my townhouse

[Billabong]

Ive been having a hard time trying to figure out a personal project to do in my spare time. So I thought why not just model my home. So thats what I'm doing. I just finished up all the walls, and thought I would do some lighting tests. Right now I have one target direct outside of the window behind the camera acting as the sun, and then I have a vray plane light in front of each of my windows. I think its looking decent, but the upstairs isnt lit like it should be during the day. There are two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. Both bedrooms have a fairly good size double window in them with a vray light plane. I'm wondering if the Vray Physical sun and camera would work better in this type of situation. I know nothing of Vrays sun and camera, but I'm planning on watching that vid from Vray elite on it. I was just wondering if anyone has good experience with the physical sun and camera, could share some light (no pun intended) this for me.

 

I also meant to say that when all this is done, I'm hoping to do my first walkthrough ani, with this, is that something the physical camera is good for as well? Thanks for any help and replies

[dagor]

Hi, i can share my experience.

First of all, i work with LWF (liner workflou).

Usualy i put sun+sky and keep it default. Then add phiscamera. Int the phis camera there are 3 setting for control bright of image:

1. f-number

2. shutter speed

3. ISO

take a look at the help

 

for start try to use

1. 5.6

2. 60

3. 100

 

this is a simple but very useful setup for me.

I never use direct lights as sun and light in windows.

in windows i use only in skylight portal mode.

 

good luck with vray ))

[Billabong]

Thanks Danil for replying, I actually did a search on here the other day about LWF, I thinks it's something I deff. should be doing, but from what I was reading I really need one of those LCD monitor calibration tools, to be acurate in LWF. So since I don't know anyone who owns one, It may be awhile before that happens.

 

What about for animations. Is the physical camera good for anis?

[dagor]

yes phiscam good for animation.

 

about LWF. don`t put in you head all thouse sh*t about monitor and calibration. you need calibrate your monitor only if you want to see same color on monitor and on paper after you print your image. calibraion is not about gamma. it`s about printing.

for working with LWF you must be noticed about one thing and no more:

gamma 2.2 (LWF) make your image brighter and no more sh*t. it`s only tool. you can use it and you can not use it. yes, there was realy history why we started use LFW, but right now it doesn`t mater!! i think LWF useful for me. but it`s not a rule!! i can make same image in gamma 2.2, gamma 1.6, gamma 1.8, gamma 1.0. it`s realy only tool. it doesn`t make your image better. only your hand and head make image better!

 

sorry for my dump of words )))

there was a lot of flood about gamma and LWF on the russian forums! there are alot of sticky thread with all of setings people need. but still there are guys who don`t understand LWF and start thinking about all around monitor, calibration, color curves and other ))

 

so for working with LWF you need:

1. in customize > preferences > gamma&LUT > set

gamma 2.2

check affect material and color

input gamma 2.2

output 1

2. in vray color mapping rollout set gamma 2.2

you material will be bright and you`ll need adjust reflection, refraction etc.

there is only one rule for material editor with LWF

"if you like your material in mateditor - you`ll like it in render"

so make you material in you eye ))) and don`t bother about it.

texture will work fine.

 

thats all

 

sorry again for so much and expresive word,

i only want warn (against) you of unnecessary reasoning

and thinking.

 

so don`t listen anybody, dont listen me ))))

just start doing it if you think it helps you ))))

[Billabong]

Thanks Danil for being so detailed, I'm probably going to switch over to LWF, but I want to finsh up this work I have for this client first, just so I don't have to readjust the all the mats to compensate for it. Thanks so much again

[dagor]

no problem )))

i`m realy glad if i can be useful.

as for me - i always learn by chang something in my work. i have alot of work and have no time for test. i change something a little and check how it affect on render.

[Billabong]

Iv'e been messiing around the phy.sun and camera and no matter what I do the sun isnt behaving properly. I have the door open to the bedroom to left , which has a window, the sun should be lighting up this room, but its not. I have tried messing with the camera settings as well as the sun, but to no avail, I still get nothing. I was hoping either you Danil or someone else could take a look at this and tell me what Im doing wrong. Thanks so much for any help you can give.

 

http://www.billa1.com/downloads/th04.zip

[dagor]

35mb of max file!!! ))

ok. i check it quckly.

[Derek Forreal]

i agree with dagor, i think LWF was made a lot more complicated than it actually is. just follow the above advice and you should be fine.

 

i haven't looked at your file but i would first suggest checking your glass material. hide the glass and see if that helps. if it does then you need to make some changes to it. do you have 'affect shadows' checked?

 

also, what are you using for 1st and 2nd bounce? try IrrMap for 1st and LC for second for interiors. not sure if this is good for animations though...

[dagor]

it is good for animation to usu irmap+lcash. you just need save lightmap and then reload it. but some of setting should be hight.

[dagor]

Brandon, can you reupload only *.max file?

i can`t open it, cant merge it. don`t know whats the problem.

max9 sp2,vray rc5.

[Billabong]

ah yeah that may be a problem, I'm on max 2008

[dagor]

i have this one in my office work. i`ll look at it some later today.

