Fairfield Inn and Suites - Rockford (VRaySun + Physical Cam)

[RyanSpaulding]

Just a WIP here....been awhile since I dabbled into VRay.

 

Not a big fan of my materials at the moment which I think gives it a 'flat' look. The only post processing here is I added a sky in the BG.

 

The shingles and EFIS may have to displaced as the bump maps dont seem to be working well. The roof has a bump of 300 and there's nothing to show for it. Efis bumps get blown out in the fron of the building. My concrete material is currently garbage...as is the sign.

 

Any suggestion on how to improve would be great. Thanks.

[Ricardo Eloy]

Looking promising, so far, Ryan. One suggestion I could give you would be changing your sun posistion. Placing the sun behind the cam will flatten your image. If you place it on the other side (right of the building), you'll get more interesting shadows, giving you a much better sense of depth.

And keep posting!

[RodT]

Make sure to add some background follage to hide the horizon. It looks like you may have your default light still on? What kind of lights are you using? i can't see where your sign model is off very far, the lighting will bring it out i bet... keep us posted....

[RyanSpaulding]

Rick: I'll try running one over lunch with the sun changed. I think the sun behind the camera tactic is one I used when working with Vue and Modo to help alleviate some of the darkness in the shadows.

 

RodT: No default lights on. I've got just the vraysun, using the lele method, and a primary bounce of 3. I'll add buildings, people, autos and foliage once I get the building setup right. The sign just doesn't look like the typical material on hotels...but it's just a VRay Color Map right now...I'm sure adding a tad reflection and some other maps would help.

 

Thanks both of you. Keep em comin!

[JamesTaylor]

No default lights on. I've got just the vraysun, using the lele method, and a primary bounce of 3.

 

I'd lose the primary bounce multiplier of 3...

 

Vlado states (in the Vray Manual i think - http://www.spot3d.com) that using the Vray Sun / Sky with Physical Cam is physically accurate when primary and secondary bounces are set to 1.

 

Lele's method builds on the physical accuracy available via VRay Sun / Sky / Cam and introduces LWF creating a solution that is physical accurate and managable in terms of gaining the expected result when rendering.

 

...hence the reason i'd stick to 1 & 1 for multipliers.

[RyanSpaulding]

Here's another with the sun changed, but there seem to be some issues.

 

In a few areas, there's a shadow where there shouldn't be. Is this a GI issue?

 

Also, I noticed my white color seems to bounce a ton of light in places. Would this be changed if I just lowered my RGB multiplier?

 

James: I dropped it down to 1 again. Even though it may be more physically accurate, I think I prefer the 3. The only change I noticed was that my dark areas were a bit brighter. I'll keel this setting in mind if I end up with unexpected results.

[Spooner04]

I think it is a good start. I would put something inside the building so you don't see through the windows and out into the back.

 

In all honesty it seems a little cartoonish to me. I'm wondering if you applied the script that converts the material gamma output.

[RyanSpaulding]

I think it is a good start. I would put something inside the building so you don't see through the windows and out into the back.

 

In all honesty it seems a little cartoonish to me. I'm wondering if you applied the script that converts the material gamma output.

 

I did not apply it in fact. I was going through manually and doing it as I went. Lele wrote that .255 isn't necessarily exact...but will get you close. I think I have some at .3 some at .4.

 

I'll run the script and see what happens.

 

EDIT: Is the script dependent on the RGB multiplier set to 1.0? I ran the script, but as opposed to everything at .255, I now have .089 shingle, .076 brick, ect.

 

I'll definitely add walls on the interior.

[Spooner04]

Truth be told, I'm actually not a big fan of the gamma change.

[RyanSpaulding]

Truth be told, I'm actually not a big fan of the gamma change.

 

Could you clarify what you mean?

 

Attached is the render resulting from lele's script. I may have to manually place .255 in there. ISO is at 30.

 

To me, this is too dark. I'll try manually entering .255 for all

[RyanSpaulding]

And here's everything at .255. Still seems a bit dark to me.

[Spooner04]

I think if you could find some middle ground between this most recent one and the one where you had the arrows pointing to the problems. I like that you can see the different color tones better in the recent one. Particularly around the tan front of the porte cochere and the stucco trim in the upper left. But, the most recent one does seem a little dark. I would think that you could go back to no gamma correction on the mats and adjust the shutter speed or iso on the camera just a tad to get a happy median.

 

I would maybe fool with the mats a little bit. I think the bump on the stucco is pretty drastic and am not sure if you would see it at this range. Maybe scale it down or get it tighter. As you are trying to get used to vray again though that might be a little out of the scope at this point.

 

It's really coming along though, welcome back to vray.

[JamesTaylor]

you need to adjust the brightness of the image by exposing the image correctly via the physical camera settings. You have a no. of options, adjust iso value / shutter speed / f stop. do you some research into how cameras work / camera settings to get a better insight.

 

lele is correct that 0.255 isn't always the correct value, its a good way to be able to adjust individual materials by adjust the 0.255 value.

 

i think if you start introducing some entourage elements to the image such as cars, planting and people it'll help set the building off better, giving the scene a sense of scale, life and composition

[RyanSpaulding]

I think if you could find some middle ground between this most recent one and the one where you had the arrows pointing to the problems. I like that you can see the different color tones better in the recent one. Particularly around the tan front of the porte cochere and the stucco trim in the upper left. But, the most recent one does seem a little dark. I would think that you could go back to no gamma correction on the mats and adjust the shutter speed or iso on the camera just a tad to get a happy median.

