switch to CAM01, right click in the viewport window and select

Camera > CAM01.

3. Pan and zoom the new camera so that you are outside the room. Tumble

the view so you can see the room geometry and the sky_dome

backdrop.

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It's important to set up your camera's clipping planes so that we can

optimize all future lighting calculations.

4. Right click in the viewport and choose Select Camera. This selects

CAM01, the camera we are viewing through. The default settings for this

camera has a Near Clip of .01 and a Far clip of 100 (meters).

5. Change the Far Clip to 10. A hole appears in the sphere because we are

clipping too short. Try some other values and enter 14 as your final

setting.

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6. Nowmove back into the room and pick a camera angle that works. Hit

Ctrl + D – This keys the camera position. The property key displays in the

timeline editor, as shown below:

7. Tumble away from the camera (Alt + left mouse button) and move the

timeline marker. Notice that it snaps back to the frame position you

keyed.

You now have a fully integrated scene that is ready to be lit.

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Lesson 2 - Basic Lighting

This lesson provides an overview of the lighting methodology in MachStudio™

Pro. It will show you how to add the Ambient Occlusion render in the scene,

and add light sets and lights to the Still Life scene.

Step 1 Ambient Occlusion

1. From the main menu, select File >Open.

2. Browse to Studio GPU > Tutorials> StillLife > Scenes and select

StillLife_Chapter2.mab.

3. Once the scene has loaded hit F10.

You’ve now turned on the AO render.

4. Hit F9.

You’re now in the AO only render and will see the AO pass turned on, as

shown below.

5. Click in the viewport window and hit 2, which is the medium sampling rate.

You now have a higher sample of the AO pass. If you’d like to switch back

to the lower sample, hit 1.

6. In the Scene Manager, selectAO and you’ll see the settings for AO display

in object properties.

7. Scrub through the scene scale – This sets the distance between two faces

before occlusion begins.

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8. In the color picker, change the color of the occlusion to tint the scene.

9. Scrub through the contrast scale to see more or less ambient occlusion

contribution to the scene.

10. Go back to the viewport render preferences and select Enable blur.

11. In AO object properties, set blur width to 1.

Note:The width sets howmany pixels are being included in the blur.

12. Set Blur Sharpness to 3.

Note: Blur sharpness is the edge detection

13. Hit F4 to go back to the main render.

14. Hit F2 to turn on multipass rendering. You’ll see the AO contribution in the

scene.

15. Hit F10 to turns the AO render on or off.

16. Hit F9 to turn AO only back on.

17. Select an object in the scene.

18. In the object properties dialog box, deselect the receive occlusion box

Note: The receive occlusion toggle is available down to the fragment

level of any object.

19. Re-select the receive occlusion box.

20. Hit F4 to switch back to the main render.

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Step 2 Adding a Projected Light

1. In the Viewport window, right click and select Camera > Editor.

2. Find a similar angle to the one shown below and select Create > Create

Projected Light At Camera Position.

You have created a projected light.

3. Rotate the camera and zoom out so to the full scene in view.

4. In the Scene Manager, select the projected light you created and in the

object properties name field, name itKEY_01 and hit enter.

5. In the texture filename field, you can load specific gobos/gels. Browse to

Studio GPU > stock> projectionMaps and select spot_soft_000.dds.

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6. Click on the color picker to change the color and choose a warm light

color.

7. Update the angle as needed to ensure the entire set is in the light’s range.

8. Set the Scale to 2.

9. Set Range to 10.

10. Zoom (Alt + left and right mouse buttons) back into the room.

11. In object properties, scroll to the Shadow quality settings.

12. Change shadowmap Res. to 4096.

13. Make sure shadow source is checked.

14. Set depth bias to .04.

15. Set shadow softness to .02.

You now have a basic scene with a key light.

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Step 3 Create a light set with a point light

1. Select Create > Point Light.

The point light is created at 0,0.

2. Move the point light so that it is above the grapes.

3. In the object properties dialog box, name the point lightGrape_Kickand

hit enter.

4. In the Scene Manager, under Objects, expand the plus (+) next to

Table-003and Surfaces. Use Ctrl + left mouse button to select

polySurfaceShape106: Grapes and the new point lightGrape_Kick.

5. In the Viewport, right click and select Light Sets> Create Light Set

from selection.

