"Mental ray" is one of the leading rendering engines for generating photorealistic images. On the one hand the text provides a general introduction into rendering with mental ray, whilst on the other, it includes tips and tricks for advanced and professional users. A comprehensive definition of mental ray's scene description language and the standard shader libraries are included and used as the basis for all examples. This second edition covers the new generation of mental ray, version 3.0. The text is accompanied by a CD-ROM, featuring a fully programmable demo version of the software together with example scene data and shaders. An excellent text for both beginners and advanced users of mental ray.

Introduction Overview . Scene Construction . Cameras . Surface Shading . Light and Shadow . Volume Rendering . Caustics and Global Illumination . Motion Blur . Hardware Rendering . Contours . Shaders and Phenomena . Postprocessing and Image Output . Geometric Objects . Instancing and Grouping . Inheritance . Incremental Changes and Animations . Using and Creating Shader Libraries . Parallelism . The Options Block . The Architecture of mental ray 3.x . Quality and Performance Tuning . Troubleshooting . Color Plates . Command Line Options; The Sphere and Utah Teapot Models; Base Shaders; Physics Shaders; Contour Shaders . Glossary/Bibliography/Index