Work flow with animated characters

[diegovfx]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if someone could explain the workflow process when working with an animated character?
Is the idea to use Irradiance for primary and Light cache for secondary bounces?

Just wondering about the mode to use for both sections.

Thanks,
Diego

[Morbid Angel]

or deforming objects the only real way is to use irradience map mode (animation and rendering). However if the scene is an exterior setting, where there is not that much secondary bounce you can use brute force and dome light.
And recently with the introduction of ambient light you can use a combination of amb light + occlusion to fake fast gi with minimal flickering and render cost.

[diegovfx]

Hi Dmitry,
Thanks for the reply.
I am guessing that using irradiance map + light cache is the most accurate as far as calculating GI on a character?
Or are you saying doing it this way for lighting a character in an ouside environment would be better using dome+brute force.

Also just wondering about the process, ie the steps like rendering the pre-pass first then doing the actual render.
Do you do the pre-pass for both initial and secondary? I noticed that these options are in both sections.

Thanks
Diego

[Morbid Angel]

actually I do not use irradience map and light cache for rendering at all. There is just too much overhead with it. The lighting will not be accurate either, since these methods are biased. But who cares about accuracy? if you want accurate use maxwell or whatever. We care about what looks good... Vray offers accurate lighting enough to get the job done in a reasonable time (most of the time).
For exterior shots I would use dome light and brute force yes.
Reason I dont use prepass method irradience map for animations is because you need to prerender a lot for us animation changes so many times and so often then re rendering these prepases would be a waste. We would rather just turn on brute force and let it go and know we get solid result.
Seriously you should look at the ambient light method. Will offer you the fastest and cost effective rendering.

[diegovfx]

Hi Dmitry.

Thank you for the detailed explination.
You make a valid point about not using irradiance cache, I was under the impression it was accurate and had been designed for this purpouse. I would be interested to hear what Vlado has to say about that.
I will try what you suggest with the ambient light + occlusion.
Do you apply the occlusion through the vray shader or do you need a specific shader to do this?

Thanks

[diegovfx]

Hi Dmitry,

Just to confirm with you, I would use brute force for primary rays, nothing for secondary rays when using the ambient light with occlusion?

Thanks
diego

[Morbid Angel]

no, for ambient light you would not use any gi. What ambient light does is just lift the shaded areas by a specified value, and ambient occlusion "fakes" the gi look in occluded areas. Do a search on this forum about ambient light, there are detailed explanations on how to use it.
I must point out also, that ambient light will not produce correct result with fast sss materials.

[diegovfx]

yeah i understand the concept of ambient light an occlusion, just having trouble getting it to work in vray.
I seem to get light areas where i would expect occlusion.
I am doing some tests now using brute force from primary and light cache for secondary. I found this page which explained it nicely.

http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150S...rials_anim.htm

cheers
Diego