In this newly created lightset, the point light is constrained to this specific

geometry.

6. In Object Properties, name the Light set grapes.

7. Click onGrape_Kick.

8. Scrub through the intensity to see the effect of the light contribution.

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Step 4 Set the HDR settings

1. Right click in the Viewport window and select Camera > CAM01.

2. Select CAM01 in the Scene Manager.

3. In object properties, scroll to HDR settings.

4. Set Middle Gray to .6. The middle gray value

5. Set White Cutoff to 3.

6. Set Bloom Scale to 1.

7. Set Brightpass threshold to .5.

8. Set Brightpass Offset to .4.

You should see that the light is much darker.

9. In the Scene Manager, selectKey_01.

10. In object properties, set intensity to 2.

You should see a more balanced scene.

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Lesson 3 – Materials & Shaders

This lesson will show you how to import materials for objects in the scene,

apply shaders, and view the results with multipass lighting turned on.

1. Select File >Open.

2. Browse to Studio GPU > Tutorials > StillLife > Scene and select

StillLife_Chapter3.mab.

3. In the viewport window, right click and select Camera > CAM01.

4. In the Scene Manager, selectwalls-000.gxb.

5. Click on the Import Materials button.

6. Browse to Studio GPU > Tutorials> StillLife >Materials and select

walls.gmb.

Note: If the file not found error comes up, click locate and browse to

StudioGPU > Tutorials > StillLife > Textures and click open.

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7. Repeat steps 4-6 for the rest of these objects: Table, desk, and cabinet

– click in scene manager, select the object and hit the import materials

button and choose the appropriate .gmb file.

8. After everything is loaded, press F2 to turn multipass lighting on and view

the results.

9. Press F6 to toggle reflections on or off.

Typically when working you want to work with reflections off.

10. Click F2 to turn multipass lighting off.

There should be several objects on the table that are gray shaded.

11. From the toolbar, select Pick material.

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12. Select the cloth on the table.

13. In Object Properties, in the Shader section, click and select Specular

Fresneland clickOpen.

14. The shader change dialog box will open, click yes.

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15. We’re going to change some values for the cloth’s object properties.

Note: Specular fresnel is a shader that is often used for hair or certain

types of cloth such as velvet or satin. In this case, we’re trying to emulate

the velvet cloth.

16. Click F2 to view the results.

17. Select copper in the scene manager.

18. InObject properties, change the shader to Blinn Reflection and click yes

in the shader change dialog box to continue.

Note: The Blinn Reflection shader is a blend based dynamic shader that

could be used on everything from reflective hardwood floors to metal to

glass windows.

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19. Make sure the copper object properties match the object properties

below:

20. In the Scene Manager, selectGrapes.

21. In object properties change the Shader to subsurface scatter_

wBlinnSpecular shader and click yes in the shader change dialog box.

Note: This shader should be used to simulate the scattering of light that

occurs under the surface of the object such as skin, wax, and jade.

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22. Make sure the Object Properties match the Object Properties below:

23. In the Scene Manager, select Porcelain.

24. In object properties, change the Shader to car paint and click yes in the

shader change dialog box to continue.

Note:This shader is used quite effectively for any hard surface that

needs fresnel based reflections.

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25. Make sure the Object Properties match the Object Properties below:

26. In the Scene Manager, select rolls.

27. In the shader section, select the blinn shader and click yes in the shader

change dialog box to continue.

Note: This is an all around generic shader that is great for soft diffuse

surfaces and hard specular highlights.

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28. Make sure Object Properties match the one below:

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We’re now going to save the material as an .mtl file

29. In the Scene Manager, select the grapes and click export to library.

30. In the save as dialog box, save it as grape.mtl.

31. We’re going to save all of the materials as a .gmb file.

32. Select the table and click Save Materials.

33. In the save as dialog box, save it as table.gmb.

34. Set Render Preferences and make sure theymatch the following:

35. Hit F2 (turns on multipass lighting) and view the results.

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Lesson 4 – Final Adjustments & Rendering

This lesson will show you how to make final lighting adjustments, set depth of

field settings, and render an image of the Still Life scene. The tutorial

Step 1 Moving and Adding lights

1. Select File >Open.

2. Browse to Studio GPU > Tutorials > StillLife > Scene and select

stilllife_chapter4.mab.

