How To Use Set Up a Project for Rendering in MentalRay and use Image Based Lighting

Hello Students,
Image based lighting is a powerful method for adding realism to your 3D scene. Follow the instructions below to set your file up for image based lighting. You will need to have Mental Ray enabled for this to work in Maya.

Step 1: Load Mental Ray

• Open up your Maya file and go to Window Menu / Settings and Preferences / Plug-in Manager
• Scroll down in the Plug-In Manager and find Mayatomray.bundle then click load/auto-load and close

Plug-In manager in maya

Load Mayatomray.bundle to enable Mental Ray

Step 2: Set Up Your Project Folder

• Go to File Menu / Project Window
• Click New and Navigate to your Project Folder (you should have this already created)
• Click Accept
• Go to your project folder through the finder and confirm that the folder structure was created

Project Window in Maya

Your project directory should show all these folders and files

Step 3: Set Up Image Based Lighting

• Search online for HDR Probe or go to this link and download an image probe that is suitable for your scene
• Place your HDR Probe or Enviroball Image into the Source Images folder of your Maya Project Directory
• In Maya open your Render Settings by going to Window Menu / Render Editors / Render Settings
• Go to the Indirect Lighting tab and click the Create button next to Image Based Lighting
• An Attributes Window will open for your Image Based Lightning node, click on the folder next to the File Name area and navigate to your Source Images folder and select your HDR Probe
• In the same Attribute Window scroll down to Render Stats and uncheck the option for Primary Visibilty, this will make your Probe lighting show up in reflections but not in the background of your rendered images
• Your should see an Envirosphere in your maya scene, create a test render to see it interacting in the reflections on your objects

HDR Probe courtesy of Paul Debevec

Maya's view window with an Image Based Lighting setup

3D Objects rendered with Image Based Lighting in Maya, no actual lights were used in this scene