1st project - church

[Grimmie]

Hi everyone,

I've been watching this forum for a while now and hope I can get some help with my first project.

I'm trying to recreate a church which was in our village from 1500 untill 1872. All I got is a black and white pencill drawing from around 1850. (But with a little imagination it could be done ;) ).

I already created the base, but before I want to start working on the details I'd like some advice about lighting. The 2 images I posted are done with 3 spotlights, but can anyone tell me how I can create realistic lighting on large buildings?
I'm using 3ds max 6. I hope someone can give me some good advice.

Thanks in advance. (b.t.w. is this the correct forum for my question?)

Grtz Grimmie

http://3d.madexs.com/church1.jpg

http://3d.madexs.com/church2.jpg

[Samuel_Madrid]

nice start :) keep it up and show us the evolution

[Psistorm]

yeah, cant wait to see more :)
the start looks very promising to me :)

[Grimmie]

Thanks,

I've already put a small update on http://3d.madexs.com but when I've done a lot more details I'll put an update overhere. :)

Grtz Grimmie

[Grimmie]

Small update:

http://3d.madexs.com/church5.jpg

Grtz Grimmie

[Grimmie]

Another update
(I was busy on doing other things so this project got stuck for a while :( ).
http://3d.madexs.com/church6.jpg

[nico3d]

grimmie,

I'm sure that the modelling is in progress. Try to have as many detail as you can and then put it in the model....

regarding lighting you have various options....If you don't want to move to third party renderes you can use either radiosity or lightracing to get a realistic look.....You can use the Max 6 tutorials that come with the software..

My suggestion is to use another renderer, they are faster, better, much more complex though. But in the medium term you'll get amazing lighting which is one of the most important things for architectural representation.

My fave for architecture is Vray, I find it to be the simplest (although very complex) and really appropiate when it comes to natural lighting.
Brazil is amazing too I think it is more complex....sometimes it depends on how comfortable you findyourself getting used to the workflow of each..

I use only those...
with max 6 you can use Mental Ray.....use it at your own risk !! heheheh it is so complex for me that scares me !! hahah

[cbaristo]

hi grimmie,

What you are doing now is using simple illumination, you can get very nice results this way with not too much work, specially if you are making an outdoor scene.

What nico is talking about is GI (global ilumination). You have it natively since max 5 under two diferents ways: light tracer and radiosity, Lighttracer is better for outdor scenes, But you can get those renderers: brazil, vray, finalrender and now with max 6 mental ray is included.

there is a lot of documentation about both kind of ilumination methods in this forum. take a look at this:
.http://forums.3dtotal.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4226
this is quite large, but nice thread

I think that if you dont want to jump into GI right now you can get great results using a lightrig in your scene. A lightrig is a lot of omni lights around a sphere around your scene lighting the whole thing from any direction. This will give you a nice outdor light base, then put a direct light to cast shados and get the sun effect in your model.

there is a max script than makes the way easear about making a lightrig. i dont remember the name, maybe someone else can help you find it. But i will post one example in a second post, i have to go now.

see you.

[Grimmie]

Hi Guys,

Thanks, these were the tips I was looking for. I tried the light tracer on my scene combined with 1 direct light and it looked better instantly.

I'll try the demo versions of Brazil and V-Ray to see how these renderings look.

Grtz Grimmie