Best Way to ight

[boundary]

Hi - I create interior images and am jumping over from SketchUp where i had the attached workflow that worked for me. i managed to create images that were getting somewhere but struggled with SketchUp's limitations on scene size and modelling issues. I am now working in Rhino which is a better modelling platform for me but find it very difficult to get any good results. I have watched all the tutorials i can find but the interiors ones for rhino are very limited and none seem to deal with how you get a background image to work? They mostly resort to light gen. For instance is using portal makeup lights still a thing? how do you deal with the sunlight model being too contrasty other than resorting to reducing the highlight in the buffer.

Am i going about this the right way? I wish i could find a tested workflow - there are hundreds for 3dsmax and SketchUp but I am finding it pretty hard with Rhino. I am starting to wonder if I should move straight to unreal instead.

[iva_mancheva]

Hello boundary,

Welcome to the V-Ray for Rhino forum!
In general there is no difference between V-Ray for Rhino and V-Ray for SketchUp - you can apply the same workflows.
You don't need to set portal lights anymore, it is an outdated workflow, you can simply use V-Ray Sun and Sky or a Dome light with a Sky texture or a HDRI.
You can set a background image in an image editing software or in the Background layer in VFB (make sure to disable "Affect Alpha" of the Dome light and set Affect Channels of the Refraction of the window material to "All Channels" prior rendering).
The burned out areas from the Sunlight can also be reduced by balancing the lighting and exposure or making the material slightly darker.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

Kind regards,
Iva

[Micha]

My recommendation - for interiors, always place an HDRI environment around the scene so that the light color distribution is natural. The rendering above looks as if the room is way up in a tower, the light is far too white from all sides.

I posted these pictures years ago - our rooms are like a camera obscura.

Here is a simple image environment that creates a good, basic brightness and color gradient. Add a dir light and you have a good basis.