Rendering An Interior Without Windows

[braddewald]

Does anybody have any tips for rendering an interior scene with no visible -- or even off-camera windows? I've encountered this problem before and have never found a way to really make it look good without natural lighting. (I'm using 3ds Max + Vray)

 

Without a major/dramatic/dominant light source, it's hard to avoid a "flat" look. Right now, I'm using a combination of very slight environment lighting and vray IES lights. But I can't say that it looks great. The other problem is that everything in the scene is virtually a shade of gray. No matter how I tweak the lighting in the scene, I can't seem to shake that flat, gray look.

 

Any suggestions?

Edited December 18, 2010 by braddewald

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Can you post an image of where you are now?

 

I would not use the environment light in the 3dsmax environment rollout as I think it only adds ambient light, which will cause a flat look.

 

I would stick to a handful of IES lights, and try different ones, because IES are not created equal. Some of large spreads that throw a lot of light around the room, including some upwards, others are very narrow, like the ubiquitous MR16 that appears in so many renderings. The MR16 I am reffering to is the 'Nice 16.ies' file in that collection.

 

 

Maybe try this collection, it has corresponding jpegs that give you a general preview of the spread. Or you can use one of the IES viewers to help determine the spread.

http://www.evermotion.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=66539

http://www.photometricviewer.com/

 

This is also a case where I would highly recommend turning off camera exposure, and simply lighting the scene. Camera exposure is just going to add extra settings that need to be adjusted. Using no exposure means you only need to adjust the intensity and color of the light to get what you want.

[kippu]

you can borrow some photography ideas like bounce lights and fill lights?

[Fran]

Yes, as Travis said, can you post a progress image?

[Jonathan Sanchez]

also..there might not be any natural light coming in.. but is there artificial light coming in from the sides, from behind the cam.. or from a door?...also, I've found that in these circumstances, gamma at 2.2 tends to create these washed out flat images, so I would lower the gamma some and play with the lit/dark areas to create some contrast. Check out a sample of an image I did with similar circumstances here: http://forums.cgarchitect.com/63588-interior-commercial-restaurant.html

Edited December 18, 2010 by sancheuz

[-MerlyN-]

agreeing with all above. If you want to create a realistic look, I'd first start with shutting off ambient light. There is no ambient light in the real world. Also make sure, that you use colored lights. Light is seldom pure white.

[Ismael]

Here attached is a fine answer to a similar problem:

http://www.cg-blog.com/answers/V-Ray-for-Rhino/How-can-I-render-completely-enclosed-interior-space-nicely-NO-WINDOWS/_78

 

Regards,

[braddewald]

Thanks for all the help, guys. Here's what I ended up with.