Final Image

I used a comblination of RenderMan shaders and Maya shaders for this project. I wish I had more time to work on the RenderMan side of things, I think the control RM offers would have been be really useful if I had time to further explore it.

I also really wanted to use the “Physical Sun and Sky” lighting option, until I tried to use it and I realized that’s a Mental Ray feature and not a Maya thing. I used two area lights to fake it.

RenderMan SL Code

vase.sl

surface vase(
    float blend = 0.0;
    color c1 = color(0.25, 0.0, 0.0);
    color c2 = color(0.8, 0.05, 0.15);
    uniform float specBump = 1;
    uniform float Ks = 1;
    uniform float roughness = 0.2;)
{

color surfColor;

vector n = normalize(N);
vector nf = faceforward(n, I);

Oi = Os;
float noi = clamp (noise(P),0,1);
surfColor = mix ( c1, c2, blend * noi);

normal Norig = faceforward(normalize(Ng), I);
vector V = -normalize(I);

normal Nspec = normalize( mix(Norig, nf, clamp(specBump,0,1)) );

color diffColor = surfColor * diffuse(n);

Ci = Oi * diffColor + (Ks * specular(Nspec,V,roughness));

}

book.sl

surface book(
    float blend = 0.0;
    color c1 = color(0.25, 0.0, 0.0);
    color c2 = color(0.8, 0.05, 0.15);
    uniform float specBump = 1;
    uniform float Ks = 1;
    uniform float roughness = 0.2;)
{

color surfColor;

vector n = normalize(N);
vector nf = faceforward(n, I);

Oi = Os;
surfColor = mix ( c1, c2, blend);

normal Norig = faceforward(normalize(Ng), I);
vector V = -normalize(I);

normal Nspec = normalize( mix(Norig, nf, clamp(specBump,0,1)) );

color diffColor = surfColor * diffuse(n);

Ci = Oi * diffColor + (Ks * specular(Nspec,V,roughness));

}

noise.sl

displacement noise (float disScale = 0.1; float disFreq = 1.5;)
{
normal n = normalize(N);

float noi = noise(P * disFreq);

point newP = P - n * noi;

N = calculatenormal(newP);
}

Final

Ambient Occlusion

Color

I really wanted to get Global Illumination and Final Gather working for this render, but it washed out the image way too much. I used MentalRay’s mia_material for the metal in the scene. It took a lot of trial and error to get a decent result because there are a ton of options to play with.

An attempt at GI/FG

Reference

Progression

Textures

Grapes

For the grapes I used the misss_fast_simple_maya shader for MentalRay. I used a procedural noise pattern as the input for the ambient color and put a spot light directly behind the grapes, pointed at the camera.

Bananas

I used a phong shader for the bananas. To get a realistic peel look I added a little subsurface scatter on the shader.

Final Composite Image

Beauty Pass

Occlusion Pass

Z-Depth

Process

The key light

I started by placing the key light(s) in the scene. At first I thought about using area lights, but decided to go with spot lights. I placed lights in each “sun facing” window and set their color to a light red.

The Fill Light

Then I added blue fill lights. I used area lights, again in the windows to mimic the natural light that would be in the scene.

The Key and the Fill Light Working Together

Technique

The Light Color and Intensity of the Key and Fill Lights

To make it easier to adjust multiple lights at once, I used Ramp nodes to drive the color and intensity attributes of similar lights.

Final Image