Stewart Reid Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Hi there, country house - exterior Would really appreciate some comments and criticisms in regard to my attached render. There are quite a few things I know I need to finish off and I know I've got a weird reflection on my small roof to the left but I don't yet feel that overall the image looks 'real' enough. Sometimes when I look at it I think the sun is too bright then later on I think it's maybe ok. Also, I can't make up my mind about the glass. Am happy with my roughcast though. Please help. Thank you S Reid ps - Many many thanks to the Mentalboutmax guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alff Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Hi Stuart, there is one big thing and series of smaller ones in the image. The big one - the gamma settings/ or tonemapper must be way off. Look at the shadows of the roof on the (white) facade. These shadows must be much darker. Same for the area left to the garage - as it is in shadow it must all be much darker. On a sunny day direct sun is 10 times brighter than all light coming from the sky, so shadows must be quite dark. Also the shadow below the red car - in ´reality´on a sunny day it would be damn dark down there. So check why you get to much light there. If this is solved your image will look much better. A second thing (still important) - one doesnt see any gi-final gather-irradiance map effect - is this intentional ? For example the wall/corner behind the bench would be darker. Also the white wall where it ´touches´the roof. I dont see any such effect. Minor points a) Garage building left side is mirror reflecting (unplausible) b) red car wheels/tyre - flat side is white gray (must be same color as rubber) c) red car interior - is to bright, like the seats. License plate. d) tree - leaves are flat and float in the air (twig?) e) Stones (Facade/around main door) look flat (bump map/ displacement ?) f) grass/asphalt boundary regular g) asphalt regular (needs some structure) h) left side / horizon - green to blue - add plants like on right side. i) sun is 45 degree and matches exactly with roof. I wonder if it wouldnt look more natural if it is a off by some degree. But that is speculation. Best Greetings to Scotland ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Reid Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 Thank you Matthias, Will work on these points tonight. Very much appreciated. Regards Stewart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 how about a spot of real lighting? ie, gi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Reid Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 Guys, When you mention GI lighting do you mean Global Illumination because I have this set up with a a mental ray daylight system. Please see attachments. Do I need to increase the amount of photons ? Thanks Stewart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alff Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 Guys, When you mention GI lighting do you mean Global Illumination because I have this set up with a a mental ray daylight system. Please see attachments. Do I need to increase the amount of photons ? Thanks Stewart Hi Stewart a) better use 'mr photographic exposure Control' - you currently have 'Logarithmic Exposure Control'. The mr one is better. When you active it - start with an Exposure Value [EV] of 15.0 or 16.0 for a bright sunshine outdoor scene (midday). With EV 16 you should get nice black shadows. b) GI - this is a confusing 'term'. In computer graphics 'theory' it is any algorithm like photons or final gather, irradiance map or even pathtracing. In the 3dsmax UI it is used for 'photons'. So when guys say 'gi' they dont mean 'gi' . For exterior renderings you do -not- need photons. So switch them off. In the 'Indirect Illumination' tab, in the "caustics and Global illumination (GI)" rollup. disable both 'Caustics' and 'Global Illumination (GI)'. But then go to the 'Final Gather' rollup, and 'Enable Final Gather'. Choose a preset (Fg Precision Presets), for example "low" and -> Render. That should give a much better image. I am curious ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Reid Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 Hi Matthias Hi Stewart a) better use 'mr photographic exposure Control' - you currently have 'Logarithmic Exposure Control'. The mr one is better. When you active it - start with an Exposure Value [EV] of 15.0 or 16.0 for a bright sunshine outdoor scene (midday). With EV 16 you should get nice black shadows. b) GI - this is a confusing 'term'. In computer graphics 'theory' it is any algorithm like photons or final gather, irradiance map or even pathtracing. In the 3dsmax UI it is used for 'photons'. So when guys say 'gi' they dont mean 'gi' . For exterior renderings you do -not- need photons. So switch them off. In the 'Indirect Illumination' tab, in the "caustics and Global illumination (GI)" rollup. disable both 'Caustics' and 'Global Illumination (GI)'. But then go to the 'Final Gather' rollup, and 'Enable Final Gather'. Choose a preset (Fg Precision Presets), for example "low" and -> Render. That should give a much better image. I am curious ... When you mention 'mr photgraphic exposure control' I don't think I have this because I'm still on max 9 although I think my boss will agree to buy 'max 2009 design' in a week or so which I'm really excited about. I use FG with settings approx. between low and draft. As you can see I also use photons for lighting. What would be the alternative in max 9. Thank you Stewart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alff Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 Hi Stewart, if you dont have max 2009 - it might be even worthwhile to wait a few more weeks and directly upgrade to max 2010. Regarding the tonemapper - the 'logarthmic' one works ok as well. This is quite some time ago, but i vaguely remember that 'once upon a time' it had a real limitation (would create oversaturated colors) and this has been corrected. I just dont know if it was already improved in max 9 or in max 2008. Anyway - when i use it max 2009 it works firn with the default settings (for outdoor): Brightness 65 Contrast 50 Mid tones 1 Physical Scale 1500,0 And last but not least 'Exterior Daylight' switch must be 'on' Photons - you really dont need photons for an exterior scene (except if you want caustics in a swimmingpool). Since your scene didnt use a pool try Final Gather. This should work fine, also in max 9. You should start using photons only when you are 100% familiar with final gather options (and then also more for interior renderings). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Reid Posted February 11, 2009 Author Share Posted February 11, 2009 Matthias, Can't thank you enough. Will use these when I get max 2009. Regards Stewart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now