lighting for exterior and interior

[r_mc_gowan]

im looking for some tutorials for max on exterior lighting casting into a buildings interior. can anyone point me in the right direction??

[ecastillor]

check out the tutorials included in max

[ajvbochove]

Is it easier done with Mental Ray? Or should I use the Default Scanline render?

I went directly to MR with the learning of Max, but it's difficult in this kind of lightning.

Area Lights at every window ain't the solution when you look from interior to the outside, isn't it?.

[chuck]

I'd look at max's radiosity. It can be a bit tricky, and watch the color bleed. The tutorials do a fair job of expaining it...

[ecastillor]

or go with vray

[pixelperfectg]

You can also take a cue from the Vray guys and work in a linear workspace (change Max's default gamma from 1.0 to 2.2). And it helps even the light out in MR. Here's a quickie lighting test using 2.2 gamma:

http://www.jeffpatton.net/temp/exterior-tst.mov

Nothing fancy I know, but render time was a little over 1 minute per frame...and this is straight out of 3dsmax no tweaks (video compression hurts quality a bit). One MR spotlight for the sun, and one skylight. Plain, simple, but effective.

I've compiled more info on the linear settings here:

http://www.vizdepot.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3465&highlight=linear

and in that thread I've included links to the original info on linear workflow.

 

Jeff