I love 3ds Max, and I'm always looking for
a better, faster workflow to work with it. I wonder if there's an all-in-one solution
that gives me a real-time preview, fast output (both images and animations), and realistic
results at once. If that makes the two of us, watch this video to find out how good the free real-time ray
tracing renderer D5 Render is, and it might turn out to be the ideal
tool for your 3d production workflow. I've tried D5 Render for a while now, and I find this software extremely easy
and powerful for architects, landscape, and interior designers, especially
those who are using 3ds Max." So let’s get started! To show everyone how good D5 is, let's jump
to some ready-made scenes before the tutorial. The best part is that the scenes are free
of charge to download from their forum. So you can just search for the one you find
interesting and download it to your computer. You can learn a lot from them. Let’s say, we’ll choose this one. We need to click on the link
and then, download the files. I’ll put the link to this scene in
the description below the video. Save it to your computer. After it’s downloaded, we need to unpack it. Here is what we’ve got. We can open the D5 file which is in a .drs format. Ok, let’s see how the scene looks inside. Here we go! Let’s take a look around. I need to say, it looks better than I expected. So in the scenes, we have two cameras. We can easily switch between them. What I like the most about this is that we can
learn so much from these ready-made scenes. We can use the I key to pick the material
and get an idea of how it's created. We can move around the scene using the WASD keys
on your keyboard, and Q and E to move up and down. You can click on these icons to
check the properties of the lights. Plenty of things to explore. I’ll show you the interior scene as well. I’ll put the link to this one
as well in the description. We can check the used options, understand the
workflow, and basically explore the scene. It is a huge advantage for people just
starting with software like myself. We can see how this effect is done. The decals were used on the floor. We’ll talk about it more later. Are you curious how this material was done? Not a problem. Pick the material and investigate it step by step. You can see that we can create Groups that
can be useful to keep the scene organized. Looking into these scenes is
definitely a way to improve skills. Now, let’s say that I like this chair and
I want it to have it in the Assets Library. No problem, just click on the object
and use the Add to local option. And here it is, easy and fast. Ok, let’s jump to 3ds Max and I will
show you the workflow of using D5 Render. I’m using the free scene from Evermotion so you
can create your version of my image if you wish. I’ll put the link to this in
the description below the video. I will grab a few bits from here
to have a base to work with. We don’t need these lights in the windows so I
will delete all of them to keep my scene clean. Great news! We don’t need to
have any plants in the max file as we can add various plants from the D5 library. And most of them are available in
the free version of the software! Add the VRay sky to the environment
slot and create a camera. I adjusted the image with some simple
adjustments and here is the result. As you have a scene ready, we can move to one
of the coolest options in D5 - Max Live Sync. To get this plugin that does the
magic job, you can open the software, go to Workflow and download the suitable plugin. For me, it is 3ds Max, but there are
plugins for other programs as well. Anyway, to synchronize D5 with 3ds
Max, we have to click on this icon. And the process begins… Now, after the synchronization is finished, we
can move around in 3ds Max and see changes in D5. For example, I’ll move around the
scene and I can preview in D5. So you can see that the workflow
is pretty straightforward. Also, there are some additional
options like Send Camera. So you can see that the camera
is imported and we have it here. The same for lights, we can use Send Lights option
and the lights from the scene are sent to D5. We can edit it from there as well. Plus, we can also export the entire scene
to D5 and work independently from there. By the way, D5 is also compatible with SketchUp,
Revit, Rhino, Archicad, Blender, and C4D with a live sync plugin. so if you don't use Max,
D5 could still be helpful for your workflow. Now let me show you how we can use D5 Render. Here is the final scene I created using
the great options we have available. First of all, I like the user-friendly
interface, everything is pretty straightforward. You may not know anything about the software and
still you will be able to intuitively work in it. Here we have a navigation bar. You can find here the Assets
Library which is pretty large. You can find here various animated
Particles, f.ex. fountain water, fireworks, flying balloons, etc. You can also find different materials and
models which I will show you more later on. Here we can find different tools like
adding lights, creating paths tools, vegetation tools, and adding Particles. It basically opens us Assets
Library in the Particles section. Anyways, next, we have options to
render visualizations, and animations. Plus, we can send different scenes
to render using a render queue. Next, we have Scene Controls, here you
can find the Model & Materials Tools. On another side, we have Camera settings. Here, for example, we can change
the focal length of the camera. It has also an option to use a
clipping plane which is pretty handy. And great that we have the
Depth of Field effect available. Next, we can find different display modes. And at the end, we have navigation options,