3. Right click in the viewport window, select Camera > CAM01.

4. In the Viewport Render preferences, deselect the Render reflections

pass and the Enable AO render.

5. Hit F2 to turn the lights on.

Now we're going to isolate a projected light and change the position.

6. Let’s switch to the Editor Camera: Right Click in the viewport window and

select Camera > Editor.

7. Zoom (Alt + left and right mouse buttons) out of the scene.

8. In the Scene manager, select the following projected light: Key_01 and

hitAlt + F. If you’d like to turn off the light’s icon, hit I.

Note: You can turn off all the other projected lights by deselecting them

in the scene manager.

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9. Select Ctrl + W to bring up the transform tool and drop the light position

to the position shown below. If you'd like to enter in the position manually,

go to object properties and enter in the coordinates in the transform

section.

Now that the light has been repositioned, we're going to refine the shadows.

10. In object properties, scroll to the Shadow quality section.

11. For shadow softness, enter .015 and make the shadowmap resolution to

4096.

There is now a nice looking shadow in the scene.

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Now add a bit of a highlight to the right of the scene.

12. In the viewport window, right click and select Camera > Editor camera.

13. Zoom (Alt + left and right mouse buttons) into the room.

14. Select Create > Point Light.

Now there is a point light in the center of the room and we're going to set

its properties in the object properties dialog box.

15. In object properties, name it highlight and click enter.

16. In the transform section, enter in the following position values

respectively: 130, 80, -60

17. Scroll to the light section, and enter in the following color values

respectively: 156, 171, 255 This will give the light a nice bluish hue.

18. Scroll to Falloff and select Show Falloff.

19. From the Falloff Type pull downmenu, selectQuadratic.

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20. Make sure the point light object properties match the following:

21. Go back to CAM01 by right clicking in the Viewport window and selecting

Cameras > CAM01.

22. In the Scene Manager, select the following projected light: Volume_01

23. Inobjectproperties,scrollto the lightshaftsectionandselectShaftVisible.

24. In the Scene Manager, select the following projected light: Volume_02

25. Inobjectproperties,scrollto the lightshaftsectionandselectShaftVisible.

The rays will come in pretty bright and we're going to adjust these settings

to clean them up.

26. Set the shaft alpha to 1.00 and set the edge softness to .5.

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27. The Light shaft properties should match the properties below:

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Step 2 Depth of Field

1. In the Scene Manager, select CAM01.

2. In object properties, select the Depth of Field checkbox.

3. In the viewport window, right click and Select Camera > Editor Camera.

4. In the Scene Manager, uncheckObjects.

The screen will turn completely black.

5. In the Scene Manager, select CAM01 and hit CTRL + F.

You will notice that the depth of field planes aren’t positioned correctly.

These planes represent where depth of field begins and ends

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6. Enter in the following Depth of Field information and make sure it matches

the settings below. You'll notice how the distance between the planes

change.

l The distance between the camera and the first plane is the near blur

focus.

l The distance between the first plane and second plane is the

transition into focus.

l The distance between the second and third plane is everything that is

in focus.

l From the third plane to the fourth plane is transition to out of focus.

l From the fourth to the fifth plane is out of focus.

7. In the scene manager, re-checkObjects to turn them back on.

8. Hit F2 to turn the lights back on.

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9. SelectRender Reflection and Enable AO back in the Viewport Render

preferences and make sure settings match the settings below.

Step 3 Rendering

We are now ready to render the scene.

1. In the Scene Manager, select CAM01.

2. Click on the Drivers tab.

3. In the capture section, select Capture and click attach driver.

4. This brings in the capture channel into the timeline editor, which tells the

renderer howmany frames it is going to render on this camera.

For this render we only want one frame.

5. Click on the end of the capture channel and drag it all the way to the

beginning of the timeline. You can also manually enter the begin and end

time in the Driver Properties dialog box.

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6. SelectRender > Render Options.

7. Make sure the Objects tab match the settings below:

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8. Make sure Reder Prefs match the setting below:

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9. Click the Output tab and make sure the output settings match the settings

below:

10. Hit the Render button.

You have rendered your first image in MachStudio™ Pro.

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Legal Notice

All asset files including, but not limited to 3Dmodels, animations, textures and

materials, are the property of studio|gpu™ and provided solely for the purpose

of user training. Any commercial use of these assets without expressed written

consent by studio|gpu™ is strictly prohibited.