Faking the Sun conditions or not?

[christosviskadourakis]

Hello, I recently work on some projects in the UK. As you know, the Sun is not that strong and 90% of the days you can't even see where the Sun is because of the thick clouds. So everyday I face a dilemma. Should I fake the sun in order to produce some more interesting visualizations with strong shadows-light and glare or should I respect the UK climate?

 

What do you do? Do you fake it or not?

 

Christos

[John Dollus]

Being an architectural renderer is the same as being a professional liar. we are often tasked with portraying an idealized version of reality to convey an idea so if that includes sunlight for you, then let the sun shine in. Just please don't add in a hot air balloon festival happening overhead.

[christosviskadourakis]

;)

[Ernest Burden III]

from yesterday:

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/80246-when-your-boss-tell-you-fake.html

[heni30]

If you are doing projects that are in the UK then I think you probably should simulate conditions that are typical. You should look at renderings by Scandinavian rendering firms and you'll see that there are enormous possibilities to create images that have a LOT of mood and character.

One of the Vyonyx partners was saying everyone in the studio wants to do sexy overcast desaturated "cabin in the woods" images and that they groan when they have to do a full sunlit bright one.

Edited May 2, 2016 by heni30

[Nicolai Bongard]

I am from norway (even further north) and i can assure you that we have bright sunlight and cloudless days. So as long as the sun angle is relatively correct you should be good to go.

[Chris MacDonald]

Do whatever looks best - unless you are having to match a photo that was taken on an overcast day.

[christosviskadourakis]

I am from norway (even further north) and i can assure you that we have bright sunlight and cloudless days. So as long as the sun angle is relatively correct you should be good to go.

 

Of course there are sunny days but (at least for UK, because I lived there 3 years) they are quite rare. Your point about the Sun angle is good. You are right, the Sun is lower when you are closer to North pole.

[Nicolai Bongard]

What program do you use? If you max and vray you could create a daylight system (Mental ray), input the coordinates of the site (just google map and click somewhere, you should get the coordinates), type them into the setup and set a date and time, then turn off the MR sun and environment and align and link a vray sun to your daylight system. Then you should get a decent setup, where you can change the time of the MR sun and your vray sun will automatically follow.

[Francisco Penaloza]

What program do you use? If you max and vray you could create a daylight system (Mental ray), input the coordinates of the site (just google map and click somewhere, you should get the coordinates), type them into the setup and set a date and time, then turn off the MR sun and environment and align and link a vray sun to your daylight system. Then you should get a decent setup, where you can change the time of the MR sun and your vray sun will automatically follow.

 

For a while now 3D Max sun system will load other render engine suns, V Ray, Mental Ray, Corona etc. it does have a drop menu to choose.

 

Regarding the main question, yes as Visualization artist we try to show the ideal view of the project most of the time, but knowing the environment where the project will be is important to to display the building working in the right context.

 

I live in California and we also have foggy or rainy days, but display a building in that condition will scream fake.

Maybe your sunny day in London won't be as orange or bright as a sunny day in California or the Caribbean. Just look around, research photography of that area and try to place your building in that environment.

[Nicolai Bongard]

For a while now 3D Max sun system will load other render engine suns, V Ray, Mental Ray, Corona etc. it does have a drop menu to choose.

 

Cool, gonna have to check that out! I mostly stick to HDRI's.

[Jon Berntsen]

I am from even longer up north than Nicolai, and yes, it's all about making a good mood. Even if it's still 90% cloudy days, people still want to have those sunny days. They can't blame the company who sold the house if it's overcast. A good selling mood is not one of those foggy forest moods. I would compare that with those students putting all their effort in modeling and rendering robots.

 

One of the founders of MIR once said that they used to test/check how good applicants were at making sunny sky images, because everyone were always putting their own wishes into the portfolio items, (foggy forest, doh) rather than what a typical client would want. And it's also harder to make a sunny sky illustration look good. Imagine that. However, check suncalc.net for the sun, and make it lower than what the usual sunny sky hdri's give you out of the box (edit the hdr image), and you should be good to go.