Color Mapping

[J_Bug]

Anyone feel like doing a good tut on Color Mapping. I can't ever get a good idea of what exactly is going on.

--Jon

[yage]

well, color mapping is like loving a girl.
you can't describe how to do it best, it depends on the girl

[J_Bug]

Hahahaha I think I'm laughing so hard that I'm starting to cry. Our new employee is looking at me like I'm crazy.

It does seem that way, good one yage but come on I just don't get the other two no default types. I' m pretty sure I understand what the terms are referring to but I just can't get any good results from using them and the help file isn't completely helpful in this area.

--Jon

[natty]

I tend to use Linear when i can ..... but its very hard to balance the light.. but i dont like the greyness with the other's .... they seem to suppress the contrast so much its not good .... but with a little PS work you can get that back again..

[TutanMark]

I agree with natty, i don't like the greyness of exponential methods. Anyway sometimes are better , especially on interiors.

In my last work, still not finished, i'm using 2 exponential settings .

Images are not final, and cropped

1) cabin , Exponential 5/3 , about 30 photometric lights + vraylights + sky


2) Salon , Exponential 3.05/1.05 , about 70 photometric lights + vraylights + sky


The result was a little retouched in photoshop.. but i want try to calculate the exact exposure in max. Don't forget that in 1.45.70 we have contrast/saturation control also... but i never used it.

Of course i would like to learn more about these exponential controls, to be more "scientific", than to try and try.

Cheers,
Marco

[sv]

They are impressive renderings.
I have heard that for externals on a bright, sunny day, it is best to use HSV Expon, with quite a high contrast. But this can sometimes seem to wash out the image a bit, and also remove any detail that a nice HDR map will add to the scene when used along side a direct light.....

[TutanMark]

Thanks,

I heard it too, but i still prefer to use linear for exterior renderings... when i will have time i will take a look on others.

I usually prefer hdri maps for skylight

Cheers,

[yage]

yeah, for exterior-renderings i also use linear. though for interiors i use nearly at all times hsv-exp. to balance the light and get rid of too dark shadows or overbrightness. of course it often washes out renderings, but with a slight postwork you'll fix this quite easily, however it's definetly more difficult to balance a whole lightingsetup in photoshop than just fixing the contrasts. thus i use hsv-exp.

[sv]

We more or less use exponential with dark multiplier at 2 for internals; this seems to make really nice ambient lighting as you don't get overly heavy shadows in corners etc. But for externals i'm still looking for that killer set up - linear to me can look a bit dull, and often it's that flat result that can make images look CG. With HSV, i think the image does look a bit more realistic when used with a high contrast, but still can be washed out.
What we need is the subtleness and high quality detailing of a HDR used as an environment light, but used alongside a direct light so we get nice strong sunlight and shadows without loosing the detail of the HDR.

[J_Bug]

Great info. Natty, it was this greyness that was confusing me. Clears up allot for me just reading what everyone uses. I guess most of my work can be considered exterior so that's wht Linear seems to work best for me.

Marco, Man those are brilliant Great job

I guess I'll have to take the time one of these days to do a series of tests. If I get around to it soon, I'll post the results in this thread.

Thanks,
--Jon

[rusted]

hi TutanMark

great work!!

please post ur work in imageuploads.i almost missed it (or is it there already?)

[gustavobenites]

yage write: "well, color mapping is like loving a girl.
you can't describe how to do it best, it depends on the girl "

GREAT!!!!

Tutan Mark: Amazing man!!! Great renders!!

hugs,
gustavo benites