Interior Realistic Lighting

[Jonny English]

Hi All

 

I'm trying to do my first detailed interior and I want to use Radiosity to create a realistic lighting rig.

 

I have gone so far, but now need some advice...hope you can help.

[chuck]

what are you using for lights?

 

it looks like you have an omni in the space, since everything is getting light...no soft shadows. you might want to start with a direct light coming through the window, it will be obvious when the radiosity is setup properly.

 

i'd put some other objects in that scene too, it will help you see how accurate the lighting looks.

 

what are your radiosity settings?

 

chuck

[Jonny English]

Here's a screen view CHuck.

[Jonny English]

Here's the scene with one direct light coming through the window. What is the best way to progress the lighting to produce that realistic effect?

[caddiellac]

Why don't you try using Photometric lights instead? Try having one IES Sun or IES Sky through one of the windows. Also increase your initial quality to somewhere around 85% and decrease your meshing size to 5.0mm

[chuck]

it still doesnt look like radiosity is working correctly. like stated above, 85% is a good number to start with for initial quality.

 

is regathering on?

 

under rendering parameters, click "render direct illumination"

and turn on "regather indirect illumintaion" below that.

 

i'd leave the rays per sample at 64 for now, but if it gets grainy increase the value.

 

chuck

[Jonny English]

Here it is with Regather and 85% quality.

 

Still seems a long way off.

 

How do I get the walls a nice white (ish) colour?

 

Any other advise would be very gratefully received.

[chuck]

are there any other lights on besides the direct light you have outside? i like to set up the daylight first, then add in interior lights gradually. it almost looks to me that there are a bunch of omni's still on, without shadows.

 

the wall on the right shouldn't be so bright, it should have no direct light hitting it. it seems pretty yellow in there too, probably from the color bleed off the floor. change that material to an advanced lighting override, use the old map as a sub map, then lower the color bleed.

 

you can adjust the light levels/contrast etc of the scene using the exposure contol.

 

anyway, here's what i came up with...

 

chuck

[chuck]

the .max file:

[Fran]

Hi Jonathon,

 

As suggested use photometric lights with radiosity and decrease your mesh size. It is better to use the Daylight System with IES sun. Check the shadow bias - set it to .1 or lower.

 

Check the reflectance values of your materials. If it doesn't show up in the material editor, you need to enable it through the Radiosity tab in Customize>Preferences. There is a rough guildeline for reflectance values of real-world materials in the user reference.

 

For radiosity, use Logarithmic Exposure control. The default brightness setting is usually too high.

[Jonny English]

Thanks Chuck and Fran for your help.

 

I will try the Photometric lighting, you suggested Fran as the quality I would eventually like to achieve is similar to the quality of light in your renders.

 

Will post my progress.

[Jonny English]

I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere now.

 

Your comments would really help...how could I improve this image now?

There is only a Daylight system lighting the scene. Maybe a light source from the lamps overhead?

 

Please let me know what you think...