Accurender - Enhancing shadow quality for external renders

[clydej]

I managed to get this technique right in several other low-end packages and I thought I would try in AccuRender, so here it goes:

1. Under the "Rendering" drawer in Revit select "Lighting" and turn the Sun light off.

2. Select the highest level of your project. Select the "Component" option under your "Basics" drawer and load the "M_StudioLight.rfa" into your project (found under Lighting Fixtures).

3. Insert between 10 and 20 of these lights closely grouped together (the closer the better).

4.Setup your camera view and select the "Render" drawer again. Click on "Settings" and change the quality of your raytrace to "Best". Also switch "Soft Shadows" on.

5. Go ahead and Render!

- This technique creates multiple shadows and when the shadows are softened and blended they simulate a shadow with blurred edges.

-To increase the quality of your shadows add more lights and try moving the group of lights closer to the object.

- Unfortunately this technique removes the ability to accurately create Time and Place shadows, i would recommend however doing a benchmark Draft Render using the Date, Time and Place setting for sun to be able to get an idea of where to place your studio lights.

NOTE: this increases your render time tremendously, so only use this for your final render.
The first image is the Sun Shadow render, the second utilizes the technique described above.

[sjsl]

Always looking for new ways to light a model. I can't wait to try this!

Thanks a mil for the tip!

[Mark Vorstenbosch]

Thanks for the tip.
Good looking images.

[truevis]

Good idea. Perhaps also try the sun PLUS some very bright studio lights.

[clydej]

I did, but i couldn't get the studio lights to be strong enough not to be outshone by the sun, go figure.

[truevis]

I did, but i couldn't get the studio lights to be strong enough not to be outshone by the sun, go figure.

Did you try multiplying the studio lights' lumins by 10 or 100? Maybe reduce the sun's strength, too.

[clydej]

Strangely, and I don't know if its my version of Revit (R7.0), I did try increasing the Lumens but ot no avail. Also the sun doesn't have the dimming option. If you know how then please advise.

Thanks in advance,

[truevis]

Strangely, and I don't know if its my version of Revit (R7.0), I did try increasing the Lumens but ot no avail. Also the sun doesn't have the dimming option. If you know how then please advise.

Thanks in advance,

I used one studio light of 3060800 lumens down low to simulate a water reflection and get some shadows on the ceiling.

Sun intensity is set under sun settings from the render settings. It's set at .6 and warmed up in the attached image.

[clydej]

This is really helpful, thanks!! I'm going to "play" right now!!