Vandigital Modo 401 Rendering Techniques
Runtime: 500 minutes / 1280x720 Quicktime|RS+HF

Overview
Here we are again with a new series designed for 401! Alot has changed theres lots to cover and I mean lots.
Rendering techniques have changed a bit and thus need to be reviewed based on the changes.

This series focus's on the new features for rendering such as:

-Tone Mapping
-Caustics
-Volumetric lighting
-New gamma controls
-New preset controls
-Material presets system
-Material creation
-Exterior Lighting
-Exterior Environement Creation
-Interior Lighting
-Render trouble shooting
-In depth look at 401 controls
-In depth look at Vandigitals Render presets UI and how to use it.
-Leveraging shading rates
-Combining different render methods to produce biased/unbiased results.
-Fur for use in the archtectural world, grass, rugs, carpets, fuzz, etc.
-A in depth look into render size and how it affects IR settings.

As you can see we have alot to cover. 401 is a massive update and alot of things have changed. I hope you all

will join me on this insightful and educational trip through modo's latest upgrade.
Video Descriptions

Chapter 1
Foundations - Anti Aliasing.
One of the biggest rendering changes in 401 is the Anti Aliasing or AA for short. This Lesson explores it

in depth giving the user the knowledge needed in order to maintain full control over the scene they are

rendering.

Chapter 2
Foundations - Ray Tracing.
In this Lesson users learn about the different parameters in the Ray Tracing area of modo and how they

apply to the various AA parameters.

Chapter 3
Foundations - Global Illumination.
In this lesson we discuss Global Illumination and the settings tied in with it in 401. We also talk about

how to use the preview window draft controls and how to tweak it to work how you need it to. This includes

talks and examples of how to use ambient light and the difference between Monte Carlo and Irradiance Cache.

Chapter 4
Foundations - Caustics.
We explore yet another new feature inside of 401. Direct Caustics like the other foundation videos we

build a understanding of direct caustics and how they work in modo.

Chapter 5
Foundations - Gamma.
This lesson takes us into a discussion about gamma and hows its changed in this new version of modo. No

longer does the user have to calculate settings on their own. Learn how to use the new gamma controls and why

we use different gammas and how it affects your images.

Chapter 6
Irradiance Methods.
The title of this lesson is Irradiance Methods and covers just that. We look at Irradiance Caching and

how to make best use of it and introduce some new techniques to leverage 401's rendering capabilities. With a

focus on speed and excellent shadow detail and render quality.

Chapter 7
Foundations - Area Lights.
Introduction to area lights and their use in interiors. We explore using area lights for added shadow

detail but find out some interesting things when doing so.

Chapter 8
Foundations - Volumetrics.
In this lesson I introduce volumetrics and how to use them. This lesson is just a basics or introduction

if you will to build into more complex things in later lessons.

Chapter 9
Interior Lights.
In this Lesson we take a look at a more practical example. We use a situation where you are required to

create a early dawn setting from a beach house. This not only covers lighting skills but how to best approach

these situations and the different ways you can get there.

Chapter 10
Interior Glass.
In this lesson we take a look at creating glass for the various components of the interior. You will

learn how to get the best results and optimize your rendering with glass and find out a few dont's when

working with this particular material type.

Chapter 11
Interior Texturing. This video focus?s on applying different materials and utilizing some critical shader

tree options and how to best texture wood surfaces. We also look at how to use image maps and the effect they

have on our base material.

Chapter 12
Interior Texturing Continued.
In this chapter we continue texturing the interior. We make a pitstop to discuss some more methods on how

we can displace the floor without modifing anything else to compensate for the displacement offset. We also

optimize the scene by lowing the render time by more then 20x!

Chapter 13
Interior Finish. This chapter wraps up our practical example of a interior. We finish up but adding fur

to the rug and texturing the plant. We then move onto change the environment of the image to something a

little more complimenting to the scene and location. We also discuss tonemapping and how to use it in 401.

Chapter 14
Custom Material Presets and Rendering Presets. This lesson covers the creation of your own material

presets and how to best utilize them. We cover how to create custom thumbnails and best practice for modifing

them. We also cover a new scene that I use for my presets. Then we talk about my render presets script while

its in beta its still very powerful and offers alot when used correctly.

Chapter 15
Irradiance X Script Overview.
Irradiance X is a custom script included with this series that combines what you have learned in previous

videos. This video explains how to use Irradiance X and its features. Irradiance X is in beta and changing

all the time video will be updated with changes!

Chapter 16
Frosted Glass.
This chapter explores yet another new feature in 401 this time we will be looking at refraction roughness

aka frosted glass. We set the scene on a difficult rendering scenario where you have your glass directly

visible to other reflections. You will learn how to use frosted glass and trouble shoot noise from it as

well.

Chapter 17
Physical Sky.
In this lesson we overcome the limitations of using a 2.2 gamma with modos sky system. As it normally

produces a washed out apperance we needed to find a way to add color back without resorting to post work. We

also take a brief look at depth of field and how to get clean results using it heavily in our scene. We then

optimize our glass dragon using a new feature in 401!

Chapter 18
Physical Sky continued and Exterior setup.
In this lesson you will begin a new project this project however focus?s on exterior rendering and setup

instead of interior rendering. At the begining of this video we cover another sky technique that we will be

using for the remainder of the course. To get us started we setup our lighting and a few simple materials to

get a feel for the scene. We also set multiple cams up and make them easy to find by designating them with

different colors.

Chapter 19
Introduction to Replicators.
This lesson is designed to get users familar with replicators in a simple example before we construct a

more complex replicator situation using custom objects, textures, point clouds, and presets.

Chapter 20
Grass Patch Setup.
This lesson apply's what we learned in lesson 19 and we look at how to setup a mesh to be saved as a

preset then use it for replicating a field of grass before we test it on a more practical example. We also

look at creating a custom point cloud for the grass to use.


Code:http://rapidshare.com/files/312440824/nawu3vbnpg.part01.rar
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