GI and FG multiplier

[SgWRX]

is it wrong to use multipliers for GI and FG of 5 or 6 for each? or is this one of those things that you use what works. thanks.

[pixelperfectg]

1.0 & white (multiplier color swatch) will provide physically accurate results. Once you start increasing the multipliers you move away from accurate. I'm not saying that's "wrong" to do, I've done it when I wanted just the indirect lighting to be brighter in my scenes.

 

I used adjusted multipliers in this scene:

http://features-temp.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/11835/11835_1186790063_large.jpg

But I actually lost the direct lighting because I had the multiplier cranked up too high. The result is "ok" in that it kinda looks like a bright day without direct sunlight entering the room...but in reality the sun was shining into this room but you can't see it because the indirect lighting is so bright.

 

So, generally speaking I'd adjust/tweak the exposure controls before fiddling with the multipliers. Then only adjust the GI/FG multipliers if you want to tune the indirect lighting strength with the knowledge that it's not physically accurate. And be careful to not overpower your direct lighting.

[SgWRX]

ok thanks. i see what you mean in the example. yeah the other thing i was thinking is that the direct sunlight and GI FG are almost in competition. in this scene, the multipliers are up: FG 6, GI 5, the lamp is an MR Omni with a multiplier of 50. the exposure control brightness is 85 and contrast is 75. exterior daylight is checked and the scale for now is 1500. my wall material is very dark brownish, very dark. so it sounds like i might want to play around some more to see if i can balance the multiplier settings and probably the diffuse color settings?. oh, the sunlight is mr sun and mr sky no settings changed there.

 

hey jeff, you've worked with murph at virtual partners? i took a class some years back there with ted boardman (max 5). i'm only now _really_ getting into 3d.

[djohnson129]

SgWRX, can you post a render of the scene you were working on?

[SgWRX]

yep here's the scene i've been learning on. in the end, i think it comes down to this: the sun is darn bright. if i want to control that, i'd have to use a less powerful sun or some other type of exterior light, but then i'd have to add interior lights. using the log exposure control, i'd like to be able to adjust it or tweak it. i ended up taking some test photos of my living room (aka this scene) with my digital camera and it was a huge difference in f-stop range as expected. it's really mimicking the real-world part of lighting including limited dynamic range, or at least limited compared to say the human eye. and yes, this is where HDRI lighting comes into play (though i haven't played with that yet). i wish there were a curves control (or similar) on the exposure control to play with.

 

oh, this is not the specific scene i was talking about with the multipliers and interior lights. this scene is the mrsun/sky with log control but no "exterior daylight" checked and FG GI multiplier set to 1.

[SgWRX]

here's another couple renders with different angle. the darker image had a lowered brightness value (50) and higher contrast (55) as opposed to defaults. the bigger vase is in the shadow of the wall between the windows. the vase material is a noise map with really low value colors. gives a good indication of the range of brightness compared to the one that's in the direct light.

[djohnson129]

Yea, I've been having problems with the correct balance of light and dark when just using the MR daylight system.

 

check out my room I finished last month

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/26273-riverside-living-room-3.html

 

 

I still never really got it perfect, but I started a new room set in a night time scene that I'm working on now....I'll post it up within a few days hopefully

[SgWRX]

ha, yeah i saw that! i kept thinking "wow i wish i could do that". hopefully my next room will be closer to what you got. like paul said practice makes perfect.

 

of your last images, i liked the middle one the best.

 

for the one you added the blue tint to, to recover some of the wash-out, add an un-sharp mask with a radius of 50 and 30%. that's a neat trick to get rid of the "haze" in digital photos. you can over do it, and 50 / 30% is over doing it, but it really gives some life to the metal table. depending on the photo (or render) you'll use lower settings or sometimes a little higher than 50/30%.

[djohnson129]

wow thanks! lol I've never had somebody on here say they wish they were as good as me ;D its usually me saying my stuff looks like crap and I want to be good like everyone else.

 

I'm assuming you're talking about doing the sharp mask in photoshop right?

I'll go try that and see how it works. What I didnt like about that riverside living room is that it looked so hazy and blurry after I photoshopped it.

 

I'm doing my new room in both a daylight and night time scene. I'll try posting those renders before the end of the night or else tmrw before I head to work.

[djohnson129]

The first two are my new project. The daytime render is actually an older one....since then I've added the background image in the window. I havent finished modelling everything yet, but I got antsy the other day and wanted to do some rendering.

 

 

The last two are my old project. The first render is the same from before, the second is with the unsharp mask applied. I think it looks pretty good compared to before. I didnt put the settings at 30% and 50, I think I used 17% and 9. Lemme know how you think it looks now.

 

-thanks

[SgWRX]

cool, good start on the new scenes. these guys are pretty tolerant of beginners and i'm thankful for that!

[djohnson129]

hey so if you wanna check out my new thread for my new project... here it is

 

 

 

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/27305-bedroom-day-night.html#post186189