Make a photorealistic nature scene
Discover a simple process for creating a realistic-looking render with Megascans
Create a realistic render with Quixel Megascans
In this tutorial, we will cover the process for achieving a photorealistic look in closeup nature scenes by utilising the most straightforward methods possible. Therefore, our priority will be focusing on convenient yet effective techniques to produce the desired result. The path to a realistic render has never been easier with the use of invaluable Quixel assets (Megascans) and apps, namely Bridge, which is an efficient tool for quickly and accurately importing resources to 3ds Max to achieve an instant realistic result. However, the manual process of using Quixel 3D scan assets will also be covered too.
Additionally, we will explore rendering and lighting by seamlessly combining the IBL method with artificial illuminations using Corona Renderer. Moreover,
this tutorial will illustrate how to create chromatic contrast and colour harmony in conjunction with the composition of elements in a frame, and how this can be utilised to help send a message to the audience, establish the desired mood or even tell a story.
We will be using Photoshop and the Color Efex Pro plugin for sharpening the details in our image, colour correction and colour grading. Finally, we will conclude by introducing the Caesium Image Compressor as a free image compressor software for sharing the final output render on the web.
01 INITIAL MODELLING
For this scene I used 3D-scanned assets from Megascans for the models, including some rocks and stumps, and mixed them up together in 3ds Max to create a natural-looking environment with a very high level of detail, for producing a realistic render.
I have used the high-poly versions of those 3D scans, but you can also get nice-looking results with a LOD 0 version of it for a close-up shot like this scene.
02 QUIXEL BRIDGE INTRODUCTION
Quixel Bridge is an app that provides easy access to a huge library of 3D-scanned assets called Megascans. Moreover, efficient management features are another benefit that comes with it. However, the best part of Quixel Bridge is the one-click integrations to major 3D software like 3ds Max, Maya, Unreal and so on. Using this feature, you will get an instant model with proper materials and shaders based on the chosen render engine.
To get started with this program after installation, click on Edit>settings and make sure you have an updated version. Then simply choose the main program that you want to integrate to Bridge, which in the case of this tutorial is 3ds Max.
03 DOWNLOAD MEGASCANS ASSETS
Megascans assets can be downloaded from the Quixel website directly and also from Quixel Bridge (in this tutorial Bridge has been used because of its benefits). Firstly, you need to login to your Quixel or Epic (if you want to use it for Unreal Engine) account in Bridge, after that you may download and use the assets. Search for an asset from the search bar on top of the assets grid; the categories may help you to find the right assets. After selecting an asset, a sliding window will appear with Download Settings, with which you can tweak texture resolution, the material preset, and different channels of that asset can be determined to download. After setting up the windows just click on the blue Download button.
04 QUIXEL BRIDGE EXPORT
After selecting and downloading the right asset for your purpose, export it to the application of your choice, which here is 3ds Max. Next install the
Megascans live link script in 3ds Max. To install the script (which is written in Python), find the Copy link in blue under the Script title in Export Settings, then click on it and the script will be copied to the clipboard. Furthermore, go to the Scripting menu and click New Script. Paste the script and use Evaluate All (Ctrl+e) in the Tools menu to run it. Then you can export assets with just one click to 3ds Max.
05 USE MEGASCANS WITHOUT BRIDGE (CORONA)
There are some occasions when assets from the Megascans library need to be used directly, not by using Bridge. For example, you do not have access to Bridge for some reason, or the export does not work as expected, which has been a common issue since Epic and Quixel’s co-operation.
To use Megascans in Corona the process is fairly simple, but you may need to arrange the material as demonstrated in the step screenshot. To sum it up, in the Diffuse slot it is better to mix AO
with Albedo and then apply it. For reflection use pure white and for glossiness use the related map with gamma 1.0 applied. However, it is a little bit tricky to set up Fresnel IOR; we do not have a specific map in Megascans for this slot, so we need to use the specular map and convert it to Fresnel by using an LUT, and apply a Color Correction to set up the gamma/contrast. Additionally, for Bump use a normal map with gamma 1.0 through the Corona Normal Map node (with an additional bump map). Optionally, you can also add a displacement map with gamma 1.0 directly to the material.
06 DISPLACEMENT SETTINGS
In order to get nice surface detail from Megascans assets, displacement would be a great tool. In Corona 5, there is a new setting to use the 2.5D displacement map, which is really helpful for achieving clean and detailed displacement without being too heavy on RAM. Turn this on, and we will also use autobump as an additional help. Autobump is hidden in the Development setting of Corona: you may need to go to the System tab and System Settings>enable devel/debug mode to access it. Then, just set the screen size in Displacement from the Performance tab to get the quality you may need. Here I have used 1.5px to achieve my desired quality.
