Photoreal3D: Making of ''The Mall'' Post #1

Hello to everybody, I'm very glad to open this blog with this making of "The Mall", since I'm getting lots of requests from people that asking me to share my knowledge and my work flow, I've decided to open this blog where you can observe my working progress, give comments and ask questions.
So lets get down to business, I'm exited hope you too.

This Image was modeled with 3DsMax9 and rendered with Vray, Photoshop CS3 for post process.

Part 1 - Modeling

After importing DWG or DXF files in to the 3Ds max, which is is a great idea but i do it very carefully, because i try to keep my scene as clean as possible.

I use DWG's for faster modeling with snap tool.

Simply extrude the form.
I try to stay clean and simple as much as possible.
MY BUGS: Files from AutoCAD or ARCHICAD can cause rendering bugs with vray. or unseen objects ("Block::") in our scene, most of them "Linked" to their source files. so what probably causes bugs such as drop renderings, light leaks 'Disko Lights', texture failure...etc.

Well at least i think it is true :)

Anyway i used "box modeling" to build the window frames and things like columns and floor.
Also used "pro Boolean" to do the detailing.

i don't go much into modeling details, only when it will be necessary, like..
Closeups or near objects to camera, better to be good looking though.

Lamps were modeled with "Loft" from splines with different shapes.

Same here trying to stay clean and simple.

Made some nice parapet and the whole thing was ready for z axis combination.

This one is like puzzle, you need to find the best cutting place for continues loop,
so you can keep on duplicating as much as you need.

Texture with Displacement could be nice idea for making the floor,
but i went with the loop thing..

Finally the loop is complete.

Loop duplicated and converted to 'vray.mesh' objects,now the whole scene is very light to set good lighting.
I can suggest to make some rigs of light combination, i use one that made from:
1 VraySun with PhysCamera
2 fill lights: 1 strong yellowish, from the sun direction.
1 low bluewish from the side.

Observe, the whole scene with meshes, and lights.

I've added 2 more fill lights at the dome,
and a set of IES lights at the cupola area.

Part 2 - Rendering

After adjusting the camera and the sun position on the "OverrideMtl" option, came out this render with passes.

i use vray's Dirtmap For Ambient Occlusion, metal ray looks much better but way longer with rendering times. Here's a good script to do it the easy way http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/vray-ambient-occlusion