Lighting and interior

[Sean Casey]

Hi Guys,

I’ve offered to help a friend of mine who is a young furniture designer maker. He has just had his first commission piece which is to design and make a bookcase. He has developed a design and has sketched it up. I have been mentoring him and while he was having discussions with his client, I measured up the corner where the bookcase is to go. In order for him to give a quotation, I have recommended that he improves his CAD skills as it can be a huge leap of faith for a potential customer to part with their money on the strength of a thumbnail sketch on the back of a cigarette packet! I have recommended AutoCAD together with AccuRender and have offered to model this project for him to show him what is possible. Although I am proficient in AutoCAD, I am still getting to grips with AccuRender. So I was hoping if I was to upload a model, complete with materials of the room interior where bookcase is to be situated then one of you could have a look at it and recommend improvements. The first problem I have come across is while modelling the room (I used Peter Milner’s template interior as a starting point, and copied his window into mine...thanks Pater) is I am getting a great effect with the light streaming in through window but was wondering should I use an interior light source as well?

I would welcome any feedback which would improve this set up as once perfect it can be used time and again. Thanks in advance..Sean

[akinlolu olugboji]

Once you select an entity then in the object properties tab you can tag as daylight portal.
Sean Casey said:

Thanks to Wayne, Akinlolu and Jorge for your input which I have applied to my scene. I have outlined the steps I have taken below for the benefit of any other beginner who happens to read this discussion.

 

1. Increase ambient light & skip the interior light fixtures. What do you have light bounce set on?

I have increased the ambient light in the Lighting tab>Advanced>Ambient from low to medium. If you mean Reflective Bounces, these I have not touched and they are currently set at 3, as for the Refractive Bounces these are 8.

 

2. Take a look at the front corner of the hearth, something funny is happening there. It looks like it has an edge not meeting correctly.

The front edge of the real hearth is a wedge shape which would explain why it looks strange but in this instance I have modified it.

 

3. Increase the scale of the stone pattern on the fireplace. This should help calm it, everything but the bookcase should be background.

I’ve increased the size of the marble texture from a scale of 1000 to 2000

 

4. Let it run longer and shadows should even out.

I let it run all through the night for 7 hours making 334 passes

 

5. Use image in window where it is now black

Thanks, I’m really pleased with this effect which I found in the Walkabout window>Background tab>check Background Image

 

• Use interior daylight preset.

Changed to daylight preset which I found at the top of the lighting tab which by default was set at <custom>

 

• remove the glossiness of ceiling.

Under Material tab>New Material>created solid colour

 

• Increase indirect bounce to 2.

Under Lighting>Advanced>changed Indirect Bounces to 2

 

• use glossy shader for walls.

Wasn’t sure how to do this? Does that come under Template:Glossy??

 

• Tag glass only in window as daylight portal.

Not sure how to do this?

 

• Add another window on the opposite side of the room to help remove the dark shade on the windowed wall.

I quite like the effect that Jorge created and may experiment with adding another window at a later date.

 

Now this is probably where I run into conflicts what with trying to apply all of your recommendations. I am learning that everyone has their own personal preferences but having seen an actual rendering by Jorge which I quite like, I am going to try to use Path Tracer for the first time by applying Jorge’s setting to my scene (possibly over riding all the settings I made earlier!)

 

Well ran rendered scene all night and have attached the rendered image and drawing. I will withhold judgement as to the merits of using Path Tracer as the image still lacks clarity which would come if I was to let it  run longer? I will do the Pepsi challenge at the end with Path Tracer against standard method.

 

Will upload scene complete with bookcase for your review, many thanks Sean

 

[akinlolu olugboji]

In the material editor you can change the shaders in the reflective finish and highlight section under the main tap. 

Sean Casey said:

Thanks to Wayne, Akinlolu and Jorge for your input which I have applied to my scene. I have outlined the steps I have taken below for the benefit of any other beginner who happens to read this discussion.

 

1. Increase ambient light & skip the interior light fixtures. What do you have light bounce set on?

I have increased the ambient light in the Lighting tab>Advanced>Ambient from low to medium. If you mean Reflective Bounces, these I have not touched and they are currently set at 3, as for the Refractive Bounces these are 8.

 

2. Take a look at the front corner of the hearth, something funny is happening there. It looks like it has an edge not meeting correctly.

The front edge of the real hearth is a wedge shape which would explain why it looks strange but in this instance I have modified it.

 

3. Increase the scale of the stone pattern on the fireplace. This should help calm it, everything but the bookcase should be background.

I’ve increased the size of the marble texture from a scale of 1000 to 2000

 

4. Let it run longer and shadows should even out.

I let it run all through the night for 7 hours making 334 passes

 

5. Use image in window where it is now black

Thanks, I’m really pleased with this effect which I found in the Walkabout window>Background tab>check Background Image

 

• Use interior daylight preset.

Changed to daylight preset which I found at the top of the lighting tab which by default was set at <custom>

 

• remove the glossiness of ceiling.

