Vray lighting - Concert Hall

[TomA]

Hi,

 

I've got a concert hall model which i'm editing but i'm not sure how to light it in vray.

 

I'm begining to get used to lighting with a sun but not very good with black box spaces with purely artificial light.

 

I'd like to achieve lighting similar to these (basically warm and rich with the lighting focused on the stage but with accents around the space):

 

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii31/puttyface_101/concert%20hall%20help/walt-disney-hall-1.jpg

 

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii31/puttyface_101/concert%20hall%20help/jack_singer_concert_hall01.jpg

 

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii31/puttyface_101/concert%20hall%20help/3673_Concert20Hall20interior20120Ni.jpg

 

I've got a vray light sphere in my scene above the stage and that's it.

 

What sort of lighting setup would you recommend? plus how would you do the highlights/spotlights?

 

Cheers

 

P

 

[kippu]

i would suggest using photometrics with target directs? ...get a nice ies data from a lighting manufacturer website and you should be good to go

 

oh longer render times await you

[Horhe]

I wouldnt recommend using too much IES lights - just the ones near walls that will give a wash.

Just a couple of lights to light the overall space and a selfilluminating map for most of the lights to make them glow.

[TomA]

aren't photometrics intended for mental ray more than vray though?

 

sounds like an interesting idea though, using proper IES data, if not a little pedantic?

 

thanks for the illumination map idea, i think i'd probably do something like that anyway.

 

but i guess i'm generally on the right track here, so that's ok... i think a fair bit of post production in photoshop will help a lot too!

[landrvr1]

aren't photometrics intended for mental ray more than vray though?

 

sounds like an interesting idea though, using proper IES data, if not a little pedantic?

 

thanks for the illumination map idea, i think i'd probably do something like that anyway.

 

but i guess i'm generally on the right track here, so that's ok... i think a fair bit of post production in photoshop will help a lot too!

 

IES is really a cross-platform generic lighting solution. In other words it's great for VRay.

 

I never use them, though the effect they bring to your scenes are amazing.

 

As kippu said, expect a serious jump in rendertimes. How serious? Plan on hitting the render button and heading out for the weekend.

[TomA]

Sounds like Photometric/IES lights are very heavy on RAM?

 

That is if render times are dramatically increased.

[kippu]

no they are not heavy on ram , i suppose...the light calculations are processor intensive

[ApeiNe]

I would also say to use IES near the walls to get some great light shapes, jsut start with that, render it in low, then add some vraylights to get close to your references

 

IES is a bit more longer to render, you can try to exclude some parts of the scene to render it faster, the parts doesn't have so much influance, far from the source itself

 

let us know and see when you finish it

[Jason Matthews]

Oh the render times...

 

It may be a good point to mention that you really have to boost the environment (hdri) map quite a bit. I was working on a church (very schematic) and I noticed a much more even light by boosting it, IMHO.

[Trevor Tizard]

This may be of use................

 

http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/tutorials/tutorial_index/making_of_the_auditorium/

[TomA]

Just had a quick scan. Looks awesome thanks! I'll have a proper look later on.

[Spooner04]

IES lights are way overrated in my opinion. They look pretty. But you can easily achieve a similar effect using a vray light or a spotlight without the huge increase in render times.

 

Might not be to much of a factor for just an image or two, but I wouldn't put them in until the very end of the process. Otherwise just taking small region renders to check materials will get very frustrating.

[Dave Oliver]

well of course realistic light is going to be the ultimate best option

 

but like they said only the lights near the walls generate that hotspot.

 

instead of many unnecessary lights in the ceiling i would just have a large, dim area light for some general lighting in the space and a self illuminating material in the recesses for the can lights

[Thablanch]

I do not think that IES lights are way overrated..

 

VraySP2 has VrayIES, wich are way faster than standard IES with Vray Shadows ( or even shadow map)

 

The time lost in rendering is time you do not spend in setting up the lights. no fooling around with multipliers.. just need to know the lumens and that's it.

 

Would be nice to find the time to do a 3 way comparaison : standard light vs IES vs VrayIES