Desaturating Sun and Sky

[seandunderdale]

Hey guys,

I know there are different sky models available, and white balance in the camera, but is there an overall saturation control for the sun and sky system?

For car interiors I often do a soft light sun / sky pass, and a hard light one, and blend in post. Often that light needs to come into the car at a low angle (Through windows). Sun and sky (large sun radius) and a contrasty hdri do the job well, but I need a more neutral looking sun and sky result, but still with a hint of colour so it isn't greyscale. If the sun is lowered, the system automatically changes to sunset, so any white balance is just shifting more blue, or more warmth...I dont want either at the levels it offers. I need to knock it back 75% and keep it feeling light and airy, just at a low angle. I could build this out in an area light and an ambient blue-ish dome, but sun and sky does work very well for the requirements, I just need whip some of the colour out.

Is there a way to do this in Maya / Vray Next?

[vlado]

You could pipe the sky through a color correction texture, doesn't this work for you?

Best regards,
Vlado

[seandunderdale]

Hey Vlado. Cheers for the reply. I hadn't thought of that. It pretty much works. I desat the sky, and white balance the sun, seems to have the end result Im after, which is a more neutral low angle sun and sky render. A control both both sun and sky would be ideal though, since it means I have to white balance to the sun still, which means all other lights in the scene need to be balanced to be the same warmth as the sun. Just a desat on both sun and sky would mean I can still have a neutral lighting env in my scene.

Im finding also that white balancing a very low sun means inevitably, the shadows really get pushed to blue, so there are limits with only desating the sky, and white balancing the sun.