Mezz

[dzatto]

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!

Thanks Steve. I do have one problem that hopefully you have an answer to. I'm rendering a multi building site right now. When I place a camera and do a close up rendering of each building, things look good. But, when I place a camera in the corner and render the entire site, it is super bright and washed out. Is there a different setting when the camera is wide angle? The lens is set at about 26mm I think.

Actually, I might have answered my own question. Does a wide angle lense let in more light? Maybe that's the reason. Should I just cut the suns intensity by half?

[SCLeech]

when I place a camera in the corner and render the entire site, it is super bright and washed out. Is there a different setting when the camera is wide angle? The lens is set at about 26mm I think.

Well to a degree, yes. A wide-angle lens concentrates more on D.O.F. (Depth of field) rather than clarity of focus, so it does let more light in. For my interior shots i tend to go for 28mm wide angle as the perspective tends to get way too distorted after that, but i have to adjust my settings down slightly.
You might need to play around with your Sun's settings, or perhaps decrease your 'Energy multiplier' in your advanced render settings dialog box. Also, try look at your 'Exposure' settings too.
Can you attach a sample of your 'washed-out' render and perhaps a 'print screen' of your Sun's settings and Advanced render settings?

[ronie_ernanto]

I do know that they have improved the rendering engine (vers. 3.6.1) in Acad '09 and one of the best features for me is being able to see the effects of the FG as it is being calculated!

I know it because i try it once, and that feature help you if you find something wrong, you can cancel it as quickly as you can...it really save the time.

[dzatto]

Well to a degree, yes. A wide-angle lens concentrates more on D.O.F. (Depth of field) rather than clarity of focus, so it does let more light in. For my interior shots i tend to go for 28mm wide angle as the perspective tends to get way too distorted after that, but i have to adjust my settings down slightly.
You might need to play around with your Sun's settings, or perhaps decrease your 'Energy multiplier' in your advanced render settings dialog box. Also, try look at your 'Exposure' settings too.
Can you attach a sample of your 'washed-out' render and perhaps a 'print screen' of your Sun's settings and Advanced render settings?

I just cut the sun down to .65 instead of 1. My renderings are on the ACA gallery here
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.ph...421#post930421

The first one is the wide angle with the sun set at .65. I haven't messed with the exposure settings or the energy multiplier. I just left all the default settings, except for the physical scale. I set that to 1100 because that's what my RPC's say to do. Other than that, I just turn on GI and let it go.

For the sun, I set up the geographical location, then north direction for the shadow I want to see, and the time of day. I think these were set at 9:45 a.m.

[SCLeech]

I had a look at your renderings - very impressive! Good detailing too..
As for the bright ground surfaces, are you using a standard material or did you create a new one?
One thing about rendering as i'm sure you know, is that it's hard to know what works for your scene whether it be an exterior or interior scene unless you tweak the settings, so I think if I were you I would play around with the exposure settings because as with photography, when you increase the exposure settings, the image gets darker - i'd also try tweak the 'energy multiplier' setting (lower than the default) because as the name suggests, it multiplies GI and 'ambient' light as well. I'm not that familiar with exterior render settings as I focus more on interiors, so I hope this all helps you - see how you go.

[ronie_ernanto]

Hey Ronie, I set the sun to shine thru the windows (in pic 5) to allow as much natural light to reach the kitchen/front entry areas.
These particular scenes just use the suns light. i am busy updating this drawing at the mo and will post up some pics soon and this will include night scenes too.

Can I know how you set the sun? or other properties? eg sun intensity value, or brightness contrast value?

[checkpost100]

Thank you for an answer.
I should update my AutoCAD to 2009 and play with it.
Yours renders are the best recommendation.


Cheers,

Vlad

[dzatto]

I had a look at your renderings - very impressive! Good detailing too..
As for the bright ground surfaces, are you using a standard material or did you create a new one?
One thing about rendering as i'm sure you know, is that it's hard to know what works for your scene whether it be an exterior or interior scene unless you tweak the settings, so I think if I were you I would play around with the exposure settings because as with photography, when you increase the exposure settings, the image gets darker - i'd also try tweak the 'energy multiplier' setting (lower than the default) because as the name suggests, it multiplies GI and 'ambient' light as well. I'm not that familiar with exterior render settings as I focus more on interiors, so I hope this all helps you - see how you go.

Thanks for the info.... and the compliments!! I see where I can set the energry multiplier, but where are the exposure settings? I see the exposure type, which I forgot to mention that, since I use RPC"s, I set my exposure type to logarithmic; but no place to change the settings.

As for the material of the concrete, I'm using the concrete broom finish material that comes with ACA. I guess I could change it in photoshop to be a darker gray. That would probably help.

[SCLeech]

Can I know how you set the sun? or other properties? eg sun intensity value, or brightness contrast value?

For the sun & sky settings, I 1) used the default intensity & size, 2) changed the 'geographic location' to where I live and then 3) turned 'shadows' on to 'full' so that I could visually see where and how much light was coming into the scene - while tweaking the time.
Other settings - because I focus on interior renders, I use high FG & GI settings with large radii and I bump up the 'Energy Multiplier' to 2 to multiply the GI and ambient light in the scene.
I know there are 'brightness' and 'contrast' sliders, but I don't use them as my renders are usually bright enough. All the settings I use bump up the render time to about 5rs extra for a big scene with lots of detail, but I usually leave that to chugg along over night..

[SCLeech]

Thank you for an answer.
I should update my AutoCAD to 2009 and play with it.
Yours renders are the best recommendation.


Cheers,

Vlad

Thanks Vlad. AutoCAD 09 is a great package but i'm hanging out for 2010 now as I hear the are more advanced 3D modelling functions and possibly even parametric modelling too... watch this space..