we can use either orbit or fly mode. In the Lists panel, at the top,
we have all the saved cameras. We can add a new scene here. Next, we have layers. So you can see that I have
the plants on the SIT layer. The objects are listed below. On the RHS, we have a sidebar. If we choose any object in the
scene, the Inspector tab will appear. Here, for instance, we can change its
location, rotation, and size of it. We can also add an object to the layer or
made some operations such as duplicating, flipping, exporting, resetting, and so on. Next, we have an environment panel where we can work on
Sky Light but also change the weather conditions. And finally, the Effects panel includes the post-production and options
to create Z-Depth for example. As you know the interface, let
me show you some cool options. First of all, the GI effect was improved a lot from the previous versions and
the bounced light looks good. You can see it for example in the shadows, so they are not completely black but
you can see different tones of grey. Also, the plants look semi-transparent
when light shines through. So the effect of indirect
light looks pretty natural. Talking about lighting, adjusting the skylight
is pretty easy in D5, no rocket science at all. We can change the position
of the sun by moving it here. With just a couple of clicks,
we can create various scenarios. So we save quite some time as we don’t have
to add an environmental map and the sun. If we want to change the position of the sun, we can use the North Offset slider to
correct the direction of a compass. If we click on the dots next to it, we can also
change the month, day, and sun intensity and size. Anyway, we can type these values manually as well. Another method will be using HDRI. What I really like about this is that
we can choose from some default HDRIs. But if we want we can also use our own files. Changing the types of lighting will
of course need some post-production adjustments like exposure for instance. You can create multiple scenarios, you just need to remember to apply
the changes to a particular view. You have to click here, on the refresh icon. Another thing I want to show
you are the PBR materials. So I have here the material
of the path as an example. The material comes from the Assets Library. So basically when we create any
material, we need to choose its type. Here we have Displacement but there are way more. You can choose from the list. There is a new material in the 2.4 version called Subsurface scattering that
gives a translucency effect. Next, you can choose to use a
map or just color as a diffuse. And then we have maps that we can add and adjust. They differ a bit depending on the
material template you will choose. Anyway, by changing the slider we can
control how strong a particular effect is. We can adjust the UV of the map here. Really cool option is the Round Corners. You can make smooth edges from the
position of the material. No need to apply the option
to every object separately. You can see the effect here. Another time-saving feature
is Batch Import PBR Textures. So we can select multiple maps, and they will get
inserted into corresponding slots automatically. Awesome! Now, we can adjust the settings if
needed and the material is ready to use. The thing I gonna show you now is mind-blowing,
you can change the weather with one click! I decrease the exposure so you
can see the changes better. So we can add clouds just
by turning on the option. Of course, there is a
possibility to adjust results. We can change the amount of clouds for example. But also their thickness, density, and height. We can easily turn the effect off
if we want to have a clear sky. Another result we can create is fog. We can turn it on with one click. Then, we can adjust the results. Change its color, intensity, height, and so on. The next option is the wind
which I will show in a sec. But first, the option to create a rainy
or snowy scene which just one click. As an example, I will add rain. Here we go! We have a rainy scene ready. It’s awesome, isn’t it? We can also control the puddles! I’ll change the view so you can see it better. Here are the puddles. We can now increase the effect. This is pretty cool, I wish to have
something like this in Corona or V-Ray! Life will be way easier! Anyway, now let’s get into the wind effect. The first thing you need to know is
that if you want this effect to work, you need to use specific models. The ones with this icon. I will add this tree as an example. So we just need to choose the model we want and then click on the place we
want it to be positioned. I will leave only the tree model I’ve just added
so you can see easily how the effect works. If you want to preview the wind option
make sure you have Real-Time turned on. Anyway, you can see how the tree is moving. The more moving objects we will add in
animation, the more natural it will look. Now, let me walk you quickly
through the available model assets. In the Nature category, we can
find a bunch of plants, rocks, etc. They are organized in a very clear way, I like it! We have also characters. We have people standing, sitting,
walking, basically everything we need. I won’t show you everything as
it will take too much time but I will show you the ones that in
my opinion are the most important. Also, we have plenty of furniture
models to fill up the interior spaces. Like sofas, tables, chairs, beds and so on… You can also find accessories, and lamps which
are definitely needed to add a story to the image. But you can also find models that can fill
up your exteriors like buildings for example. They will be good for the backgrounds. The decals are pretty cool. I used one of them here. So we can add some broken
