Tip 2: When using Photometric lights with mental ray, always choose Ray Traced Shadows in your shadows options (Fig.07).


Tip 3: Remember your Exposure Control settings when you use Photometric lights. Always choose to use "mr Photographic Exposure Control” when rendering with mental ray, and choose exposure settings that fit your scene (Fig.08).

Rendering (Mental Ray)

Tip 1: Never use the default Scanline renderer, always choose mental ray or acquire another third party renderer like V-Ray (Fig.09).


Tip 2: If you want to output Z Depth with your render, you can add Z Depth Render Element in the Render Elements tab in your Render Setup menu (F10). Remember to adjust Z Min and Z Max to get the best range on the Z Depth image (Fig.10).


Tip 3: Use Material Override in the Render Options to quickly assign the same material to your entire scene without changing actual materials on the individual objects. Read my tutorial on Fast Ambient Occlusion to see an example on this feature (Fig.11).


Thanks for reading!