Best GI method for day to night anim

[olitech]

Can anyone recommend the best GI method for a 'day to night' animation sequence? We're using 1.47.03

I'm pretty good with the IR/QMC combo for walkthrough's etc...anything else is uncharted territory for me (just got used to the switch from 1.09 a few months ago)

Animating the sun/sky is nooo problem. Very satisfying.

sun is animated (colour/intensity) -fine
sky is animated -fine
enviro (gi) colour is animated -fine

on single frame (no matter where u scrub) everything looks awesome and correct! the problem is when rendering using the precalc solution...

the only thing that doesn't change (animate) is the colour and intesity of the GI on the object...eg. when it goes night, the object is still carrying the GI of daytime. (not the sun, the eviro colour)

I know i'm not using the right solution for this...can anyone point me in the right direction? (i'm so used to the speed i get from ir/qmc)

Hope all this makes sense without a pic...

[jacksc02]

olitech - what you could do is just render stills of the changing lighting and then composite them with fades in your favourite post programme.
This wouldnt work if the camera was moving in the scene.

[DaForce]

hmmm sounds like you need frame by frame calcing for this.

[olitech]

wow...so you guys think i should try single frame calc and just send it?

even when i calc every frame for IRMAP it does this (or doesn't do it as is the case).

since the sunlight intesity/colour reacts the way i want it to (with IR/QMC), i was thinking of 'ol skooling the gi with animated lights...

all of these ideas are worth a try...at least the camera isn't moving

thanks guys!...i'll let you know what happens, but if you get any other ideas, let me know...i totally appreciate it!

[DanielBrew]

Hi Olitech,

As others have said, the reason your sun light behaves the way you want it to and your environment light doesn't is because the environment light is baked into your precalced IR map.

Are the sun and the sky the only lights in the scene? If they are then you may as well do as DaForce said and render each frame as you would for a 'moving objects animation'. But if you have other lights in your scene which are stored in the precalced IR map then you could replace the environment light with a VRay dome light. You should then be able to animate the dome light colour, just make sure you don't tick 'store with irradiance map'.

Dan

[olitech]

ahhhh......Daniel.....of course! thanks, i'll let you know the results.

[olitech]

But if you have other lights in your scene which are stored in the precalced IR map then you could replace the environment light with a VRay dome light. You should then be able to animate the dome light colour, just make sure you don't tick 'store with irradiance map'.

=[ it didn't work...i was so sure it would...

[DaForce]

ok, if your calcing each frame and not using any saved GI info.. it should be fine.

Can you show us the problem that your having.

[cpnichols]

Are you looking to do something like what i did here?

http://www.chaosgroup.com/forum/phpB...ic.php?t=13593

I would suggest you use QMC for your primary

[olitech]

Chris, that's right!
I'm trying the QMC/LC method now.
I know this is the 'proper' method to use for this type of anim, but...ouch...the times! that's why i was trying to cheat it with IR/QMC.

Here's the failed ir/qmc each frame precalc attempt. Notice how the gi remains consistent throughout (which, of course is the nature of IRmap):

[DaForce]

Hmmm the way i see it its quite simple. If you precalc the IR map, you will get those problems.

In your scene because all the lighting is changing it needs a new soution each frame.
The GI remaining consistant is not the nature of IR map as such, its the nature of a Precalc'ed IR map.