What you'll learn

In this series of lessons, we'll look at techniques for creating photo-real lighting, shading and texturing using a reference image as our guide. As audiences demand greater immersion in entertainment media, adding realism to an artificially created scene is an essential part of visual effects work. The use of reference and real-world texturing is increasingly important in this process. Starting with a previz setup and background plate, we'll add image-based lighting, displacement, and naturalistic weathering to transform a simple scene into a realistic environment ready for production. Software required: 3ds Max 2014, Vray 3.0, Mudbox 2014.