mental images - rendering imagination visible

Class 401: Writing mental ray Shaders

Class Description: Writing mental ray Shaders
Intended for programmers, this three-day class introduces fundamental mental ray concepts, covering a broad collection of shaders, and providing source code and methods for custom shader development. Exercises rendering with standalone mentalray, while editing scene files and shader source code, reveal the basic conventions and API resources available for writing shaders. The exercises reinforce a methodology for efficient realization of custom shader kits.

Class Outline: Writing mental ray shaders
Monday-Wednesday, 10AM-6PM

Day 1

Introduction

  • Introduction to mental ray Rendering
    • Exercise 1 - Render with ray, display with imf_disp

Break

Part 1 - Structure

  • .mi Scene File Structure
    • Exercise 2 - Editing and rendering a scene file
  • Shader Structure
  • Shaders in the Scene
    • Exercise 3 - Using a shader in a scene file
  • Shader Programming Overview

Lunch Break

Part 2 - Color

  • Single Color
  • Color from Orientation
  • Color from Position
    • Exercise 4 - Compile and use color shaders
  • Transparency
    • Exercise 5 - Compile and use transparency shader
  • Color from Image Files (Texture Maps)
    • Exercise 6 - Compile and use texture shaders
  • Color of Edges

Break

Part 3 - Light

  • Point Lights, Spot Lights and Shadows
  • Light on Surface - Direct Illumination with Lambert, Phong, etc.
    • Exercise 7 - Compile and use Lambert and other shader
  • Reflection
    • Exercise 8 - Using reflection
  • Refraction
    • Exercise 9 - Using refraction
Day 2
  • Light Paths, Traced Rays and Ray Types Review
  • Light from Other Surfaces - Indirect Illumination
  • Ambient Occlusion
    • Exercise 10 - Using ambient occlusion

Break

Part 4 - Shape

  • Modifying Surface Geometry
    • Exercise 11 - Displacement mapping
  • Modifying Surface Orientation
    • Exercise 12 - Bump mapping
  • Creating Shapes

Lunch Break

Part 5 - Space

  • Global and Object Environment
    • Exercise 13 - Environment shader
  • Global and Object Volume
    • Exercise 14 - Volume shader in hull object

Break

Part 6 - Image

  • Samples, Pixels and Tiles
    • Exercise 15 - Sample diagnostics, fixed and adaptive
    • Exercise 16 - Sample diagnostics, object samples
  • Lens Shaders
    • Exercise 17 - Fisheye lens

Break

  • Motion and Temporal Samples
  • Rendering Image Components
    • Exercise 18 - User Framebuffers
  • Output Shaders
Day 3

Part 7 - Implementation

  • Render Process
    • Jobs and execution order
    • Parallelism
    • The render report
  • Memory - Scene Cache
  • Placeholders - Object Files and Callbacks
    • Exercise 19 - Placeholder example
  • Sharing Data
    • Exercise 20 - User data example
  • State Shaders

Break

  • Using the Rasterizer
  • Alternate Pipeline Options
    • Exercise 21 - Alternate pipeline example

Lunch Break

  • Labels - Identifying Object Sets
    • Exercise 22 - Shader using labels
  • Leaf instances
  • Geometry shader object in scene DAG

Break

Part 8 - Illumination Models

  • Color and Energy Representation
  • Matching Shader Implementations
    • Traditional vs. physically correct
    • When to use shadow shaders

Break

Part 9 - Debugging Techniques and Resources

  • Summary of Techniques Used Throughout Exercises
  • -debug Option
  • Online Manual
    • State information
  • LAmrUG Forum - Advanced Shaders Section