Interior HDRI lighting and set up-mental ray

[TomD_Arch]

Does anyone have any good tutorials or video links for setting up an interior scene with an interior hdri file? I am developing a dusk scene and realized I may be able to use an interior HDRI lighting image file and just supplement with some exterior light from a second sunset HDRI.

 

I've never tried to light a scene like this before and I have been using just an exterior HDRI light pluged into the skylight, but after seeing a few interior HDRI lighting files I am wondering if I should be utilizing that instead? I just never set-up a scene like that.

[Nicolai Bongard]

This question doesnt make any sense to me. The interior HDRIs are best used when you do not have any building geometry but just want to render out a small object inside of the "interior" of the HDRI. It doesnt make any sense to have your building geometry placed inside another room (hdri) does it? Because that is what you would see out of the windows. If you are talking about mixing HDRIs im sure that is possible, just create a mixmap where you paint out a mask of the windows in your interior hdri and then mix the two hdris. However that would look weird as the light of your interior (hdri) would be out of place with what you see out of the windows (the other hdri).

 

However if you just want to render out a small object inside the "interior" hdri, try to google for tutorials for setting up car renders with hdri`s, they usually go through stuff like placing a matte plane so that you get apropriate shadow casting of the object "onto" your hdri and other stuff that is necessary for it to look good.

[TomD_Arch]

Perfect answer. That's what I was looking for clarification on. So I am doing it correctly right now with HDRI exterior lighting and mr Sky Portals pushing that light in through the windows. Thank you!

[ellefanningxp]

Okay, I've been toying with Mental Ray in 3ds max for years now and have seen ... That said, I'll always have a sky in a render and will always need an exterior lighting setup. So, MR sun/sky vs HDRI vs anything else. ... all you needs, but rendering exteriors and rendering interior is a complete different deal.