Exterior House Lighting Challenge

[jujubee]

There was recent discussion regarding the usage of HDR images for lighting. I mentioned that I thought it would be good if we were to come up with a scene and compare/test various lighting methods to see what achieves the most realistic look.

So here is a very simple scene to download.

The original model appeared in this post by Zahir3D, but I have gone in and changed the house around such as some of the geometry and textures as well as added a few items. The overall scene itself isn't very impressive, but that's the whole point here - is to see how we can make it look better by simply adjusting the lighting.

I've set some very basic settings for the sake of speed and running tests.

The rules follow:

What you can't do:

1. No adjustment of Irradiance Map/LC settings.
2. No adjustment of DMC sampler.
3. No post processing (Photoshop, etc.)
4. No curve adjustments.
5. No use of color corrections (including applying a s-curve.)
6. No adjustments or changes to materials.
7. Camera angles must remain so we can see the changes/differences.
8. You cannot move or substitute the models.
9. Apply frame stamp and processors so we can compare rendering times.

What you can do:

1. The sun can be removed or changed.
2. You can use an entirely different lighting setup.
3. You don't have to use Linear Workflow (but you also cannot post-process.)
4. You can adjust the F-stop of a camera.
5. You can adjust the white balance, shutter speed, etc...
6. You can change the background and environment.
7. You can surf the web, etc. while rendering.
8. Prefer daylight settings if possible.

The default scene consists of:

1. Burnt-in LWF.
2. A Vraysun with minor adjustments (extra subs and lower turbidity.)
3. Very plain Vraymats other than a little Vraydisplacement.
4. Three Vray Physical Cameras to show different angles - slightly adjusted.

I've included three examples of the default scene using the Vray Sun with no other adjustments (admittedly, I think they look ugly - but hey, no post processing here...):



The complete scene can be downloaded from here:
http://www.lunarstudio.com/house.zip

[claude_tnt]

i'll bite. i want to learn to use hdri lighting properly but still can't see the benefts yet.

[rmejia]

Well here is a test using a VRayLight type Dome using a texture and Spherical option. The last render I used Brute Force/Light Cache to see if there would be a difference in lighting.

[jujubee]

Here's my tests using the sIBL HDRs (you probably knew that was coming lol.) I think with this scene, it will only go so far without turning up the settings, adding additional entourage, better textures, and post - unless of course someone else has some big tricks which is what we'd all like to know...

[rmejia]

Maybe some trees with smaller leaves too

[jujubee]

Yeah. Well if someone has the time and wants to modify the original - you're more than welcome to.