brick walls to the building, some road signs, and line markings to
the asphalt, footprints, and so on… The ones I used are the fallen leaves. And lastly, Interior Parallax. It is a pretty great solution to quickly create interiors for buildings that
don’t have a specific design. We have two categories Commerical and Residential. I will show you quickly how it works. Choose the object, and click
where you want to place it. You can move it manually but I will show
you the new option in the 2.4 version. Right-click on the object. And choose to Drop vertically. So it will be dropped to the floor. Anyways, in the Inspector, we
have some options we can use. Not only we can change the position,
rotation, and scale as in other objects. But also, we can adjust the lighting so
how bright or dark the interior will be. We can also change the intensity
and temperature of this. Now, I will show you the scattering options. This is how I did the grasses and
the trees in the background. As you have the option chosen,
you need to select the objects. I will select some grasses. You can adjust the Radius so
how large your brush will be. Density. Size of objects. Their randomness. And also you can use the Align
to Terrain option if you wish. And now you can start painting. It’s a bit laggy for me as
I don’t have a good enough GPU on my PC however it still works so not bad. By the way, the difference between the
brush and scatter is that the scatter tool is the maximum Radius the objects
are filled within the whole selected face. Ok, if we want to make some changes and
delete something, we can use erase tool. Here the same, you can set up the Radius. If you click here, you will turn on
the Clean tool which will erase all models drawn with the Brush and Scatter
tools in the current range at once. The workflow is the same as with Brush. And the last option here is the Path Tool. We can use it for creating hedges
along the path for instance. I will choose this one. And now we can draw the path. When it’s done click Done. And now you will see all the
options we have to edit it. So we can increase the number of
objects making our hedge denser. We can add some randomization as well. So we can basically use just one object
and create a pretty natural-looking hedge. We can also create different style rendering
using AO, Z-Depth, and Outline modes. Basically, we just need to turn on the option We can adjust the effects. If you need outline mode it’s here as well. I’ll show you this based on the red
color so we can see the changes easier. We can adjust the width of the lines too. Depending on what you need, you can also
use the Background option, which makes everything else that is not an
outline the color you will specify. Lastly, I wanna show you the display options
that are an integral part of the workflow in 3D. We have "Lit" now, with a real-time
preview of all materials and lights. If we want a faster display, a
Wireframe or Clay Model will be perfect. It all depends on what we need it for. Now, let me show you how quickly you can
create animations. You will be shocked! For this, I will use the scene from Scene Express. Firstly, I would like to add some people
walking through the pedestrian cross. We will use the path tool for it. We can do the same with
vehicles and animals by the way. Let’s add the Dynamic-only filer. And let’s add some walking people. Characters are chosen, and we can draw a path. Similarly, as we did for hedges. After that, we can go to the top view so
you can see the adjustments we can do. Here we can add or delete
characters from the path. We can also change density so
how many people are on the path. Changing the path width is also helpful. Plus, we can change the direction of the crowd. Now, let’s add some animated particles
like fallen leaves for example. We can position the leaves and that’s it. Plus, we can do some adjustments like life time, range, Particle size, Quantity,
and velocity of the leaves. Anyways, I will show you how
to create animation in D5. Click this icon here. Now, we need to add this camera as a first frame. Now let’s create a final keyframe. We can for example move the
camera closer to the building. Add the scene. And add the camera again. We can change the interval to custom here. Here we can change the length of this shot. Let’s say 6s. Ok, now we can preview how it looks. Good. I’m ready to render. We can create more shots and they
all be saved in the animation panel. In the end, we need to set up
a few settings and that’s it. We can render directly or if we have more
shots we can add them to the render queue. I’ll choose the second option. We can choose the shots we want to render. Eventually, change the location. And that’s it. Hit the render button and go for a great coffee. Here is a result of the 10s animation. For this animation, it took 53 minutes
and 47 seconds to render on my computer. It is around 10s per frame. I have
never rendered animation as quickly! Taking into consideration that this is not
the best computer to work in real-time, the times are amazing! But I
imagine it can be even better! D5 Benchmark can help you get a clear idea
of how your computer should work with D5. For this reason, I really recommend
trying D5 Render for 3ds Max, not only to get a real-time experience
but also because of the speed. It’s amazing how fast you
can get the outputs there! Plus, D5 is pretty easy to use which makes creating visualizations and
animations a piece of cake. I would say that the biggest advantage is that you
can download D5 for free and check it by yourself! Don’t take my word for this, but give
it a try and share your results with us. Bye, bye!
