Texture and Lighting

 Texture and Lighting

1. Modeling

The interior is modeled based on a CAD file. We import the CAD plan into 3D Studio Max and start to model by drawing closed line along the outline of the CAD file to create walls for the interior. (Fig 01)



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After that, use Extrude modifier and apply to those lines created earlier to make the wall.
Use this same procedure for the floor, ceiling, window, doors, etc. (Fig 02)



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Tip

It is good practice to name all the objects in your scene and organize them in the layer manager. This will help to speed up the work later on and also make it easier to manage when there are too many things in the scene.

2. Adding Details

When the basic model of the interior is complete, we start to put more details into the scene such as the base around the wall, doorframes, handles, window details and furniturea€|to add more realism to the render.

3. Texturing

Before lighting, apply some of the basic materials to the model and furniture. (Fig 03)



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For those objects that have the same material on them (for example the doors, walls, window glass), it is a good idea to collapse them into one piece of Poly so it is easier to access and keep things organized.


Note: When using V-Ray render, it is important to use V-Ray materials for all objects in the scene.

4. Camera View Setup

View selection is one of the most important parts in making a perfect image. Try to choose the view so that it keeps the image balanced and draws the viewer's eyes into the main part of the image that you want to focus on.


For this scene, we initially created around 15 to 20 views. In the end, we chose three views and decided to use this one. (Fig 04)



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5. Lighting

Before doing any lighting to the scene, make sure you have in your mind what kind of lighting/mood you want to create; should it be daylight, sunset or a night light? After that, it is necessary to look for some real-life lighting reference images. You can find them everywhere, whether they are online sources, magazines, or even your own photo collections.


In this shot, we chose a morning lighting mood. After looking at many reference images, we started to light up the scene.


Start with the environment/ambient light. This kind of light will decide the look of the image so we need to get it right. Since we aimed for daylight, the environment must be slightly blue. (Fig 05)



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Use the V-Ray render plug-in to render the image, utilizing the Environment color in V-Ray Environment setting to create the ambient light that we want. In this image, we used a blue color for the environment with the value of 8.0.


Exponential color mapping type was used for this image; Gamma value was set to 1.5 to brighten the scene, especially at the corners. (Fig 06)



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We used a very low setting for the test rendering of images in order to get a quick preview of the image. (Fig 07):
_ Irradiance map was set to low
_ Light cache with Subdivs at 200 and sample size at 0.02



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At this stage, we'll begin to tweak some of the materials by adding reflection on the floor, wood material on the furniture, carpet, mirror, etc.


After several tests to get the right value of the ambient light, we'll add sunlight to the scene. V-Raylight (sphere type with no decay) was used to simulate the sun. For the early daylight shot, we add more yellow (multiplier 3.2) for the sun and also make the radius bigger (10') to create a softer shadow in the interior. (Fig 08 and Fig 09)



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5. Render Setting For Final Image

For final render images at the size of 3000 pixels, we change the setting so that it is higher than before to bring more quality to the image.


For GI method, we used Irradiance map for Primary bounces and Light cache for Secondary bounces at a high setting. (Fig 10 and Fig 11)



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We choose Adaptive QMC for Image sampler and Michell Netravali for Antialiasing filter. (Fig 12)



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For post work, we also rendered out the Reflection pass, Specular pass and ZDepth pass (you can add these passes by going to Render Elements and click on Add button)

6. Post Work

We use Photoshop for post work. Level adjustments and Color Balance are used to improve the contrast and color for the image.


Reflection and Specular passes are used to add more reflection and highlight for the image to provide more realistic effects. (Fig 13)



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And that is about it! As you can see, the lighting setup is simple but pretty effective. However, lighting is not the main key to create a great render. It is all about the visual, the camera view, the materials, and the style.

Posted in Maya 3D