3D Light Bulb shading and Rendering using Linear workflow and gamma 2.2

[thomaskc]

Hi everyone,

This must be one of my first times posting here but though I would share last nights mini personal challenge.

Background:
I have been in architectural visualisation for more than a handful of years now and my "up bringing" has always been working with gamma 1.0 and exponential color mapping which has been great and I love the results. How ever I have grown more and more curious towards this "not so new anymore" standard that seems to be growing (now max 2014 is even expecting it out of the box), that is linear workflow and gamma 2.2 color mapping.

Task:
So I basically combined two questions into one which was,

1. Setup a decent looking lighting for a small studio setup using linear and gamma 2.2 (go out of comfort zone)

2. How would I approach lighting a lit light bulb?

Result:


Anyway, feel free to comment on both image and the idea of trying to fit in with the rest of the industry using a certain method or if you have any questions about how I got the result I have.

Cheers,

Thomas

http://www.snakeboxmedia.com

[Pixelcon]

Beautiful! Would love to know how you did the actual lit bulb... And are you using vraylenseffects or is it post work?

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Heya

Very nice starting point so far... asto point 2...

Regarding lighting a light bulb... I personally would shade the source of light(the metal thini) and make a nice delicate flaring/glowing around that. I would not really add any reflections on the bulb itself, maybe a slight gradient on the edge or so but I'd keep it clean as your render looks so far...

Also when it comes to this sort of stuff... make sure you have thick geometry + your cut off treshold on reflection materials is in range 0.00001 or so...

[thomaskc]

Beautiful! Would love to know how you did the actual lit bulb... And are you using vraylenseffects or is it post work?

Thanks!

The glass on the light bulb has thickness, so basically I took the same approach as to how you light a wine glass with liquid in it. Instead of liquid I just have a vray light (sphere) that fits very tightly to limit the visual glass on the edges but still but "correct" as in being inside.





There is a tiny bit of post done in photoshop, glow and a bit of contrast.

/ Thomas

[deflix]

1. Setup a decent looking lighting for a small studio setup using linear and gamma 2.2 (go out of comfort zone)

2. How would I approach lighting a lit light bulb?

Result:


Anyway, feel free to comment on both image and the idea of trying to fit in with the rest of the industry using a certain method or if you have any questions about how I got the result I have.

Cheers,

Thomas

http://www.snakeboxmedia.com

Hi Thomas,

Linear workflow isn't a workflow at all it is simply a matter of increasing your gamma in workspace, and then (for most of us) baking this gamma into your image on output.
Just make sure you set both 3dsmax native and output gamma levels to 2.2. In the VrayFrameBuffer you have a little button to show SRGB (2.2) which you will need to press or your renderings will appear with gamma 1 i.e. very dark.

By using gamma 2.2 you will get a more 'intuitive' propagation of light in your scenes, but will notice that the black point is far far lower, so that dark materials are in the single digit range with regards to RGB values. Its just a matter of getting used to it.

As for your light bulbs it really depends on your required level of detail or distance from camera. When really close like in your image above I suggest you illuminate the coil itself, and then play with lens effects to achieve the required glare and bloom. I personally don't think the vraylight as you have it now is a good approach because the neck of the bulb is not illuminated as it should be.

cheers

[thomaskc]

@deflix

Very valid points.

I guess in a true production scenario I would probably fake it and slap on a 2sided vray material with a white submaterial, and then any given light source inside. It will blow up fully white and "fill" out the glass.

In terms lighting the coil, I actually did try that but I couldn't get it to ever emit enough light to really have any volume.

As for lens effects are we talking Vray effects? will have to look into that a bit more. could be the solution for my problem above.

cheers

[deflix]

@deflix

Very valid points.

I guess in a true production scenario I would probably fake it and slap on a 2sided vray material with a white submaterial, and then any given light source inside. It will blow up fully white and "fill" out the glass.

In terms lighting the coil, I actually did try that but I couldn't get it to ever emit enough light to really have any volume.

As for lens effects are we talking Vray effects? will have to look into that a bit more. could be the solution for my problem above.

cheers

Yes Vray Lens effects - A few things to remember before using them.

. lens interaction is essential for getting the effect you are seeking - all lights look as they do due to obstacle/normalisation/flare/bloom interaction from eye or camera.
. Use a mask threshold or the whole image will be affected.
. Render to element only. (The option of both image and render element is pretty useless because your RGB has the effect baked in anyway)
.once your scene is setup select a low output/render settings, open the effects window and click 'interactive' The scene will render and you can then alter the lens effect in real-time to achieve the desired result.

Stick with the coil and use it as a meshlight, and then just punch up the power very high - Coils are very bright in reality!
also make the colour of the light a dark saturated orange/yellow, to achieve a more real-world colour falloff (your light is too unsaturated presently and looks more Fluorescent than incandescent).

Pull down your ambient light a little too in order to enhance the effect

[anchovy]

If you wanted to post you're scene file I'm sure there are several of us that would love to take a stab at it.

-Michael

www.morphographic.com

[thomaskc]

Ah absolutely! that could be fun!

I will upload it when I get home tonight. it is currently in Max2014 using Vray 2.4 but I presume it should be fine to save it as max 2011-2012 or what ever people use.

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

save as OBJ with planes where light are so we can reproduce it in maya...