a question for those who’ve had to light scenes using neon, bare fluorescent tubes, etc.:
which is the smart way to go? crank up your settings and get a clean GI solution using the vray light material and geometry, or fake it by using a reasonable setting for the light material and employing invisible vray lights?
would love to hear opinions/tips on this scenario - we have an interior we’re working on w/ neon and fluorescents and are going back and forth about the best method of attack…
My theory on this sort of thing is go for the best quality rather than a fast render.
Find a way to explain to the client that the more physically acurate method produces a much better render & that it simply takes longer to produce. Clients generally love to have input on decisions [often too much] and remind them that the extra quality won’t cost an extra cent…just time. The smart ones give you the extra time you need to render it to the best quality.
You would also spend way more pecious time setting up a faked version than doing simple slines & Vray Light mesh or Light material with cast shadows on.
I have gone from using irradiance & LC to BF & LC on nearly all my renders as it is a hell of a lot easier for me when it comes to render time. The render times are much larger although I NEVER have any troubles…I repeat I NEVER have the slightest error or artifact in any of my renders…just a bit of grain … I can’t say the same for irradiance maps.
All sounds good in theory… because the amount of machines/time you have may be heavily constrained.
My usual 5k HR renders take up to 12 hours running on 10 machines [6xi7 & 4 quadcores] That’s about 120 hours for a render on one machine…never really added up the numbers…shit that’s a long render but hey when it’s done over night in 12 hours you don’t really think about it or care…lol
You can also try using mesh lights, or the “Direct illumination” option in the VRayLightMtl material - they will generally produce much cleaner GI than a regular VRayLightMtl material.
3DMK - thanks for all the detail; we’ve been experimenting with the BF/LC formula as well and it works great from stills; animations have been a different story, although it seems to hold great potential for dynamic scenes with GI; our rendertimes for short HD features are still through the roof per frame, but damn are they beautiful.
as you probably know well, money isn’t always the issue - time is pretty finite when it comes to our luxury condo clients (“we have to sell these by YESTERDAY.”)…wish i had more clients like the ones you described…