Artistic control dilemma

[ihabkal]

What you see attached was done with maxwell rendering system, using specific times of the day that are related to the location (being in Madrid).

 

I think probably in the next 1-2 years, an artist would send a series of similar images to the client so the client would decide what time of day he wants the rendering to portray thus deciding on the shadows and light qualities. Especially with the availability of software that can do great renderings and still use real life lighting controls. What do you think? Do you expect that you will accept this and let the software do your lighting scheme realistically according to site location and time of day assuming that it will give great renderings or will you want to have total control over the light, the hue, the saturation to achieve something you control more?

 

let's help each other in figuring out this one. opinions?

[Eric]

I believe you will have some clients that want to see what the lighting will do on a given day at a given time (or at least summer light vs. winter light). For example, my office has a 10 foot tall window running down the entire length of the building. It's great for interior light levels, but it sux in the middle of the summer in the evening because I sit on the west side of the building and I get nasty glares and brutal heat. So, it would have been nice to know that ahead of time when the building was being designed to adapt it accordingly. We do have metal awnings above the windows that help a great deal. We also have tall Bradford Pear trees that are mature and very thick. That also helps block the sun.

 

You'll also have the clients that are simply trying to sell a building. They'll probably be rather ticked if you render the building in full shadow because it looks dark and cold. They'll probably not care which direction the building faces, and simply want it to look nice in the rendering so they can lease it out or get it approved by the city.

 

So, in my opinion, it comes down to one of two options. Either you're going for realism with the lighting, or you're simply trying to make the building look as good as possible placing the light wherever it needs to be to create the most powerful artistic result.

 

I've never had a client that was concerned with the realism of the sun angles and the orientation of the building. I'm sure I will one day, but I'm sure the majority of clients will be more concerned with the final look of the image, and not so much about the realism of the sun angles.

[Tim Nelson]

I think if you show them those clips at different times of days you might as well as them if they would like a rendering with poor lighting & contrast or one with ideal lighting, color & contrast because thats mainly what I'm seeing in those shots.

 

I don't know how the Maxwell exposure works, but your shot around noon looks like a good setting, but all the others that have less light seem to have also been rendered using the same exposure setting, which would not happen in the real world, unless by accident.

 

I think the main difference in lighting during different times of the day is color, and shadows, not level of light - at least until the sun goes down.

[AJLynn]

I think it depends on who the client is and what the use of the render will be - I don't see most building owners understanding the implications of the sun position (except for things like "how many of the windows get sun in the morning" etc, but not the artistic implications - they either want to know what it looks like, or have an image they can use for maketing/publicity/consensus building/etc, only matters that it looks good), but if you're working as a consultant for architects, well, we're control freaks, and it's our building

[mbr]

Yeah, architects are the only ones that will care about the sun angle/time of day, and even then, it's still an artistic interpretation. You can have an evening photo look bright, if it's exposed long enough.

The noon image looks good, but the others look off. When I look out my window at 5 pm things are very, very bright that are perpendicular to the ground - the sun hits hard at a 90 or degree angle, but the diffused light is diminished as a result. This is a HUGE deal with shots past noon.

 

I like the idea of clicking a button to see different times and the colors, and all of the renderers should have this (although it's a simple guess, too, and it changes). I wouldn't show a client those images as representations of what it would actually look like at those times.

 

I've had one client that cared about the sun angle, but only a little. It was still moved to make the image look as good as possible.

 

I like the ideas behind Maxwell, but so far I still think they are too limiting (that's not to mention the speed issue). Give me a little control and a lot of presets that work is what I am after. Thankfully, I've found what I need in Final Render for this, and I'd assume VRay and Brazil have standard settings that work 95% of the time (maybe not?).

[ShaunDon]

I've come across this same dilemma because we already provide this service to our clients upon request. Granted I'm using V-Ray, which does not claim to be physically accurate, but architects are interested primarily in seeing how shadows will fall through the day. And that we can show with pinpoint accuracy.

 

I've taken to loading a daylight system animated between 6am and 6pm over 12 frames. I then set the location and compass orientation per the job and render out all 12. I'll use those to pick what time of day I want the rendering to be.

 

The problem is when you supply architects with those images, as our first choice is almost never theirs. They're interested in seeing what the building looks like, while we're looking to make a dynamic attractive image. All too often dynamic lighting requires putting shadows in places they'd rather see lit so that the design comes out. So when we give them sun studies even for just design purposes, we're much less likely to get away without having them lock us into a light setup.

 

Shaun

[IC]

It's the natural way for Viz to evolve I suppose but I don't see any benefit of 'physically accurate' daylight settings in something like this.

I've done daylight studies and shadow studies for a few people and all they're interested in is how sunlight is affected by the proposed building at a particular time of day. Most renderers have this facility already.

 

I was even asked recently to strip the render down to just a massing study with shadows.

[STRAT]

my clients have been asking for renders on specific times and dates for years.

 

usually i'll knock out the bog standard mid day in middle of summer shot. always a winner. then sometimes the clients wants to see specific shadow details at a certain time of the day in mid winter for example, or he want to see the lighting conditions in his courtyard at 7am in later october or something. something which i've been rendering in viz using it's daylight system for years.

 

nothing new.