The tutorial will begin by creating and applying materials for the various parts of the car, such as glass, chrome and tyres, as well as texturing some simple geometry that will make up a scene. It will then move onto lighting where the focus will be on setting up a lighting rig and the various parameters connected to this. Finally the series will culminate with a section on rendering, where the aim will be to finish with a polished image.

Chapter 1:
Applying Materials & Shaders: Part 1
The opening chapter will begin by creating and applying materials for the various parts of the car, such as glass, chrome and tyres, as well as texturing some simple geometry that will make up a scene.

Chapter 2:
Applying Materials & Shaders: Part 2
In this chapter we’ll complete the work on the materials and shaders we have set in the first part of the tutorial. Some minor changes and fine-tunings will be done later on in the other parts, but for now we will define the main aspects of every material of the vehicle.

Chapter 3:
Lighting Setup & Rig (with HDRi) : Part 1
Just a quick note before we start working on the lighting: in the new
3DS Max 9 version there are a lot of new Mental Ray shaders, and there is also a very nice and powerful Car Paint shader. I suggest you use that one if you are working with version 9 of 3DS Max!

Chapter 4:
Lighting Setup & Rig (with HDRi) : Part 2
This month we’ll use an HDRI map to create a more realistic lighting for our
Tuc-Tuc scene. We’ll also have a look at how Exposure Control can affect the final look of a rendered image.

Chapter 5:
Rendering: Part 1
In this part of the tutorial we’ll see some common render techniques in action, and we’ll have a look at Ambient Occlusion and DOF (depth of field). The final part (next month) will be dedicated to render optimization (AntiAliasing techniques, image composition and retouching in Photoshop).

Chapter 6:
Rendering: Part 2
Rendering Optimization and Post-Production in Adobe PhotoshopWell, here we are with the last part of the Tuc-Tuc tutorial. We’ll briefly cover two important aspects of the rendering task: Sampling and Post-Production. Adaptive Sampling is the way Mental Ray handles aliasing problems.
Let’s see how...

Tuc Tuc Designed & Modelled by: Richard Tilbury
Tutorial By: Luciano Iurino