 

as Derek Forreal said before - it`s glass problem i think.

if you have some trouble just create simple scene with plane and box and sun and playarond with it. if all fine - check what`s the difference with your file... it always helps

 

and if you`ll come in LWF use Vraylight with Lumenous power unit for interior lightining.

[Billabong]

thanks so much Danil

[dagor]

i`ve checked it. so don`t know what to say sometime it`s realy strange for me how you do some thing.

 

about you sun trouble. the room with open door is ok.

you have problem in camera room. your ceiling made by flat coplanar polygons. for working with vray you must give thickness to you wall, ceiling, floor, etc.

because of ceiling sun shine over it and ceiling don`t cast a shadow inside room and room become bright.

to bring light inside room you can use Vraylight with skylight portal mode in window. I say about portal here ( it seam`s i must write short tutorial about it instead saying everyone use portal )

 

about other thing i mean strange

i actualy don`t like your glass setting and modeling style. but if you think it`s ok for you - neveminde it

and the last one - use RC5 version and set in global switcher checkboxes

1. Legacy sun/sky/camera model to OFF

2. Use max photometric scale to ON

there was mistake in brightes of sun and sky in old version (rc3 if i`m not wrong). So to fix it you need set up gloval switcher as i said (you can do it in RC4 version to)

And the last last one )) please read this help. it`s realy useful!! there are alot of settings explanation you may need.

 

anyway good luck!

 

ps. if you turn off viegnetting in phiscamera - image would be brigh in corner ))

[Billabong]

Thanks Danil, This is actually my first time modeling the outside and inside of a house so I know I had a lot of mistakes.

As far as the cieling. I figured that part out after I sent it to you. When I first modeled this I had initially box modeled the house, but it seemed very sloppy to me, So I deleted all the walls and re did every thing with splines, it was cleaner, but got very confusing at times. On all my jobs, I have never had to modeled the out side, plus the inside of the same building, so this part of modeling is very new to me. I mostly model products for a living. If you have time or know of a good resource on how to properly model something like this. It would be greatly appreciated. I have already signed up for Brians next intermediate 3ds Max class, so I'm hoping that will explain a lot to me, Also for the glass, do you have a proper setup for making glass?. I know I've asked a lot and I'm sure your very busy and I appreciate all your help so far. You really have been a big help to me. Thanks again for looking at the file.

[Billabong]

nevermind on the glass, looking at the tut on Asversis for it right now

[dagor]

the glass mistake i think are

1. you don`t need glass in window for a day render especially with image outside window. you realy don`t see reflection on the glass in daytime.

2. you don`t need glossy for glass! it slow down render and don`t seen

3. your subdives is too hight for glossy. you can set it in 8 or 10 for this type of glass.

4. your max deph is also too hight. you can leave it by default or think about how much you need.

 

i realy don`t know any tutorial. i use unnecessary modeling detail for room and building. just check attachment i`ve did for you. this is my last building from this project. it work`s perfect for me. but i know that it don`t necessary to weld all wertex and remove all holes. it`s only for my pleasure cause i love modeling alot.

[Billabong]

beautiful model Danil, thanks for all your help, ill post an update in a day or so

[Billabong]

Here is my last post for the week, Leaving to go to the inlaws for thanksgiving. The couches are evermotions, just because Im not that great making couches wuith creases, but the clock is mine. Im still getting some noise and no shadow issues. If you look at the bottom of the clock. it doesnt seem to be touching the ground which in fact it is. Here are my settings,hopefully you can tell me what Im doing wrong here

 

Vray Sun: Turbidity 3.0

Intensity Mulitiplier 1.0

size mulitplier 1.0

shadow subs. 24

shadow bias .508

photon emit radius 127

 

I have a skylight portal in each window with 24 subdivisions in sampling, but I just noticed that I have store with IM tick on on those skylights which may be causing the problem.

 

My render settings:

Image sampler:

Adapative QMC

VrayLanczosfilter

 

Using Irradiance Map as Primary bounce with the settings og

-3 -1

HSph subs 50

and Im using overlapping in sample lookup

 

My light cache is

1200

.001

store direct light

and im using light cache for glossy rays and the pre filter of 10

both enviroment slots have an HDRI in them set at 1.0

 

Colomapping is set to Intensity exponetial

1.0

1.0

2.2

and lasty the vRay Sky settings are set to default,

 

Ok i think that is everything, Thanks for any help, Ill check this post tomorrow when we get to my inlaws

[dagor]

you realy need to read help about settings.

 

photon emit radius 127 - it doesn`t affect your scenes because you don`t use photon for GI or caustic.

 

when you store light in irmap your subdives ignored and you can control shadow by irmap settings. it`s not good idea to store portal in irmap.

 

i never use filter for AA. it takes some rendertime. i sharp my image in photoshop.

 

.001 for lightcash is too small!! set it 0.01 0.02 in screen mode. this parametr depends on rendersize!

 

if you use HDRI in both enviroment you don`t use sky. so you light your room by hdri. it`s incorect in my sight.

[Billabong]

ok, thanks Danil, I will work on it some more when I get home