Mezz

[SCLeech]

Great job. Man it's been a while; Autocad's much better at rendering than it used to be...

Thanks. I agree.. Ever since Mental Ray was incorporated into AutoCAD the quality of rendering has improved immensely!
Will post up some updates soon - in fact its changed quite a bit since the last pics i put up..

[SCLeech]

Wow, Beautiful.

How long took modeling, rendering and to tune indirect illumination and final gather?

Really impressive.

Thanks for sharing,

Vlad

Hi Vlad,
Thanks - the modelling was done in about 1,5 days (12hrs) and the idirect illumination and FG took about 2 hours of quick tests to get the lighting right..
Rendering times differed per scene as some scenes have more objects to render/ different lighting solutions/ larger areas of bump maps/ etc etc... so i'd say roughly between 2 - 5 hrs.

[rdaynard]

Great Work! All of this was done in AutoCad? The renderings are max quality! I have two questions for you...1. How did you get the indirect illumination to light the entire room? 2. What settings did you use for the metallic material on the canisters/teapot?

[SCLeech]

Great Work! All of this was done in AutoCad? The renderings are max quality! I have two questions for you...1. How did you get the indirect illumination to light the entire room? 2. What settings did you use for the metallic material on the canisters/teapot?

Thanks, yes this was all done in AutoCAD -
For the indirect illumination, i used very high settings coupled with high FG settings - both with decent radii - as this eliminates patchy rendering and unusual highlights along corners.

For the chrome material, i just created a new metal material and from the drop-down menu relating to 'metal' i chose the 'polished' setting and then manipulated the colour settings to produce a slightly darker chrome.
i will be posting some updates soon!

[rdaynard]

Thanks for the tips! I got the chrome down, but I'm still having issues with the ID. When you say "high settings", exactly how high do I need to go? Attached is a rendering with settings that I would consider pretty high. Here are my settings:

Indirect Illumination:
Photons/Sample - 2000
Radius - On/10'-0"

Final Gather:
Rays - 500
Radius - On/10'-0"

Light Properties:
Photons/Light - 10000
Energy Multiplier - 15

[SCLeech]

Man - that is going to be a great render once illuminated properly!

Ok, first things first.. could you please let me know the following details:
1. What version of AutoCAD are you using?
2. What units are you drawing in?
3. What are the settings of your sun? (post a screenshot if you can)
4. Have you enabled the 'sky background & Illumination' on the Sun's properties dialog box?

I noticed your radii for FG and II are in feet? Now i'm no expert in using imperial units as I use the metric system, but what size in "mm" would that be?
- i did a quick test and set my units to 'Architectural' and then drew a box with 10' dims. I then changed my units back to decimal and then measured the box and i got 120mm though my method might be wrong.. I'm just concerned that the size of your model might be affecting the outcome of the low light intensity shown in your render.

As for FG, i usually go up to 2500 rays for a presentation render
with 100000 'photons/light' and a 'energy muliplier' of 2

Stevo

[rdaynard]

Man - that is going to be a great render once illuminated properly!

Ok, first things first.. could you please let me know the following details:
1. What version of AutoCAD are you using?
2. What units are you drawing in?
3. What are the settings of your sun? (post a screenshot if you can)
4. Have you enabled the 'sky background & Illumination' on the Sun's properties dialog box?

I noticed your radii for FG and II are in feet? Now i'm no expert in using imperial units as I use the metric system, but what size in "mm" would that be?
- i did a quick test and set my units to 'Architectural' and then drew a box with 10' dims. I then changed my units back to decimal and then measured the box and i got 120mm though my method might be wrong.. I'm just concerned that the size of your model might be affecting the outcome of the low light intensity shown in your render.

As for FG, i usually go up to 2500 rays for a presentation render
with 100000 'photons/light' and a 'energy muliplier' of 2

Stevo

Wow! Your FG settings are really cranked up!

-I'm using AutoCad Architecture 2009
-Units are in Feet/Inches

As for the sun, I don't think I have it turned on. I was using a distant light that came through the model. Maybe that's where I'm going wrong.

the conversion from feet to mm is: 1'-0" = 304.8 mm

my room dimensions are 14'-0" x 12'-0" (or 4267.2mm x 3657.6mm)
what size is the room in your renderings?

[SCLeech]

Yeah my FG settings are pretty high, tho at the expense of longer rendering times, you'll find that as I previously mentioned, this will eliminate patchy areas and unusual light 'bleeding' in corners and along the edges of your floor/ceiling in your final render..

As for your room size - those dims are fine - my model is slightly bigger (6mx8m) but thats bc I've included the lounge/dining area with the kitchen.

Ok. as for your lighting, when trying to simulate a daytime render - use the Sun's settings instead bc 1) it's very accurate in positioning from most big cities around the globe, and 2) it does an excellent job in simulating the sun's light.

check the attached pic of the sun settings I normally use - try the same but also, turn your shadow display "on" and then try and tweak the position/angle of the sun until you get as much light as you need into your scene - and then re-render it.

Hope this helps..

[dzatto]

Great renderings. Seriously, some of the best I've ever seen. I love the cord to the coffe maker, nice touch!

One question: I mostly do exterior renderings. Would your FG settings benefit an exterior shot of a building, or is that just an interior thing for overexposure in the corners?

[SCLeech]

Great renderings. Seriously, some of the best I've ever seen. I love the cord to the coffe maker, nice touch!

One question: I mostly do exterior renderings. Would your FG settings benefit an exterior shot of a building, or is that just an interior thing for overexposure in the corners?

Thanks Dzatto,
Well the FG settings I use would be great for an external render - but too high because really, there is ample light outside to calculate and render things 'cleanly', so there wouldn't be a need for higher settings.. tho personally, I would keep the AA high to get rid of any 'jaggies' and for any render i'd make sure GI is high too to avoid high contrasts between light and shaded areas..
Interior renders always require higher settings as there is perhaps a third to half the amount of light filtering through.
btw had a look at some of your work - I like that render of the garage with bays! Nicely done man!