Under Material tab>New Material>created solid colour

 

• Increase indirect bounce to 2.

Under Lighting>Advanced>changed Indirect Bounces to 2

 

• use glossy shader for walls.

Wasn’t sure how to do this? Does that come under Template:Glossy??

 

• Tag glass only in window as daylight portal.

Not sure how to do this?

 

• Add another window on the opposite side of the room to help remove the dark shade on the windowed wall.

I quite like the effect that Jorge created and may experiment with adding another window at a later date.

 

Now this is probably where I run into conflicts what with trying to apply all of your recommendations. I am learning that everyone has their own personal preferences but having seen an actual rendering by Jorge which I quite like, I am going to try to use Path Tracer for the first time by applying Jorge’s setting to my scene (possibly over riding all the settings I made earlier!)

 

Well ran rendered scene all night and have attached the rendered image and drawing. I will withhold judgement as to the merits of using Path Tracer as the image still lacks clarity which would come if I was to let it  run longer? I will do the Pepsi challenge at the end with Path Tracer against standard method.

 

Will upload scene complete with bookcase for your review, many thanks Sean

 

[akinlolu olugboji]

Here is a past forum post I believe will help. Click here!

[Juan Carlos Velez]

Very good

Thanks

akinlolu

[akinlolu olugboji]

You are welcome!

Juan Carlos Velez said:

Very good

Thanks

akinlolu

[Sean Casey]

OK! So I’m not very popular with the family for hogging the PC in pursuit of that knock out rendering but as you know it is quite addictive..

As promised here are some images of the rendered scene that I have been working on for my friend and his bookcase commission. I took the opportunity to refine my rendering skills on this exercise and here are some of my findings.

 

• Path Trace 334 passes taking 7 hours. Very pleased with this and did take Peter’s advice in the final one to soften the light through the window by applying cloudiness

• Rendering of bookcase with wood texture applied but without glossiness as I found that there were too many reflections and the white background was causing a milky sheen

• Bookcase with door open as it is a first draft, I do intend to add accessories which I will apply courtesy of Peter Milner, I will download some from AccuStudio http://www.accustudio.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemi...

• Here is the room scene with bookcase after 395passes taking 9 hours.  In this one glossiness was applied to the wood and as you can see I have a white strip down the middle. I sure that if it was left longer to converge that the final result would look a lot crispier.

• In this one I took the glossiness off the wood and rendered for 422passes for 10hours.

• So in conclusion I am happy with the interior rendering using path tracer but must concede that it does take and awfully long time to resolve
• I’m happy with the studio rendering of the bookcase without path tracer
• Not so happy at how long it takes with the two together. The only way around this would be to set up a render farm to speed up the process...

 

Thanks to all who contributed.

[akinlolu olugboji]

Try the E4 machine. You just might get better result in faster time too. 

Sean Casey said:

OK! So I’m not very popular with the family for hogging the PC in pursuit of that knock out rendering but as you know it is quite addictive..

As promised here are some images of the rendered scene that I have been working on for my friend and his bookcase commission. I took the opportunity to refine my rendering skills on this exercise and here are some of my findings.

 

• Path Trace 334 passes taking 7 hours. Very pleased with this and did take Peter’s advice in the final one to soften the light through the window by applying cloudiness

• Rendering of bookcase with wood texture applied but without glossiness as I found that there were too many reflections and the white background was causing a milky sheen

• Bookcase with door open as it is a first draft, I do intend to add accessories which I will apply courtesy of Peter Milner, I will download some from AccuStudio http://www.accustudio.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemi...

• Here is the room scene with bookcase after 395passes taking 9 hours.  In this one glossiness was applied to the wood and as you can see I have a white strip down the middle. I sure that if it was left longer to converge that the final result would look a lot crispier.

• In this one I took the glossiness off the wood and rendered for 422passes for 10hours.

• So in conclusion I am happy with the interior rendering using path tracer but must concede that it does take and awfully long time to resolve
• I’m happy with the studio rendering of the bookcase without path tracer
• Not so happy at how long it takes with the two together. The only way around this would be to set up a render farm to speed up the process...

 

Thanks to all who contributed.

[Sean Casey]

Now you are teasing me Akinlolu...go on then, what is E4 and how do I use it??

[Sean Casey]

Ignore the last posting Akinlolu, just me being lazy. I ran a search and discovered that E4 is the latest AccuRender build.

[Sean Casey]

Just had a look at the download page. Could someone confirm that E4 refers to the latest 'experimental' build and that this would be:- AccuRender nXt 310 (06/04/2012) Download

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

No, it does not.  It's a new, experimental engine. Type (nXtEngine 4) at the command prompt-- include the parentheses.  The Path Tracer is engine 1, the original (Packet Tracer) is engine 0.  Render at low-res (640 x 480) or eq. when you're trying things so you don't drive yourself crazy.

[Sean Casey]

Thanks Roy, I'll give it a go. Could you clarify why I should render at low resolution so "I don't drive myself crazy"