Hello again! I have been recently experimenting and working with mental ray and v-ray renders in both 3ds studio max and Autodesk Maya. For this tutorial I will be teaching you guys some basic modeling, easy rendering techniques using mental ray and creating textures in Photoshop to be used in 3ds max.
V-ray and mental ray both give you very realistic renders depending on what you want to achieve.
Let’s begin.

Step 1: Modelling the base of the phone.

Open up 3ds max. Go to create tab, chose Splines, and then hit Line. Create a rectangular shape in the front view port.
With the shape still selected hit 1 to enter vertex mode. Select Fillet and refine the corners of your rectangular shape.

Step 2: Bevelling the shape.

Now with your shape still selected we will go ahead and apply a bevel modifier. Right click and convert the object into an editable poly.
Hit 4 to enter a face mode. Extrude and scale the face.

Create, extrude and duplicate the Line splines to create a model like the preview below.

Step 3: Slicing the polygon face.

Let’s slice the polygon face to create the screen and a section to accommodate the keys.
Select your top polygon.
Hit 4 to enter the polygon face mode.
In the top view, with your polygon face still selected, select slice plane.

A yellow box will appear around your model. Right click and select rotate.
Hit F2. This helps you slice accurately.
Rotate the yellow box and hit Slice to create a slice similar to the preview below.

Step 4: Adding details.

Using your line tool, create line shapes with refined corners like we did in step 1.
Apply a bevel modifier to it to give it more depth. Clone and scale one of the key shapes
to create a shape for the speaker.
Add more details to make it look realistic using the line spline and extrude techniques.
Place and arrange all your shapes like the preview below.

Step 5: Creating textures.

We will be creating a simple texture for our speaker in Photoshop.
Open up Photoshop. Hit Ctrl + N.
Apply a gradient to the background. Create a new layer, make small black circles, duplicate and arrange them.

Give it a name and save as a jpg. Now go back to studio max and let’s assign a mental ray renderer.

Step 6: Assigning a renderer.

Hit F10 to bring up the render scene menu.
Scroll down and select assign a renderer. By default mine is already set to mental ray.
Click the dotted box next to it to change it to mental ray if yours isn’t.

Click ok.

Step 6: Assigning Materials.

Now hit M to bring up your materials. Select a material and apply a diffuse bitmap.

Select the jpg you created in Photoshop and apply it to the speaker shape we created earlier.

Apply a UVW mapping modifier to it. Select gizmo and position it accurately.

Let’s create a daylight system. Create a plane to act as a floor.
Hit systems in the create tab. Select daylight.
In the top view port draw your daylight.
Now go to Rendering, Advanced Lighting and Exposure Control.

Check exterior daylight. This will reduce the intensity of the light in our scene.

In the daylight parameters use these settings.
Hit M for the materials menu again.
Let’s create a mental ray Arch and Design material. For tutorial I will use the following materials:

• Chrome material
• Tinted Glass
• Glazed Ceramics
• Translucent Plastic Film

Apply the following materials we just added to parts of our 3d model.

Make a quick render to see how it looks so far. Apply your translucent plastic film properly so it renders. Play around and see what more you can achieve. Below are some of the renders I had in the end.

I will make the max file available Hope this tutorial was useful and helpful.

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