WIP interior...some help please!!

[cristoforo]

I'm having some problems with this interior of an animation. Considering this is only 400x320 (the actual will be 720x546), it took 45 min to render....including the LC and IR Map calc. There are many lights in the scene. This is just the waiting room leading into an overlook of the main working space. In this area I'm using two types of lights....(1) a sphere vray light for the larger lights (which are solatubes) and a standard spot for the other spots with a shadow map shadow. I wanted to use a vray shadow, but there was too much noise. Increasing subdivisions would have made the rendering even slower. The problem, as you can see, is the seen is way too dark...not enough light bounce. There is too much contrast between the lit and not lit areas of the spots. Right now for tests I am using low IR map settings with hemispheric subdiv at 30. I'm also using linear color mapping of 2,0 and 2,0. Any suggestions how I can get more light bouncing around? Do I need to add a filler light? As for using many lights (vray lights) in an animation, any suggestions on settings to reduce render times? The plan has many offices surrounding an oval working space. In each office I have a vray light plane to illuminate. I never enter these spaces though. Should I maybe not use a vray light to illuminate these spaces? As for the lighting...I am testing now adjusting the vray properties of the walls, pavement, and ceiling. Maybe this will help. thanks for any suggestions!

[cristoforo]

To be a bit clearer about the working space with offices surrounding....here is the image. This space will also be in the animation...worries me a bit with all the lights.

[cristoforo]

Better here....but now the back is way too washed out. Have to adjust the light here. Here I modified the vray properties of the walls, floor, and ceiling. Right approach??

[mcphep]

Try different colour mapping options to get more light bouncing around. Lots of lights = high render times I'm afraid. The other thing you could try is to break the scene up, deleting things that will not been seen in an animation path will speed up render times too.

[dapeter]

If it wasn't too much work to adjust everything, I'd say switching over to the linear workflow would be the best way to get more light in the scene without raising render times. Using linear workflow would make a big difference in areas like the downlights in the lobby area.

You could try the poor man's gamma correct (as a test) to see if it makes any difference - go under "Customize" --> "Preferences" --> "Gamma" --> check "Enable Gamma Correction" --> change the Bitmap parameters to Input Gamma = 2.2, Output Gamma = 1.0, and

Then render using the Vray framebuffer, and use the Gamma Correction color mapping set at dark = 1.0, light = .454 and uncheck 'Clamp Colors.'

If you really want to just test to see if it's lit better, do a render before you make these changes with a global override Vray material set at RGB=92,92,92. Then make the changes I listed above and change the override material to RGB=27,27,27 and re-render.

Give it a try on one frame and see if it makes a big difference (it will mess up the reflections until you recorrect any part of any materials that use a color swatch instead of a bitmap, see below) , worst case scenario you can always go back without changing any actual scene info.

Best case, you like the results. You'll have to go back and change the values of anything that uses an RGB color value (easiest way is to use the color correct plugin, copy the color swatch, and paste it into the swatch's material slot. Then, paste the color into the swatch in the Color Correct plugin, and set the Gamma to 2.2).

[filip]

You could try to save the animation images in 32bit format and then to adjust light of the scene in postproduction. For interior scenes with lots of lights I use only standart spots and omnis with low size (128,256) shadowmaps. For rooms in far distance from camera use just one or few planar vray lights stored with irradiance map. Precalculation of irradiance map and LC will save you lot of time, but I think you know this

[cristoforo]

I tried the quick LWF test as mentioned above, but everything came out grey, with less contrast, and little difference in illumination. Since I already have other parts of the animation rendered without LWF, perhaps I should just stick to normal work flow for now. I do not have much time to finish this animation....would not be a good idea to introduce something new now. I'm trying different color maps...but do not seem to have much luck.

[Clifton Santiago]

Yeah, I've found its not a good idea to switch to LWF mid-project, especially if you are under a deadline.