vegetation renders dark

[philvanderloo]

I brought some vegetation into my scene from another project and it all renders black. I checked the material structure in both scenes and it's the same.

So what should I be looking for to correct this. Seems like a map gamma issue but I'm not sure how to address it.

Notice the ivy on the wall and the bushes along the fence line. All black.

Thank You.

[Corey Beaulieu]

When you brought them in from your other project, did you copy the maps and relink them to your new project folder? If any of the diffuse maps are missing they will render black.

[philvanderloo]

Yes I did. They're all there.

[Corey Beaulieu]

Then I don't know. You may be correct on the gamma issue. You can fix in your Preferences or just go to your Bitmap node and attempt to replace it with a new map. When you do, Use the same map, but make sure it is importing at the correct gamma. Should be 2.2 for the brighter version.

[philvanderloo]

I'm stumped. I went to re-import bitmaps and they are all at 2.2 gamma.

I removed the ivy but, as you can see, the bushes on the fence line are still black.

[Corey Beaulieu]

Phil,

 

I don't have anything for your vegetation issues, but I noticed you have a 2 shadow situation on your house. Do you have 2 Direct light sources? You have a sky in you background, is there a possibility that you are using an HDRI and a Sun? If so, you nd to pick one to overpower the other and expose accordingly or at least place your sun where your HDRI has it exactly.

 

It could also be that the geometry works differently than it looks in your image in which case things are fine.

[philvanderloo]

Yes Thanks Corey. I've been using an HDRI image in 2 material slots, 1 as lighting and 1 as a background. And, among other tests, I've been rotating the lighting around to see if it affects the color or lighting of the bushes. I haven't yet linked my sun to my HDRI image sun but I realize I need to do this. Thanks for the pointer.

Phil

[Chris MacDonald]

You always have the most bizarre lighting setups, and I am a firm believer this is what causes a lot of the issues you're having.

[philvanderloo]

I know Chris. As I'm still learning, I keep trying different recommendations/tutorials and this project has been experimented with so long it's just a big mess.

It's tough when you're just learning on your own and don't really have anyone to show you a solid workflow. You just keep trying different things until your scene becomes a cluster F*_&k.

[zhopudey]

Try applying a new material with a flat color and see if they render properly.

Disable the hdri and check with just a color in max environment.

[inatosema]

Render with standard / raw vray material and check. If it refers properly it should be a material / shader problem. U might Hm want to use the vray scene convertor option to remake the materials for you.