Creating God Rays in V-Ray

This quick tutorial shows how to create the God Rays effect in V-Ray using the Environment Fog feature.

Overview

God rays are a volumetric effect, often used by 3D artists to achieve a more dramatic effect on a 3D scene. This effect is caused when direct pointed light (such as a sun) passes through the dusty or foggy atmosphere.

Setup

Watch the video tutorial.

Download the example scene.

To create God Rays effect in V-Ray for 3ds Max, follow the steps below:

1. Create a camera, e.g., V-Ray Physical Camera.
2. Create a light, e.g,. V-Ray Sun.
3. Add VRayEnvironmentFog (Rendering > Environment > Atmosphere rollout > Add... > VrayEnvironmentFog).

4. At this point, the God Rays should be visible in the rendered image. 

   To achieve a more convincing effect, adjust Fog Color, Fog Distance, and Fog Height parameters accordingly. Note that the Fog Distance and Fog Height parameters operate in Scene Units.

5. The Fog Color parameter determines the color of the fog:

   

   

    

   6. The Fog distance parameter controls the fog's density

      Larger values make the fog more transparent, smaller values make it denser

   

   

    

   7. The Fog height parameter determines the height of the fog

      For a more realistic effect, set the fog height to be higher than the position of the camera; optimally, to cover any visible part of the scene.

   

   

    

   8. Excluding lights

      When multiple lights are present in the scene but you want only some of them to affect
      for the god rays effect, you can include or exclude light sources by disabling the "Use all 
      lights" option in the VrayEnvironmentFog nodes rollout and clicking on the Add button.

   

    

Learn more about the V-Ray Environment Fog: 

• 3ds Max
• Maya
• SketchUp
• Rhino
• Cinema4D
• Houdini
• Blender