Hi,
From time to time we`re doing a shadow study on our projects.
Right now my method is as follows:
- set up the Max Daylight system to my location and desired date
- animate the sun form morning 7:00 to evening 17:00 every 15-30 minutes
- then I postprocess the images in Premiere adding hour labels onto each image
BTW - in this process I have a problem using the Max`s Sun - it`s a direct light always set to a very high values - around 40 and I can`t get Vray to render a proper, unburnt image. My trick around this is to turn off the MaxSun and attach a new Direct light with Vray shadows to the MaxSun (Max sun being an animation controller), this way I get well lit renders.
Question is - do you have any tricks on how to do this more efficient or better? (for example to make Max stamp the hour names on the rendered images?) Is there a way to use Vray Sun system to animate correct sun/shadow study rendering? Maybe some smart plugin 4 that?
Please share some of your Gr8 wisdom! 
Thanks!
Link the VraySun to Max sun system.
Use as well a physical camera
Will the VraySun intensity change depending on time of the day?
What about VraySky ? Will it change according to the hour?
Is it possible?
Yes !
You can check the Help index for this as well.
Best regards,
nikki Candelero
Great. I thought I saw sth about it in the current help index… I`ll check it up.
Anyone has any ideas how to automate hour labels onto renders?
Thx,
You could probably write a script that per frame could pull the info from the light and output it to the vray stamp. But that would take some time digging and figuring out maxscript and the hooks provided by VRay of course 
check scriptspot there area cuople of timestamp scripts that work well with the daylight system
you label the hours of the day in post, AE or even premiere I think has it.
It’s a simple text layer (or number), you can setup the parameters of the text, start number, end number, and animate it from the first to last frame. It will dynamically scroll numbers accross your animation.
Regards
gio
Giovanni - that is interesting, must check on AE, I didn`t manage to find this in PremierePro…