Exterior Rendering - Interior Lighting

[kms.118789]

I'm relatively new to VIZ and have begun rendering an exterior shot (imported from Revit) I seem to have the materials, sun, etc. pretty well nailed down but I would like to add some interior lights to get some depth. However when I add lights to the interior (both target point and target area) they don't seem to show up. I don't know if I'm using the wrong type of light, their settings, or if I need to adjust the model settings in anyway. I'm wondering if anyone may have some tips on how to better, or even begin, to light the interior of an exterior rendering???

[stusic]

Can you describe the scene a little more? It may help narrow it down a bit...

A few things you may look into:

- Be sure the scene is to scale. Often when importing from other programs, the scale will get distorted. This can make lights appear incorrectly (actually, they always appear correctly, but if your model is scaled up, they may be too small to see any difference).

- Do you think the sun (are you using a sunlight?) might be washing out the interior lights, which would be much softer?

- Are you showing the interior through a window? Could there be an issue involved there somewhere?

Any more information you can provide may help, but these are the ideas that immediately came to mind.

[kms.118789]

Thanks for the reply...I'll try my best to describe the scene... It's an exterior shot, as explained before looking up, and into the interior of the house. Three are three large glass curtain wall assemblies that show a significant amount of interior space. These areas seem to be fairly dark and don't express the depth of space within the house. I am using a standard IES sun with settings to Denver, CO @ approximately 10am. I added several point lights to the interior and as I said before, they don't seem to be doing anything. It may be that the sun is too intense, or the interior lights are too dim, I'm not sure. Any good suggestions on settings for sun, and interior lights??? Thanks!

[stusic]

Is your model to scale (one foot is actually one foot)? The sun may show up correctly even if the model is out of scale (a sun shines on a big building the same way it does on a small building), but may wreak havok with the intensity of point, spot, and omni lights. If it's dark, then it's not a problem with the "sun" light, since it would wash out the interior lights and over-brighten the room.

If it is to scale, try cranking up the intensity of the interior lights and see what difference it makes.The interior lights aren't inside fixtures are they?

Thanks for the reply...I'll try my best to describe the scene... It's an exterior shot, as explained before looking up, and into the interior of the house. Three are three large glass curtain wall assemblies that show a significant amount of interior space. These areas seem to be fairly dark and don't express the depth of space within the house. I am using a standard IES sun with settings to Denver, CO @ approximately 10am. I added several point lights to the interior and as I said before, they don't seem to be doing anything. It may be that the sun is too intense, or the interior lights are too dim, I'm not sure. Any good suggestions on settings for sun, and interior lights??? Thanks!

[dellis]

It kind of sounds like there isn;t any light getting past the windows and into the interior. What is the material setup for the glass....and which render engine are you using?

Also...might not be the case but check the position of the interior lights and make sure there isn;t any geometry in front of them....like the light placed just above the ceiling or something.

Might be easiest to zip the file and post a link to it.

[stusic]

It kind of sounds like there isn;t any light getting past the windows and into the interior. What is the material setup for the glass....

That's kind of what I was thinking, but if he can see into the room through the windows, it should also allow light through... I would think.

You think the render engine might have something to do with it? How so?

[dellis]

I should have specifically asked if he was using GI. In that sense light would continue to bounce around in the interior from the sunlight. Without GI he would just get diffuse lighting which would only cast light onto the surfaces that are exposed to the exterior sunlight. The material settings are significant here as well, particularly the reflection/refraction settings.

More info about the scene setup would definetly make it easier to narrow things down.

[kms.118789]

Thanks again for the replys...So I believe you were right on the intensity issues, I turned the sun off and the lights appeared (although very very dim). As a general note: how do I test to see if the model is to scale. I know the units are correct, but i'm unsure if the model is correctly scaled. Is there a dimension, or tape measure command in VIZ?
Thanks again.

[stusic]

Thanks again for the replys...So I believe you were right on the intensity issues, I turned the sun off and the lights appeared (although very very dim).

Good; glad you got it worked out.

...Is there a... tape measure command in VIZ?

Yeppers, sure is. In the main object creation panel, where there's the options for creating objects, lights, cameras, etc., there's a tape measure icon ("Helpers"). In that, there's an option for tape. Does just what it sounds like.






Regards,

[stusic]

It just occured to me you're using Viz. I'm using Max, so those screenshots may not be entirely accurate.