Week One: mental ray fundamentals
Week one has been split into two parts;
Part One: An in-depth review of mental ray fundamentals and its integration within Maya. The primary purpose is for you to become comfortable rendering with mental ray and assigning mental ray specific shaders to surfaces in the scene. Part Two: The Second objective will discuss the personal goals each student should set for this course. Various pieces of information will be discussed in order to help you start working on a final shot for this course; a high quality photo real image. The assembly of the final shot may commence immediately and be a work-in-progress throughout the course.

Assignment
* Construct a purely mental ray scene using basic shader trees as demonstrated in the videos. The file should include two spherical environment shaders assigned to the camera and the surface material. Use the surface material environment shader to simulate a glossy material by pre-blurring the image in Photoshop. The reflection attributes of the surface should be set to purely specular (no glossy settings) so that only the reflection map contributes to the glossy appearance.
* Hand in a description of your final project intentions for review.

Week Two: Light Fundamentals and shading models
Light scattering functions are the basis for describing the character of light with geometric optics. The scattering characteristic of light across a surface is the most fundamental property that allows us to identify the surface’s material properties (i.e. metal, plastic, wood, etc). In week two you will look at those foundations and how they are implemented with basic shading models. We then look at how a simple shading model can develop into a complex shader tree describing more sophisticated shading characteristics.

Assignment
* Construct a scene that demonstrates different Fresnel reflection characteristics using custom shader trees. Also, construct a shader tree the blends two different shading models. Please submit shader tree snapshots with labels so that they can be understood clearly and of course the rendered results; try demonstrating the effect in a meaningful or very aesthetic image.

Week Three: Fundamentals of HDRI, photography, and mental ray cameras
Most visual effects are all about cameras. The focus is on reproducing images realistically so they appear photographed or at least appear naturally implemented within their imaginary environment. In this class we study real photographs and look at how they are affected by white balance and exposure levels. It is then our task to interpret that information and implement it within our work using mental ray (and in compositing). We also look at techniques to generate HDR environmental images for our 3D scenes with a focus on the different environment image formats that are commonly used.

Assignment
* Finalize (lock down) the camera for your final shot within its final environment (keep in mind any of the considerations described in the first class). Experiment with different camera effects using your project’s subject matter to make it appear dominant in the scene. Test the lens shader to generate different out of focus effects simulating a low f-stop value. See how long it takes to render and keep in mind that you can simulate similar effects in compositing when the shot is broken up into passes (more detail on passes in weeks 8 and 9).

Week Six: Realistic shaders
The purpose of this class will be developing materials for a realistic vehicle. Through these topics the class explores the usage of advanced shaders as well as advanced reflections and optimizing raytracing (architectural and production shader libraries).

Assignment
* The assignment for next week is to present the vehicle (within its final environment) assigned with shaders that mimic the proper surface properties as discussed in the class. You can use your own model or the one supplied through the course. The shaders will be fine-tuned after we continue to explore mental ray techniques in the following classes.

Week Four: HDR and final gather (FG) essentials
Top-notch realism typically benefits from final gather and high dynamic range imaging. In this class we explore the different aspects of final gather and see how it is used with HDR images. The purpose is to establish basic principles for using these techniques as a means for fill lighting. These techniques can be used for lighting outdoor scenes, a complex interior light scenario, and custom studio lighting to mention a few. We also look at the effects of HDR images on both final gather and reflections.

Assignment
* It’s time to add FG to your shot providing a more natural lighting scenario (be it studio lighting or an outdoor scene).
* Students should make a test scene (as demonstrated) with an animated camera and bake a sequential FG map. Hand in snapshots of your Maya screen with a clear demonstration of a baked FG map and the camera curve. Also hand in a very small video file (around 5 mb) that shows the rendered result as explained in the class.

Week Five: More shaders, cameras, and final gather
This class continues to look at final gather and some more advanced light and exposure shaders. The class will examine the physical sun and sky shaders, as well as camera exposure shaders. Other topics discussed include aerial perspective and generating haze.

Assignment
* Use your final shot exercise to explore with the sun and sky shaders. Apply different tone mapping / exposure settings to control the render results.

Week Seven: Rendering passes for compositing / optimizing the renderer
This class will examine some advanced techniques for developing custom passes with mental ray. It will explore how you may manage the passes efficiently. In this class we will explore some additional shaders to generate custom passes such as constant shaders and the occlusion shader. We may look (depending on the course progress) at using some custom shader to help implement multi-pass images with mental ray.

Assignment
* This week you can divide your shot into the different passes that will help you during the compositing stage. Keep in mind that some passes can be generated completely from scratch as masking aids to enhance your control over the composite.

Week Eight: Compositing the CG passes with Nuke or Shake
After all is said and done, nothing in 3D can appear complete without the magical touch of a good composite. Here we take the passes and blend them together with the help of one of the more sophisticated composting applications out there; Nuke! (The techniques is the focus so you can explore with any compositing program such as Photoshop, Shake, Fusion, Nuke, and etc`.

Assignment
* During week eight you finalize your composite using all the passes from the previous class using your tool of choice.

Level of Ability
Although Maya will be used for this class, students who use 3ds Max and XSI are welcome to participate. You will need a good understanding of your 3D application and a compositing tool of your choice. This workshop is not aimed at beginners. This is an intense workshop aimed at students who are at least at an intermediate level and are able to commit at least eight hours a week to this class.

Hardware and Software Requirements

A broadband connection will be needed for downloading the weekly video lessons.

Some of the sample scenes are hardware heavy, so its recommended to have a minimum of 1 GB of RAM and a fast processor.

Other Requirements
Students need to be familiar with web navigation and browsing, as well as email.

Students need to be familiar with using a bulletin board system (such as CGTalk.com) as well as how to upload attachments to postings for review.

Other Requirements
Boaz Livny's book on mental ray; mental ray for Maya, 3ds max, and XSI: A 3D Artist’s Guide to Rendering, published by Wiley.