Cant balance my ceiling/lighting !

[leotchest]

Ive just started on this simple space (1.5 RC2 on WinXP SP2)- everything seemed to be going ok until I tried to brighten up the ceiling - ceiling needs to be bright white high gloss / enamel type of finish. No matter what I do, I cant get the ceiling to brighten up without blowing out the ceiling altogether. The posted image is an extreme example of this, but this is the general problem im having. I've tried a variety of different colour mapping methods & settings, but all to no avail. Its either too dark or totally blown out. The scene (the dark version) is at this link if anybody can take a look and tell me how to keep the room approximately "as-is" but get a whiter ceiling....
https://www2.sendthisfile.com/d.jsp?...AWyImIyspcTkS4

[natty]

Hi ..

i cant download the file but try to override the floor as it is grey and will be making your ceiling grey. so use an override material and set it to off white i guess.

N

[Candelero]

Hi ..

i cant download the file but try to override the floor as it is grey and will be making your ceiling grey. so use an override material and set it to off white i guess.

N

Second that ! Use the Override (GI) material on the walls as well, so that the GI solution is made out of mainly white materials. Best of all this you are getting the render in 1 pass.

Best regards,
nikki Candelero

[leotchest]

Thanks. A new day, a new start. I'll give the override thingy a go within the next hour or so. Here is another link to the file just in case it all goes wrong again...
http://www.capsuledesigns.com/files/Tmp/Lighting.zip

I had a lot of problems with this ceiling and had to redraw the curve several times. Im still getting some wierd splotches/wied reflections up there.

[natty]

What is that material you are using on the ceiling? its not vray?

[leotchest]

O that ! forgot to remove it. Its an override material used for quick, cheap & nasty adjustments in colour. I actually had turned it off as it wasnt helping. I was trying to use it to up the ceiling 'whiteness' without blowing it out. You can just drag & drop the original vray material out of the override. You can trial it here
http://www.af-video.com/index.html?p21765089422

[Da_elf]

i had written a tutorial on how to do this for people before 1.5 but then when vlado introduced the override material i just knew it would become obsolete

[natty]

Check your mail dude.

[ene.xis]

did u sorted this out?

[leotchest]

no - not really. i tried the override material, which looks very handy, but it didnt solve my problem. I can see from Natty kindly sending me an email that you can certainly 'balance' the scene, but it wasnt giving me the results i was looking for / I didnt have time to play with the alternative setup. i have to hand this in tomorrow so i will probably render some different passes & fix the ceiling in photoshop. heres where im at, & i still have to add in some more details/people etc...

[natty]

The scene i sent you resolved this issue and looked fine?

[ene.xis]

i got to play with it last night...don t know exactly what s the look ur after...


but the ceiling eas easily brighten up...

[Da_elf]

where were you using your override material? just on the rooff? you need to use it everywhere. basically with downlights your not getting light on the cieling if you have a dark floor. so its the walls and floor that more need the override than the cieling

[ene.xis]

i did not use any override materials...i just got rid of the one used on the ceiling

[leotchest]

Natty - your use of the override material on floors & walls gave a nice white ceiling (albeit with some overexposure on the sides of the ceiling). The overall lighting was very flat though and I decided to go back and try to fix my original setup instead as I didnt have enought time to get my head arouns the alternative lighting scheme and GI solution. I can see that you've pointed me in the right direction, but I didnt quite get it to a satisfactory state. Using the override material I found that the ceiling became overexposed too easily, so I took it off. I'll try adding it back again with a less bright diffuse colour and maybe that will help.
Ene.xis - what GI settings are you using ? Im trying to keep it fairly moody, with subtle shadows on the floor from the entrance mullions and some dramatic lighting.