 

I would maybe fool with the mats a little bit. I think the bump on the stucco is pretty drastic and am not sure if you would see it at this range. Maybe scale it down or get it tighter. As you are trying to get used to vray again though that might be a little out of the scope at this point.

 

It's really coming along though, welcome back to vray.

 

Thanks. I'm a little hesitent on discarding the lele method as a lot of people swear by it. I'll try fidgeting with my camera a bit...upping the iso to 40-50 and see what that does.

 

I agree the tones are better here. I tightened up the EFIS this time...but made the bump more pronounced as I'm trying to make sure there's some sort of texture to this wall and not just a color.

 

Here's ISO at 40.

[RyanSpaulding]

No update yet...but I wanted to post this comparison image for anyone interested. Its a comparison of # of GI IRMap bounces, 1-3. I'll keep mine around 2.5 I think.

[RyanSpaulding]

Ok, here's a new version (2400px wide). Camera stayed close to the same.

 

I've added some displacement grass (tho needs more height), shingles, ptacs, and concrete...changed the colors of the hotel to reflect client chosen colors. Reaching a high poly count and no cars, signs, people, or trees yet. I may have to chill on the displacement...tho the concrete seems to need it or it looks blurry.

 

Next I'll try maybe some dirt maps to break up the consistency of the concrete (not sure how to do this or layer mats yet) and EFIS. I have to make some changes in my DWG model...score lines, false windows, efis indentations, some level changes, interior walls, curtains, and the window heads need to change to soldier-course bricking. My glass doesn't seem to be doing crap for reflection...looks entirely transparent.

 

CC requested.

[Tommy L]

Ryan,

maybe one of the reasons the physically correct lighting is 'too dark' is top do with your highlights?the bump on those materials would throw back a little of the direct light. This would essentially brighten your coarse materials.

[RyanSpaulding]

Ryan,

maybe one of the reasons the physically correct lighting is 'too dark' is top do with your highlights?the bump on those materials would throw back a little of the direct light. This would essentially brighten your coarse materials.

 

I'll definitely have to check this out. I dont think I set the highlight color on any of it come to think of it.

[Justin Hunt]

The other thing that maybe making it look too dark is the lack of slabs. The black windows aren't helping any. Possible also confusing the tone mapping.

 

JHV

[RodT]

check the scale on your roofing or your bricks, if they are 8" bricks it would appear that your shingle tabs are about 12"..

[gods418]

the first one reminds me of the 3dstudio days in DOS... nostalgia.

[RyanSpaulding]

First off, much thanks to everyone for posting your CC. It's invaluable.

 

Gods:

Haha. Not the look I'm going for. Ah well, gotta get back into the swing of things. Having problems with the workflow since switching from Modo (which I love BTW). I'll get there.

 

TommyL:

It also may have to do with the bump map itself repeating and not being coarse enough. I've tried more of a noise map and I think that looks better, but I'm unsure how to set or brighten the highlights at this moment. I'll fidget more today.

 

RodT:

Will do. Thanks for that. I never reduced them after getting the displacement working the way I wanted it to. I reduced it to about 60% of what it was.

 

Justin:

What did you mean by lack of 'slabs'? I'm not familiar with that term, outside the general meaning of say a 'slab of concrete' which I dont believe applied here (?). I still have to get a good glass in there. What I have was ripped from the VRay material website and doesn't appear to work the best...I should make my own.

[CHE]

Having problems with the workflow since switching from Modo (which I love BTW). I'll get there.

 

 

Have you look into C4D+Vray? Modo and C4D really work well together.

[Vince Paske]

I know you don't have any control of your subject matter, but the building itself is rather dreary (nice way of saying ugly).

If I were you, I'd try to create a warm, cozy inviting atmosphere by making a dusk or dawn scene with warm light coming from the windows letting travelers know they can find rest and relaxation within.

Throw in a few interior walls, some warm lights inside, a VRay sun low in the background, glass in the windows with fall-off so they reflect the sun and let light from the inside out and see what happens.

Have some fun with it.

If you really want to challenge yourself, make it a snow scene with the light from the inside reflecting warmly onto the snow.

[RyanSpaulding]

I know you don't have any control of your subject matter, but the building itself is rather dreary (nice way of saying ugly).

If I were you, I'd try to create a warm, cozy inviting atmosphere by making a dusk or dawn scene with warm light coming from the windows letting travelers know they can find rest and relaxation within.

Throw in a few interior walls, some warm lights inside, a VRay sun low in the background, glass in the windows with fall-off so they reflect the sun and let light from the inside out and see what happens.

Have some fun with it.

If you really want to challenge yourself, make it a snow scene with the light from the inside reflecting warmly onto the snow.

 

Yeah, I agree. It's kinda just a side-project. I definitely could have picked a better building from old projects, but this was a simple one that I was trying to get to work with DWGLink. Once it worked, I went with it. I'm having to learn VRay again....much has changed since 1.47.

 

I'll definitely try another one that incorporates more mood. This is kinda just a daylight test with the lele formula.

 

Attached is a glass issue I'm having at the moment. Anyone have ideas?