VRay and Volume Light

[GLASS-CANVAS]

hi all,

i'm having a problem making convincing looking volume light in an architectural scene. the building in question is situated in the middle east and i want to create a high up sun streaming light down into a bustling market kind of atmosphere, where the air is quite thick from dust and smoke. as far as i can tell VRay Sun doesn't support volume light, and neither do rectangular VRay area lights.
i've just about managed to make volume light appear with standard max lights (which are horrible in themselves), but the volume light is always a dark grey and not a nice white. does anyone have any tips for me? do i have to render as a separate pass somehow? or use atmospheric gizmos? im looking to create many shafts of light generated by a patterned roof

on the technical front i'm using the latest version of max/vray

thanks in advance for any help!

Bill Nuttall

[vlado]

Would be best to render the volume lights separately; the 3ds Max volumetric lights do not work with HDR colors and so they will always appear too dark with the V-Ray physical camera. On the other hand, we are working on our own volumetrics.

Best regards,
Vlado

[rivoli]

On the other hand, we are working on our own volumetrics.

love this last bit

[GLASS-CANVAS]

thanks for the quick answer vlado, guess i'll render them separately and comp em in in AE

so, any chance you can get the volumetric vray lights done by tomorrow night? the deadline on this job is tuesday :O

on a more serious note you may be interested to hear my animation will be presented live on stage by sir norman foster and al gore, crazy combination, huh?

[sv]

where is it being presented?

[ene.xis]

can u share some more info!
i got me curious!

[RErender]

Oh no, is it an animation of the sea levels rising 20 feet?

CG is a dangerous propaganda tool

[GLASS-CANVAS]

yeah, there's some environmental summit or something taking place next week. in my manic non-stop modelling to get it done i haven't even been able to find out the actual details of the event, but i would imagine there's a web site set up for it somewhere.
tbh i dont really see how an animation im producing to sell one of foster's schemes ties in with environmental issues, but then again he always was the master salesman

[ene.xis]

so true!