I'm horrible with lights....

[Dai Vernon]

I never really know if my raytrace will turn out right. I have a nice chandelier in the room with the lights on. I have the interior ambience turned up and I have the sun shining in through the front bay window. I let it raytrace over night and this morning it is just way to dark to print and show to my customer.

What would you guys do in this room? Since this is only a concept of what his addition would look like, any lighting ideas are doable.

Should I put in some pot lights in the celing? And to what intensity?

Thanks for the help, I **** with interior lighting.

[ank345]

Set The Ceiling To Be Emisive....

[Dai Vernon]

Currently my material is set to the default bone. I should edit that bone material to be emissive?

Thank you for the reply. I've seen your renderings.....unbelievable!

[Curtis Johnson]

Nice design - I look forward to seeing your next post after your changes.

[ank345]

Set Your Ceiling To White ..make Sure They Are Not The Same Color As The Wall ...then Set It To 75% Emissive

[Dai Vernon]

Thank you Alan, it is raytracing right now. I will post the new pic. when it finishes raytracing......in about 4 hours

Thanks for the comment Curtis, hopefully the client will like it too!

[Dai Vernon]

Ok, so it's not perfect but I guess it'll do. I changed the ceiling to white and 75% emissivity. But for some reason the "cream" walls changed to olive. Not a problem because it looks alright. Still a little dark but much better from before.

Any other suggestions to get this room looking AMAZING??? This project is worth over $130,000.......with 10% commission I want the raytrace to just blow them away.

Thanks for the help!!

[mcqueenhomes]

Have you tried a photo editing program, and adjusting brightness/contrast/color?

[dgavin]

Dai,

Another option is to use lights from the 3D menu and place them accordingly. For instance one could use a point light set 60" off the ground to brighten the whole room. Sometimes 2 are needed depending on the room size and amount of brightness. WIht this option you would probably have to adjust the emmissivity of the ceiling down some.
It really is an art form.

[Dai Vernon]

Hey Jason,
Yeah, I wish I had photoshop or something. I just have some useless old picture editing program that can barely get the red out of eyes at best.

I see some Chief Users raytraced pictures, you know the ones that Chief posts on its site, or some of the pics posted here; that's what I'm after. And they did the rendering entirely in Chief.

I guess it's mainly practice. I usually just render exterior shots, interior is proving to be much more difficult. I have a meeting set with the client for tomorrow, I guess I'll be rendering all day and night.


Dennis, I never knew that those lights existed. I will definately try it out. I've changed the size of my screen to speed up the raytrace process, once it's perfected I'll do another large 3-4 hour one.

Thanks again!

[lbuttery]

Dai:

Try Paint Shop Pro X it is only $50 (after rebate) and is considered to be very capable.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=229534

Lew

[Night8917]

Hi Dai.

If you don't have a Photo editing program, download one of these, they are free and they will cover the basic need for editing.

http://www.gimp.org/windows/
Gimp was rated the best free photo edit program by a Swedish Computer magazine.

http://google.picasa.com/
I tried this one and it works well, easy to use.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/cpicturele.html
Have not tried this but I guess it works like the others.


Take care of each other.

[Dai Vernon]

Hi Dai.

If you don't have a Photo editing program, download one of these, they are free and they will cover the basic need for editing.

http://www.gimp.org/windows/
Gimp was rated the best free photo edit program by a Swedish Computer magazine.

http://google.picasa.com/
I tried this one and it works well, easy to use.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/cpicturele.html
Have not tried this but I guess it works like the others.


Take care of each other.

GREAT!! Thanks a lot! I will definatley be checking these out.

[ank345]

Set The Wall To Be Emissive 25%-40% And Try Set The Difuse Sunlight Higher (30-60%) You Have To Try Them Out To Get A Better Result...

[cgirerd]

Looks like you've got good advise already on the emissivity and added lights. I also suggest getting a photo editing program to adjust lighting and tweak colors. If you think about it, it can take less time to buy something like "Photoshop Elements 4" at Frys or an office supply store (what I use and find very valuable, but similar to PSP and others), install it and learn how to adjust the shadows and highlights than for a single raytrace to finish!

Back to the raytracing... You might try making the floor somewhat reflective. That can give a render a "fancier" look - just don't do too much. I'd also suggest that for the sofa and pillow fabrics that you set them to "dull" in the material dbx. Unless you are using satin, most fabrics don't have a shine and it will look more realistic to take the shine off. You might also consider adding a bump map to the upholstery. If you have a little more time, try selecting some "fancier" fabrics - and if that isn't your thing, have someone who knows about those things give you some help. Although you are selling the great architecture, that sofa grouping is the center of the view and anything you can do to make that seem more natural to the elegant setting will just help the architecture look even better. I also note that the chandelier seems a bit lost in the large space. It is sized for a typical dining room, and seems too small and lonely in a room the size you're showing. Or maybe you just need more lighting. (I'm just talking fixtures here, not more lights for raytracing.)

I would also suggest you adjust your camera angle so the windows don't seem to be falling in toward the center. When you do a nice view like this, do a "save as" and then have a plan just for that view. In this case, you can pull back the wall where the camera is so you can get a better angle, or delete intervening walls and furniture as needed - whatever you need to do "behind the scene" to make the scene angle look more normal.

You can also help the view look more "amazing" by touching up the yard with a little more landscaping - not just the lawn and a fence, which appear as a green and brown strip across the windows. But don't overdo it... and don't put in rows of identically spaced flowers along the fence!

All these kinds of touches add up to a great looking view. Lighting, the furniture and accessory selections, the textures, what you see out the windows...

Also I'm not sure what material the skylight is - is it transparent at all? It looks like a solid grey right now. Maybe that could be made a bit transparent and you could see some clouds or sky through it?

Anyway, a few thoughts... Have fun.


Christina