Give it to me

[Jason Matthews]

Hello all, I have been messing with this scene in Max 5 for a couple of days. This is as good as I can get this thing. Some CC's would be nice from you all. It is a very simple model, nothing special. Please comment on everything but the drapes. I know they suck bad. It was built in Acad 2002. Here are my settings:

 

Daylight system-----------Mesh size: 6"

IES Sun: 92273-----------Log. Exposure Control

IES Sky: 10---------------Brightness: 35

Initial Quality: 85----------Contrast: 50

Refined Iterations: 10------Mid Tone: .51

Fitlering:20----------------Physical Scale: 92273

 

Shadow map Parms:

Bias: 0

Size: 256

Range: 6

 

I am not sure where to go from here. I always get stuck at this point, all of my renderings. I have also used override materials.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Jason

[Fran]

... Here are my settings:

 

Daylight system-----------Mesh size: 6"

IES Sun: 92273-----------Log. Exposure Control

IES Sky: 10---------------Brightness: 35

Initial Quality: 85----------Contrast: 50

Refined Iterations: 10------Mid Tone: .51

Fitlering:20----------------Physical Scale: 92273

 

Hi Jason,

 

Try these settings:

Daylight system-----------Mesh size: 6"

IES Sun: 92273-----------Log. Exposure Control

IES Sky: 1 ---------------Brightness: 50

Initial Quality: 90----------Contrast: 55

Refined Iterations: 20------Mid Tone: .9

Fitlering:3----------------Physical Scale: 1500

 

Until you get your lighting issues straightened out, try using raytraced shadows with bias set to 0.1. Start with the Physical scale at 1500 and increasing it by about 1000 for each test render until you strike a pleasing balance between inside and outside illumination.

 

Also, think about your composition. Is the focus of the image really supposed to be 2 concrete balls on the patio? If not, then refine the interior illumination and expect the exterior to suffer somewhat.

[Jason Matthews]

Thanks for the input Fran. I will give these settings a try and repost. I started using shadow map because I couldn't get the soft area shadows like I was hoping for. However, my hard shadows suffer.

[Jason Matthews]

Ok, here are the results. I am getting a lot of splotchiness on the walls, and the floor where the sun hits is very bright. I hate setting the filtering up high because of the lack of depth in the image. But I will see what happenens. I will repost after that.

[Jason Matthews]

Here is the filter setting at 10. You can still see the distortion in the walls.

[kingeldar]

should try more refine iterations should make ur walls nicer

 

and small detail

reduce indirect bump scale on ur carpet

will look much better....

[Jason Matthews]

Thanks Stephane. I will give it a shot and repost.

[Jason Matthews]

Here are the results: 90% solution

30 refinements

10 filtering

6" meshing

50 brightness

55 contrast

.9 mid tones

20000 physical scale

[kingeldar]

i'm sorry couldn't really help with walls (even if it seems there's a little improvement on shadow under the painting but i'm not even sure....)... maybe more refine (i go sometimes to 40 or 50)

 

but ur carpet looks definitly better isnt'it?

[Jason Matthews]

Hi Stephane,

 

I defintly think the carpet looks better. Sometimes when you look at something for too long, you don't recoginize some of the problems. It always helps to have someone elses fresh eyes. Thanks for your help.

 

Jason

[Fran]

Jason,

 

What is the reflectance value of your wall paint? Did you reduce it with the Radiosity Override? If so, set it back to 100 or whatever the default is. Adjust the value of the diffuse color of the wall paint so that the reflectance value shows at between 70-79%.

 

Here is a quick mock-up I did of your scene with the settings I recommended:

 

This is odd, I separated the interior shell from the structure to exclude the outside of the building from meshing and regathering. Look what happened:

 

Here it is regathered (render time 3 min 57 sec on dual xeon machine):

[Jason Matthews]

Hi Fran,

 

Why would that that happen? Surface problem I guess. I looked at the material of the wall. I simply changed the diffuse color and the ambient color. I did not mess with the maps. I did use an override on the walls It was on .9 instead of 1.0. I will set it on 2 and see what happens. I think my problem was that the skylight was set too high at the very beginning. This led to darker walls, floors, etc. I will repost when finished. Thanks for taking some time with me.

[Jason Matthews]

OK Fran,

 

Here art the images with the settings that you recommended. I am still getting some massive imperfections on the walls. I tried bumping up the refinements to 30, and that had little effect. The walls are brighter, without compromisising the rest of the scene, which I like. The image in the middle is filtering set at 10 with all other settings the same.

[Jason Matthews]

This is a little strange. I took out the drapes, refined iterations to 25, filtering is on 3. Majority of the splotches disappeared. I wonder how I would go about fixing that. Maybe I should use the reactor cloth for the drapes.