Gnomon ships full guide to GI in Maya and mental ray

The Gnomon Workshop has released Global Illumination and Caustics in Maya & mental ray, the fourth in Disney and MPC veteran Frederic Durand’s series of training DVDs explaining the principles of lighting.

Production techniques for GI rendering
Having covered direct illumination in a previous tutorial, Durand continues to explore indirect lighting, discussing techniques for global illumination and creating caustics.

The training, which lasts over three hours, begins with an introduction to the fundamentals of global illumination, before exploring how to balance accuracy, intensity and photon emission against render time in production work.

The technical and artistic challenges of caustic lighting are also covered in detail, using materials like glass, shiny metals and translucent plastics as case studies.

Durand also sets out the role of rendering in passes and compositing as integral to any lighting workflow.

About the artist
Frederic Durand is a leading lighting artist with over 20 years’ experience in animated films, features and commercials, at studios including Sony Pictures Imageworks, Disney Animation, DreamWorks and MPC.

His approach to lighting is not only technical but artistic, emphasising and integrating aspects of cinematography. He is also the co-founder of design and visualisation firm Noroc Studio.

Pricing and availability
Global Illumination and Caustics in Maya & mental ray is available from The Gnomon Workshop’s online store as a digital download, price $59.

Buy Global Illumination and Caustics in Maya & mental ray from The Gnomon Workshop

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