Texture Map:

Texture maps can eat up a lot of your computer’s resources!  Concerning the final output of the image when I was texturing the models, here are some examples of the texture maps I created.  I created several sizes of texture maps (from 512x512 up to 4056x4056) for different camera angles. (Fig.013 & 014)

For the specular highlights, I applied a noise map inside Maya’s shading network. (Fig.015)

Lighting and Rendering:

I created an environment sky in Photoshop (Mental Ray has a Sky light system after Maya 8.5; it is effective but I wanted to achieve something different with this piece), which was a 4000 pixel width matte painting.  I didn’t paint too much detail as I was more concerned with the colour scheme. (Fig.016)

I applied the environment sky to a polygon sphere as a key light, along with 2 extra directional lights – one for the direction of the sun (with shadows) and one for the backlight area (low intensity with a cold colour tone and without shadows). (Fig.017)

Moving on to the rendering settings, I usually start with a small image with low final gather (500 rays) and an anti-aliasing setting of 0 to 1 in order to do a test render of the lighting.  Come the final render, I had pumped up final gather to 1500 and the anti-aliasing to a 0 to 2 setting, and I also used a Mitchell filter.

With my current working process, my main goal with this image was to output it as a still image with a 4000 pixel height resolution, to present the design… but when you come to such a large resolution image with a heavy polygon count, you tend to face a memory problem.  Here are some of the solutions to the problem:

1. Do a BSP Diagnostics test on the BSP depth and size. Under Render Settings > Mental ray > Diagnostics, check the “Diagnose sample” box and select the “Depth” or “Size” (adjust the BSP depth and size to a reasonable level; red represents the density of the detail).  “BSP” can be adjusted inside “Mentalrayglobals”; go to “Outliner” and open the “Mentalrayglobals” in the “ Attributes Editor”, find the “Acceleration Options” and you will see the “BSP size” and “BSP depth”.

2. Try to lower the Memory Limits.  Under “Render” > “Render current frame” or “Batch Render” you will see the section for Memory limits.

3. Render your image in Windows/Linux command line without opening the Maya Program.

4. Render your image in tiles (but this is for a single image only).  I used an MEL script provided by www.highend3d.com; search for “tile render for mental ray” (note the version!) – it is a user-friendly script and be sure to read the instructions inside the .zip file for how to use it!

5. Convert your texture maps to Mental Ray “.map” files; file sizes will become bigger but very effectively!

Part III: Post-production – Post-production in Photoshop:

This is always the enjoyably part for me, and after a long period of process work you need a clear mind in order to keep the origins of the idea.  I did a Photoshop painting of the whole city before this image, and I tried to achieve an abandoned and dusty city look.  A realistic look was not in my interest, and I wanted more of a theatrical-style look.

What makes a picture interesting?  Well, besides the content of an image, it is the magic of the composition, and the contrast and harmony that are some of the usual common aspects that will make a picture look interesting.  It is not hard to find these elements inside a lot of works that you will see, such as in architecture, paintings, film and photography (do some studies on these subjects and you will very easily find the key to opening the door!), but from an artistic aspect everyone has their own taste or theory, and besides this aesthetic theory the most important thing is how you transfer them to your own idea.  Still images and moving pictures have some common points and differences as well, because in moving pictures there is a continuity; you have a story, camera movement, characters moving around, sound effects, music and so on (a lot of the time one of these elements are much more important than others!).  All of these elements were part of my consideration when I was working on this image.

I won’t go into too much detail on the process of Photoshop, but here is a breakdown of my post-production work:

1. An occlusion layer can give objects a good relationship with each other, but don’t over do the occlusion layer – I usually render some masks for fine-tuning on the occlusion layer and adjust the opacity under the “Multiply” filter.  Be sure to examine the dark areas to avoid losing all your details (unless it’s some kind of effect you are looking for!) (Fig.018)