Very nice turnout. The paint on the car looks amazing, and so does the environment. I would have lightened the shadow a bit, though, it seems a bit off.

Top notch!

Naser - Whomever modeled the car did indeed do a nice job on it, but it wasn’t me.  I repeat that I’m only responsible for the materials/lighting/composition and render. 

gauravpahadia - Thank you.  In the near future I’ll release some training that includes a section on producing realistic renders with mental ray / 3ds Max.  One of the scenes I discuss is very similar to this one.

Aaron-CDS - Hey man!  Thanks.

thanks for you.you are a great modeller.this car is really,reality.if you can send a image of your project for me.

this is a vary amazing work i like you work plz give me 3dsmax mantal ray HDRI training how 2 use all this thing. I was going to say this was really really really really great. It’s only really really really great. Better luck next time Jeff.

I can’t believe you didn’t model this yourself. I was going to say this was really really really really great. It’s only really really really great. Better luck next time Jeff.

I already gave props to Jeff about his render work. I also know that he didnt have time to make a car himself. He wanted to comment on the subject of me responding to another reader about my opinion. We figured out that we couldnt come to an agreement. I called a truce and he agreed. Its the end of the so called “venting” that others think we are doing.

“car so what, the car would have still been copied, its a SLR.  “

Of course it would have been copied, but using reference pictures to build your OWN SLR is a hell of a lot different. Youre literally building an exact duplicate from a bunch of polys, vertices, etc with a keyboard and a mouse. Then applying a render solution on top of that.

“No, if you use a Maths formula is that cheating because, you did not create it, Jeff did not make Mental ray or 3dmax, or the computer that solved the render approximation/solution you see above.”

No, but if you have someone do the calculations for you on the math formula, thats cheating, thats what buying a model is doing to your scene, your cheating yourself and in turn thinking that just because you rendered a scene with someone elses model that you did a good job? I think hes cheating himself . Like I said, rendering is 1/8 the battle.

Oops, I’m sorry Boom!

I used a large HDR for the environment map in 3dsmax.  I also applied a smaller, blurred version of the same .hdr to the only light source in the scene, a skylight.  These .HDR’s are from the Dosch HDRI Car Background series:
http://www.doschdesign.com/products/hdri/Car_Backgrounds.html

It’s generally a good idea to use a small blurred version of the .hdr for the lighting because you can use fewer FG samples and get a clean FG solution.  The problem with doing this is that you lose any hope of detailed shadows from the .hdr.  However, that doesn’t bother me because I normally use a .hdr as a secondary light source in combination with regular light sources in 3dsmax.  The normal light sources provide my accurate shadows while the .hdr provides realistic colored ‘soft’ lighting.

In this scene since the car is in shadow, I didn’t need to implement any other light source other than the skylight.  If the car was in the sun, I would have added a mrSun to the scene.  FWIW, here’s a screen grab:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=125652

As you can see it’s a very basic setup.  The textured car is sitting on a plane which has the mr Matte/Shadow/Reflection material applied to it. 

One of the main things to consider when working with a scene like this is gamma.  A .hdr SHOULD be linear (gamma 1.0)...but there’s no guarantee that it’s properly saved that way, it could be saved as gamma 2.2 (or somewhere in between).  I normally look at the .hdr’s in Photoshop (CS3 or higher) or HDRshop.  By doing so I can see how it’s supposed to look.  If you load the .hdr into 3dsmax and it looks different from the same HDR in Photoshop or HDRshop, then it’s probably because of your gamma settings.  An easy way to solve this is to place the .hdr inside the mental ray gamma/gain shader so you can quickly and easily adjust the gamma settings of the .hdr to it’s proper value.

@ Jeff: so many posts and I still don’t have an awnser to my “non-venting” question? :(

and yes,Jeff is one of my lead-examples in rendering, just like MBM and such. So please, can we stop the venting, show some respect to the people who actually help us noobs in rendering? Cause Jeff is a mighty help in my rendering-spree.

ps: my question was posted on the first page i think… was about the environment map?

greetings, Boom

Lets just say even if Jeff who is a Render God! (syndicate5 you should google Jeff, hes the man) had mad the car so what, the car would have still been copied, its a SLR. 
The Industry is split into sectors, render/ lighting dudes, model makers, textures artists, etc, one man does not alway do it all, (do you think one man actually designed the XLR your mad, hundreds of people made it, artists and engineers) and as for cheating?
No, if you use a Maths formula is that cheating because, you did not create it, Jeff did not make Mental ray or 3dmax, or the computer that solved the render approximation/solution you see above. but the fact is Jeff can render like a [censored].

Keep rendering Jeff you are the man!