| Author |
Message |
    
Chris
Member
Username: Chris3d
Post Number: 69
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 06:32 am: | 
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What's the best and most efficient way to light an interior space? I've been using formz for about 6 years now and still struggle to light an interior scene!
Having mainly worked on exhibitions stands which are open, interiors are slightly different with ceiling etc.
I've not got the best machine so AO etc can drag things along. Am I right in using point lights? I've tried the custom lights with adjustment but end up with black circles on the ceiling.
Any hints would be appreciated.
Cheers |
support@formZ.com
Moderator
Username: Tech
Post Number: 5061
Registered: 04-2001
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 08:29 am: |
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Chris,
Ambient Occlusion is a great way to start lighting a scene, but very dense polygons on little objects can increase the overall time of a rendering. Therefore, if you are concerned about rendering times (and who isn't), you should first start by optimizing the polygons in your scene. Build objects with only the necessary resolution if possible. If you already have parametric objects that are too dense, you can Query their Parameters and change the resolution. If the objects are not parametric, then you may be able to reduce them with the Reduce Mesh tool (but this does not always result in the best geometry, so if possible, build the objects at the right resolution first).
Once you have optimized the polygons in your scene, turn off all of your lights (and as many of the small detailed objects as possible), go to the RenderZone Options: Global Illumination Tab, and make sure that you have specified the correct scene size. (This is the actual width of your project at the area of interest in your view.) Enable Ambient Occlusion, set the set the Ambient Light to ~60%, set the Quality to 1, and render with the Renderer set to Raytrace.
When you see what time / quality this gives, you can add your other lights as necessary. You will probably want to reduce the intensity of the additional lights somewhat (if they were originally set to render with a lower ambient), and perhaps also reduce the Ambient Light to somewhere in the 30 - 60% range.
If you see any artifacts in the Ambient Occlusion, you can then increase the quality to 2 or 3 as necessary when you are generating a final rendering. You can also increase the Additional Contrast to occlude light from the direct lights, as well as ambient.
If bounced light is important to your scene, you can also enable Final Gather. As with Ambient Occlusion, start by setting the Quality to 1 for fastest results, and only increase this later for final renderings (typically to 2 or 3) as necessary. Adding a few minutes of Radiosity (perhaps 1 - 10 minutes) will extend the number of bounces for the light, and using the Radiosity Bounding Box and the Render Attributes to control what is calculated by Radiosity (and what is excluded) can further improve the performance.
Whenever starting to learn about a process (rendering, modeling, whatever) it is generally best to start with a simple case, such as the attached file:
Then experiment with the settings one at a time. Perhaps turn off both AO and FG first, then add only one, then add only the other, and finally render with both. Compare the results, and experiment with the settings. This way you can learn what things do much more quickly, and once you have a basic understanding of what everything does, then you can apply it to your particular scene.
Many people say "I don't have time for this -- I need to work on my specific scene now!" However, trying to learn on a more complex scene will take much longer than learning on a simple scene, and then applying it to your specific task. Also, when you start working with your specific project, make a Layer Group that contains most of the smaller, more detailed objects and turn this off. Again, this will allow you to get the general settings fine tuned more quickly for your scene, and you can then add the details once you have things set the way you like.
See also this thread for daylighting and exterior renderings:
http://www.formz.com/forum2/messages/142/27028.html?1209402936
And of course, hold down the SHIFT key when selecting RenderZone from the Display Menu to access the full documentation, including section 6.1: Producing a Rendered Image, and section 6.1.4: Global Illumination.
Hope this helps...
ZWebTech Support |
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