Lighting/Materials Standardization

[Matt Sugden]

I've recently been considering the idea of trying to standardize all the materials in my models. By this I mean creating a one off studio lighting setup which I would use every time I create and texture a model.

 

I'm hoping by creating this standardized environment that when I xref several models from my library within a scene they should in theory react in similar predictable ways to the specific lighting of the scene, rather than requiring extensive tweaking of the materials on each of the xref'd models (which is currently the case).

 

I was thinking this may also help me in my approach to generating a good material/shader library, which could produce very predictable results in future situations based on the standardization?

 

Has anyone tried a method similar to this? and have you results been successful or not?

 

I assume, material libraries such as the archvision stuff works on a principle similar to this? Anyone?

[BrianKitts]

Your concept is good as far as materials go, but you won't achieve what you are after with lighting unless you only do object modeling.

 

I have a standard material library of shaders that I use to start every project, and then special materials/shaders are developed as needed to compliment the standard library.

 

As for the lighting, every scene is different and you will probably never find a setup that works in every situation. That being said, you can give yourself a couple setups that are your starting point for every new scene.

 

I have a studio lighting scene that I use for all object modeling such as furniture or equipment, a standard exterior lighting setup, and a standard set of lights for interior scenes. But all scenes are different and normally by the time I'm done tweaking the lighting setup (with the exception of the studio setup) it doesn't resemble anything like the original set.

 

With a set of standards you will see a definite increase in productivity, specially if you do a lot of similar scenes. An interior scene used to take me a couple of days to get it to a production point that I could show the client. With standards you can model, texture, and light a scene to have something decent coming out of the first render, all in a single days work.