07 COLOUR PALETTE
After choosing and reviewing the assets, the dominate colour of them can be extracted easily. In this scene the dominate asset colour has an orange hue. So, I have gone for the complementary colour harmony algorithm and selected two main colours for it. Then I created some supporting colours in case of need, which you can see in the image.
08 GENERATE CHROMATIC CONTRAST
As a 3D artist the easiest way to create contrast in a scene is to use colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel. This can create eye-catching and clear images, as it is a chromatic technique that doesn’t rely on harsh lighting. So, the next step would be adjusting the shaders
and lights with that in mind. For lighting, it can be split into two parts, which will be covered in the next steps.
09 ENVIRONMENT LIGHTING
Environmental lighting can be considered one of the most important parts of realism in my humble opinion. Thus, to reach the most detailed result, this scene has been lit by an overcast HDRI (from Peter Guthrie), and the Corona Color Correct node was used to edit the exposure, gamma, saturation and colour temperature to get a more contrasted, less saturated but blue-tinted colour to match my desired colour palette.
10 ADD LIGHTS TO CREATE CHROMATIC CONTRAST
To produce chromatic contrast in this scene with the desired colour palette, another light is needed to create a warm orange colour in delightful contrast with the bluetinted environment illumination. So, a disk-shaped Corona light would be perfect in this specific situation. A Softbox texture has also been
mixed with a Corona color map, with a highly saturated orange colour, and then added to the mentioned light.
11 CREATE A MOODY LIGHTING
Moody lighting enhances the realism in a nature shot, because it is mostly the case in this kind of environment caused by the scattered dust. Thus, it will be easy to reproduce that subtle effect, just add a volumetric material in the Global Volume Material slot in Render Setup (F10)>scene>scene Environment and then set up the colour and scattering effect. Tweak the distance to set the density of the moody effect and then set a negative value for the directionality to get a backward scattering. That’s it, so simple.
12 CAMERA COMPOSITION
The composition of the key elements in a scene needs careful consideration. The human eye arguably prefers order in an image, so the scene could be composed in our camera frame with this in mind, and it could be managed by using some form of guidelines like the golden ratio, golden triangle and golden spiral, which are all very effective and used by so many great artists. So, I have taken advantage
of these guidelines to set my composition, and the result can be viewed in the step image.
13 CAMERA SETTINGS
For this part, you may need some additional research to get a realistic result. After some analysis about camera settings in real-world bird photography, some typical guidelines could be determined that would help to produce a more natural and realistic render.
Firstly, use a telephoto or super-zoom lens (Focal l. in Corona Camera) 85mm-600mm. Secondly, activate the DOF, then lower the F-stop to get more bokeh and to separate background from the subject. Usually with a 2.8-6.4 lens you can achieve your desired result. Thirdly, for a nice realistic bokeh use a custom-shaped aperture map, which you can find in Corona Camera>bokeh>aperture Shape>custom. Then use the ISO
parameter to get the balanced overall exposure.
14 CORONA SETTINGS
Corona settings are so simple, and you don’t really need to worry about it. But in this scene, there are some parameters that would be helpful to get a noise-free render way faster. The scene has a really shallow DOF in order to procure a cleaner result in a shorter amount of time; set GI vs AA balance to a low value like 4. Also, using the most recent denoiser engine available in Corona, the Intel AI denoiser, denoising would be faster with decent quality, and because of AI technology we can get away with a higher noise level that results in an overall quicker render.
15 CORONA IMAGE EDITOR (CIE)
The render has finished and the denoising process has been applied. So, the post-process has started. I recommend using CXR format to save a Corona output with 32-bit colour depth, which is the perfect file type to work with CIE. Usually, CIE can tone map a render brilliantly to set shadows and highlights to the desired level. After that, Corona’s colour lookup tables can come in handy to give the render an awesome look. Also, you may need to adjust the saturation of colours and vignette and save to 16bit TIFF or PNG to finalise this step.
16 COLOR EFEX PRO (NIK COLLECTION PLUGIN)
One of my preferred tools in the post-production stage is Color Efex Pro, especially for the effect called Pro Contrast. This awesome effect can produce genuinely pleasant visual contrast and extend dynamic range of the image to deliver the render with a unique look. Moreover, there is an option