Interior Scenes-Lighting

[aliserdar_ozadam]

Hi all,

I hope you’re doing well. I have a basic question that I couldn’t find an exact answer.

Regarding interior scenes,

-Should we use sunlight (as in Dome light) or just Dome light? (I’m asking specifically about interiors because the Light Gen feature doesn’t seem to have an HDRI option.)
-I always use HDRIs from the Chaos Cosmos library. Is there any particular reason to use HDR from external websites?

Thank you in advance for your answers!

[kenancakir]

Hi,
I suggest using sun, not hdr for interiors. You can set the dome light invisible and disable affect reflection and add hdri from environment section of the settings for background, if you don't want to use PS of course.

[aliserdar_ozadam]

Hi,
I suggest using sun, not hdr for interiors. You can set the dome light invisible and disable affect reflection and add hdri from environment section of the settings for background, if you don't want to use PS of course.

Thanks very much! I will try.

[konstantin_chaos]

Hi aliserdar_ozadam,

Here's some more information that might be useful:

1. The procedural Sun and Sky are a great option for interiors.
You can add the Sky texture to a Dome light even in this case which will improve the sampling of the environment light.
A video showing this approach - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFa1aDmeBcQ

2. Another option for achieving a similar setup is using Light Gen.
In the following tutorial you can see this in action - https://youtu.be/JoILrVgAmDI?si=oR4wTHJiHGkTjxk6

[suzanne_doherty]

There is absolutely not just one way to light interiors.

It depends on the space, the size and what you're showing in the interior.

If it's an architectural vis, then maybe sun & sky setup will work, or it may be that HDRI works best.

If it's a product vis, then I'll probably use plane and spot lights to best show the product.

In my experience, I don't use sun sky setup, I always prefer vray lights, spot lights and directional lights as they have much better control.