by Didik Wijaya
This tutorial needs you to understand basic use of 3dsmax.

Radiosity help us to create more realistic scene by simulating how lights behave in the real world. In real life, light is bounced several times in other objects before our eyes catch them. This cannot be achieved using Standard Light in 3dsmax. That's why we need to use Advanced Lighting, term for global illumination used in 3dsmax (3dsmax is really fond of creating their own term, which I think un-necessary). The two global illumination options available to the scanline renderer are Radiosity and the Light Tracer. In this tutorial, we learn how to create scene for radiosity use.

1. First thing you need to consider is to create mesh object design specially to be rendered using Radiosity. This means we need to use proper unit setup and precise modeling techniques. Now, we are going to set system unit setup. Go to Customize>Units Setup. A window will appear. Then, click System Unit Setup button. Set your System Units Scale. In this tutorial I use 1 Unit=1 Centimeters. Click Ok when finished.

2. After we set up Units Setup, create a box in Top viewport (300x400x250 cm). Then, create another box (120x15x250 cm). Shift drag this box to create a clone. Look at image below for reference.

3. Now, we are going to apply precise modeling. This means we create each object has precise size. Walls should stick right to other walls, no gaps allowed. If there's a gap between objects, you will get leaked Radiosity when rendering. To apply precise modeling, you can use Align Tool (Alt+A). In Top viewport, select one of small box, click Align Tool, and click big box. In Align Selection window, activate Y Position only and choose Minimum and Minimum. Click OK. Repeat the same process with other small box. Right now use Maximum and Maximum in Y Position.

4. Small boxes will be placed like image below. There's no gap between small and big box.

5. Apply Normal modifier to big box. This modifier will flip all polygons. You will get a interior of a small room here

6. Apply some materal to all boxes. For example I just apply grey color for walls. Create a camera inside the box. Adjust camera position until you get view like image below. Finished file can be downloaded here (zipped, 17kb, 3dsmax8 format). In Part 2 of this tutorial, we will assign Radiosity.

Introduction to Radiosity Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Any question or comments regarding this tutorial should be sent to:
Didik Wijaya, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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