Using vray for space scene

[stayinwonderland]

I want to use vray sun to illuminate a space scene.

 

I thought a target direct would work but it produces the most unusual lighting/shadows. Can you see how the light (on the ship) doesn't seem to know what it's doing:

 

 

note: the ship (just a greebled box placeholder until I get the light fixed) is the only geometry in the scene, the rest is a background image.

 

My other light is a vray dome light just to give some fill to the otherwise black shadows.

 

So my guess as to why the light looks so weird is that Vray expects to not light in a 'void' and wants a ground plane. I've never used it to make a space scene so any suggestions?

[Devin Johnston]

I think you've got your GI settings set to low, turn them up or try brute force and see what happens.

[stayinwonderland]

Nah, here's another render. IRR set to high and LC set to 2000. Looks disgusting:

 

[Devin Johnston]

You getting better light distribution on this one but I don't think that's your problem I think it's the location of your light. The side of the ship facing us would be almost completely dark with very minimal bounced light striking it's surface, try moving your target light because you're really only going to be seeing a silhouette of the ship.

[stayinwonderland]

I'm fine with just getting some rim light on the ship as there's going to be a lot of illumination coming from windows and exhausts etc.

 

But that light is MESSED UP. View the full sized image and tell me it's remotely natural. Think I'm getting light leaks and stuff.

 

Like I say, I think it has something to do with Vray expecting a ground plane to be in place.

[Devin Johnston]

That's a good question for Vlado.

[stayinwonderland]

Thanks anyway

 

For anyone else who's experienced in such things. I thought that the type of shadows used by the direct light would affect things. I've turned off the HDRI dome light to better show the diff:

 

Top image uses vray shadows (note the splodges of shadow and spray paint noise)

Bottom image uses ray traced shadows... X-ray much?