vray sun & sky - any kickstart solution around?

[Mirko]

Hello,

I have tried the vray physical cam together with sun & sky a few times. But I didn't get good results.

I searched for turorials and found the "VRay Sun, Sky and Physical Camera video tut + Bonus Script!" thread. This tutorial is definitely very powerfull.
But to be honest - for me it looks very, very complex and difficult to understand.

Is there no easy way to use vray sun/sky? Any quick solution without scripting, without light messuring and stuff like that?

The main problem that I normaly have is the sky brightness. When the scene is lit well, the sky is alway to dark. I know that there are workarounds (e.g. output map and white balance). But I am not sure if this is the "official" way.

Or is the sun/sky indeed a special feature for intelligent people who love to calculate and script only?

[werticus]

sun sky is actually the easiest way to do exterior scenes.

actually its the easiest way to do interior scenes, cept that you need a render farm :P

that thread is what taught me all i needed to know about sun / sky systems so... maybe you can post your results and we can see what you've got wrong from there?

[joconnell]

Here's a simple one.

1. Add a vray sun, it'll ask you to add in a vray sky too, say yes.
2. Add in a vray camera for your view.
3. In your colour mapping set your gamma to 2.2. This will brighten your midtones and is part of lwf but that's a huge discussion.
4. Use the iso value of your camera to control the exposure of the scene. If it's too dark, make the iso number bigger - this makes the film of the camera more sensitive to light and expose faster. If the render is too bright, make the iso number smaller which makes the film less sensitive to light and makes darker renders.

The gamma makes a massive difference to the brightness of your renders in pretty much all cases.

[studioDIM]

Re: vray sun & sky - any kickstart solution around?

Or is the sun/sky indeed a special feature for intelligent people who love to calculate and script only?

Maybe it is

I measure because i NEED to.
How do you propose to check how intense is a float white?
And since that's what exposure under sunlight is about, that's what you need to do if you want accurate results when changing isos/shutter speeds.
Do it by eye if you please, the method is going to be identical, minus the comfort the numbers give.

As for the script, again, is a way to HELP people.
Using a script is NOT scripting.
Doing maxscript->run script and pointing to a file is identical to what you would to to open a Max file.
Also, what the script does, you can surely do by hand, one map at a time.

Don't be put off, to sum it all up, by terms and apparently complex methods.
If you please, watch the videos, and your sky will brighten up.
Otherwise, forget the physcam, use a standard camera, and lower the sun intensity, like most people do.

Lele

[glorybound]

Vray SUN/SKY

I have tried everything and found what works for me. I am having great success using the VRAY SUN/SKY and making all my materials and colors 1/4 the brighness.

[timmatron]

Re: Vray SUN/SKY

I have tried everything and found what works for me. I am having great success using the VRAY SUN/SKY and making all my materials and colors 1/4 the brighness.

Hey quick question on that. When you make your materials 1/4 of the brightness, you are using the VrayColor map to do that right? When you use that method, do you still have to change the bitmap gamma to 2.2?

[glorybound]

Sun/Sky

No, I just change the RGB multiplier in the vraycolor to .255 or .255 in the bitmap rgb output if it has a texture map

[timmatron]

Ah, ok thanks. Leads me to another question. Would you do that also for your other maps like reflection and bump maps, or should those remain untouched?

[glorybound]

Sun/Sky

I don't, but it to be more accurate I would think so. I don't mostly exterior images so relections are not that critical.

[aaron-cds]

Re: vray sun & sky - any kickstart solution around?

I searched for turorials and found the "VRay Sun, Sky and Physical Camera video tut + Bonus Script!" thread. This tutorial is definitely very powerfull.
But to be honest - for me it looks very, very complex and difficult to understand.

It is a little difficult to understand. I've watched the videos 3 times. Once I understood the concept, I was able to create a default scene for exteriors that has the sun and camera. When I have a new exterior rendering to do, I just start with that default scene. It's a great way to do exteriors. I can't thank you enough Lele.

[Mirko]

Thanks to all!!!

I will watch the movies again. Maybe I will get it then.