Interior looks a bit flat

[Crayox13]

Hi guys,
I used hdri dome only to light this scene (added an extra rect in the bedroom). I'm ok with the bedroom, but kitchen and living room look a bit flat. I'll try reducing the gamma of my hdri sky, but any other ideas? Maybe it's normal for that space to look that way because I have giant windows all around so it's uniformly light. Had to remove most of the details per clients request.
Thanks

[M.Max]

looking cool and neat . I liked the dining shot .
the project could use some accessories to add life to it .
the noise pattern on the black wall could be a bit more random and less visible and I think the sofa texture have tiling issues .

[Crayox13]

Yes, agreed on all that...it was a rush job and didn't have time to do more but still. Other than removing almost all accessories, client also asked to turn on the lights so they look a bit out of place since in daylight.
Thanks for the comment!

[Companioncube]

client also asked to turn on the lights so they look a bit out of place since in daylight.

I get that all the time, 2nd favourite request is having the fireplace on while wanting summer, midday lighting. crazy clients.

[Macker]

How have you managed to get the ceiling to look so bright? Got it in a mtlwrapper or something?

The mullions/transoms don't seem to be shadowing it at all - that's what's killing it for me I think?

[Crayox13]

haha Companioncube...the first version actually had gas fires in fireplace but I had to remove that!!! not sure why

Yeah, I see what you mean Macker. It's weird because I did not do any cheating on this one, like make window elements be excluded from GI or cast shadows. Everything normal. Ceilings were actually darker but then I added a white ground object all around this scene so the light bounces off of it and lights the ceiling more (originally it was darker). I made that ground "not visible to the camera".

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

Try revisiting the material values perhaps a bit? It will render slightly less contrasty but you can add it back in grading.
I would change the ground albedo to something realworld.
Everytime i used white for such thing i got flat results.
Apart from the sky (which for interior shot is a slightly underexposed) you cant see much of exterior so why not use 2 plane light setup??
Try making one large rectangle light above the scene with temperature of 6500 and another quite large plane light directional with warmer settings.

Then if you have all the color values in the scene right /like not too bright and not too dark, run IPR and test different angles and intensities for the lights. With this technique i usually start with the key directional light and when i am happy with what it does, i start raising the top fill light.

You might as well use sun/sky but it will give you less control in my opinion than 2 detached lights.

As for backplate - exclude it from any light and GI calculation and give it some self illuminate multiplier to match the interior/exterior exposure ( i tend to use some real world photos to guess that)

I you have some spare time, give this a go

[Crayox13]

Hm, interesting approach. Never tried that. Would you mind elaborating a bit please?
So ground albedo, you mean that invisible outside object I use? By albedo you mean lower its diffuse value? I never use white anyway, right now I set it to 100 rgb. I make my pure whites 128 max.
How do you do grading? I use PS CameraRaw since I don't like the way others handle burned areas (even VFB).

I will definitely try this 2 light setup and see how that will look on my current project. What do you mean plane light directional? You mean to make rect directional 1.0? And put that one where window is?

Backplate...for background image only? I tend to do all that in PS, and don't use background in renders....so that's not a problem.

Thanks in advance!

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

pack the scene up if you can with textures if you can i ll do a quick setup (without changing the material values youll have to do that on your end to your liking)
I do grading in Corona Image Editor and PS

[Crayox13]

Great thanks!
here's the link

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

ok ill have a look at it when i get some spare time today/tomorrow

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

So for starters, your material color spread is way too low.
Setting black to 0 and expecting it will bounce something is like waiting for a VFB improvement in Vray NEXT ))

I had a play with your scene but i would have to change every material there to get some good starting point and i am in a bit of a time crunch.
If you could get your colors between lets say 10-20 for blacks and 190-210 for whites it woudl make it a lot easier for me to work with the scene.

Strangely the concrete floor was rendering as a really dark wood although when i picked it, it was shown as concrete???

If you get your colors and materials into right levels, you can then try this:

1. set the ground plane to something like 50 gray
2. create one plane light directly above the model and in plan you can set it to about the size of your model in plan view, set it to colder tone
3. then create one directional 0,6 targeted plane light lets say 5x5 meters make it a bit warmer and use it as you would sun
4. with the top light off start ipr and tweak the key directional light until you get some nice result.
5 then switch the top light on and tweak until you get some nice fill - alternatively use dome light withtou any hdri
6. your exposure settings must be set to something you woudl use to get a nice exposure in the interior

Dont hesitate to change these two lights to something else like disc, sun or whatever to see the difference.
But unless you have normal material color levels and some real world camera parameters your interiors will not feel right because it woudl lead you to incorrect light multiplier levels, noise etc...

Hope this helps so far???

[Crayox13]

Hey,
Thanks so much! I will start switching my old method to the normal rgb values. Seams mine is really outdated. Will try all of this and send results. The floor rendered as wood because there's a floorgenerator object that that shows as box, and underneath there's a concrete base

[Crayox13]

Oh, and for that above light, initially I thought you put it inside the scene just underneath the ceiling but now I see it's above everything so it bounces that light from the outside ground. But you make it bigger then the scene walls etc, right?
Edit: One more thing, do you make the "sun" and the other light the same intensity? Do you leave it default 30, or make it 1? I mean in default (image) units.

[piotrus3333]

Why not good old VRaySun? fast and flexible: