AI Material Generator Playground

[TomG]

Hi Coronauts everywhere!

If you watched the news on the V-Ray 7.2 release, you'll have noticed the AI Material Generator came out along with it. It all happens on the Cosmos side, so rather than wait for Corona 14 to release we're enabling it in Corona 13 Hotfix 1. The Release Candidate for that is out now (see https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=45313.msg235016#msg235016 )

WHAT IS IT?
Takes any image, and turns into a tileable or non-tileable material which includes Diffuse, Roughness, and Bump maps, without requiring special hardware or paying that much attention to photographing the material - about as technical as you need to get is avoiding obvious things like "half the material is in direct sunlight, half is not".

WHEN TO USE IT?
- You have a specific material you want, but it isn't in Cosmos or any material library you have
- You want a unique material and not one from a material library, so that your textures are "not the same ones as everyone else is using"
- Creative experimentation
- Probably not for "hero textures" where you are zoomed in tight on the material (but hey you never know, you can try it out)

HOW TO USE IT?
Using it is simple, for now just use the V-Ray guide at https://docs.chaos.com/display/VMAX/AI+Material+Generator

Summary is:
- Take your photo you want to turn into a texture (or however else you find a source image)
- Open Cosmos
- Select Materials
- The Generate button is in the bottom right, click it to open the dialog to do the generation
- The Smart Pattern is suggested.
- Preserve Colors off will result in a de-lighting process, so can be handy to turn this off if your photo has strong baked in lighting.

Feel free to share your results here to encourage exploration and use of this new functionality! Also, over on the V-Ray instructions doc, you'll find a feedback form where you can let the AI team know your thoughts.

Have fun!

[romullus]

I wonder what is the license of generated textures, provided that i use my own photos as the source.

[TomG]

I wonder what is the license of generated textures, provided that i use my own photos as the source.

For most things - questions or issues - I'd go straight to the feedback form at https://tally.so/r/w2oMaA , since the team behind development, implementation, release etc. is entirely different from the Corona team. It's better to have something enter the "standard process" from the beginning, vs. me internally communicating things that may then never enter the standard process and get lost or overlooked despite everyone's best intentions.

In this case the issue is "Not enough clarification on the licensing" and then let them know your specific concern(s) such as "Can I sell textures I create with it from my own photos", "Can I give away for free the textures I create with it from my own photos" etc. So it is more than just a question, there is something lacking if things are not clear and obvious, and that can be reported :)

Hope this helps!

[TomG]

You could also reach out with questions on the Chaos forums at https://forums.chaos.com/forum/chaos-cosmos/chaos-cosmos-in-v-ray-for-3ds-max , there's one thread of general talk there already at https://forums.chaos.com/forum/chaos-cosmos/chaos-cosmos-in-v-ray-for-3ds-max/1236495-chaos-cosmos-ai-update

[romullus]

Thanks Tom, i will try to fill that feedback form.

[alexyork]

This looks mega useful. Nice work.