Vray scene - HELP!!

[Stylez]

hi everyone!

ok i've been working on these interiors rooms ( http://forums.3dtotal.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16898 ) for a while, and i have to animate through an entire house. I have never used Vray before until now and i need to use it for the animation. I've been playing around with it for about a week now and i know a little bit about Vray... enough to be able to make nice looking static shots - but for an animation, it's apparently a different setup (i have to use photon map instead of irradiance map) so my question is if anyone can help me with this or if anyone knows the best way for me to do this, please let me know. I only have a few days to figure this thing out and any help would be greatly appreciated.

here is a shot of where i'm at so far..

[Stylez]

and here's the parameters i'm using and the light params

[Stylez]

and the view ports - i placed a plane light fitted to each window in the scene...

[Stylez]

nobody has any suggestion??? not at all?

well thnx anyways

[Gerbilho]

Hi Stylez!

Before getting into animation.

In static images you are doing better but still not enough. Use just two lights, one direct light on the outside with a high multiplier (3 or 4) and one vray light in the interior (don't make it skylight portal!). Also very important: hide the glass on the windows so that light may enter 100%. I don't know what kind of material you got on the glass but it may be a wrong one. So for a start don't use any glass at all, hide it. For secondary bounces I would suggest 0,8 or 1,0. Use bucket rendering.

For Animation:

I don't like photon maps. Many people like them and use them but this is just my way of working. Use irradance maps for animation just like in a still shot. Lower some of the parameters to get a quicker render without sacrificing too much quality. On advanced irradiance map parameters you have to turn on the Multiframe Incremental. The first frame will render as normal but then the following frames will render much faster because vray will only claculate the different areas of the new frame, and not the whole scene.

Hope this helps. Good luck.
By the way what cpu do you have?

(if you want to sende me a scene for me to help and send it back to you e-mail to camillo_lopes@yahoo.com)

[g69]

ive been using vRay for my work for long now...and to tell you the truth i really love it!

i tried animating with it... it was much faster than the normal scanline... but the final output i got was a bit flickery (donnu whY)

anways...as Gerbilho has suggested try using 1 direct light...
with 1 vray light... i really love the vray shadows with direct light!

and for test renderings dont mind lowering the shadow samples
from 8 - 4 or maybe 2... this would not only shorten render time...
but also help you how ur final render would look!

ps. the lower the no. of lights in the scene = more GI calculation time.. start with no lights... and then start adding lights (include/ excluding object...with no specs.)

i hope i make scene :o

[g69]

Gerbilho: man is it possible you can tell us or maybe show us
what are the best glass materials?

i normally use, 50% opacity, with black diff. color. :)

[Stylez]

hey , thnx for the tips

Gerbilho: I think the only problem with using irradiance maps for an animation is that the shadows flicker, and i need a nice smooth animation. nico3d told me in order to achieve this i have to use photon maps. Also i don't want it to have to calculate passes for each frame because it really slows down rendering time. but i guess i could try and see wich way would be faster.

ps. I'm using a P4, 2.8 Ghz, 2GB RAM, ATI 9600 Pro 256MB

[g69]

Stylez... i think this might be interesting to you...
http://vray.info/

check all the issues disscussed in there related to animation
and other lighting scenes...
its a wonderful site, give you all the information you want on vRay.

and please show us more of your work :)

[Stylez]

thanks g69, but i've already been there - i got some really good tips there and i know what i know about Vray because of that site - but i am still very new with Vray ( about 2 weeks ) and all i learnt from there was what some of the parameters do - i still have no idea what is the best Vray light to use for and what settings are good and how they affect things... but i guess if i keep playin around i'll get it eventually. the only problem is my client needs this project done a while ago :o lol

[g69]

lol...hate when clients keep bugin...

here... this is another excellent site... i really love there work!
http://www.osmosis.com.au/info/tutorials/studyhall_interior.htm

try to follow it with your scene... its very well explained! :)

[Stylez]

lol, thnx - i've seen this one too :D

i have a question though - if i use irradiance maps instead of photon map, and i set the params to multiframe instead of single or bucket (because i'm animating) - would the flickering that normaly occurs with irradiance maps not happen? or would the shadow flickering always be there no matter what because irradiance maps calculate each frame differently?

[g69]

i have never animated with vRay yet...
but i have seen ppl animating with vRay and getting awesome results...there is a way, i think... add to current map, i think

its like only the change in samples are calculated and other ones are reused...

experiment with different settings...
setup ur own experiment scene...(10 frames or maybe 5)
and give it a try.

sorry cudnt help with animation :(
and if u get any results...plz dont mind sharing ;)

All the best! :)

[Stylez]

ok for this render i have changed the multiplier of the outside direct light to 6.0 and i added a Vray plane light with a multiplier of 0.3 in the kitchen cupboard/sink area

[Gerbilho]

Stylez, it only flickers if you put in low settings. And it's not the shadows that flick, it's the irradiance maps that flick. I have made simple animations with vray with no flickering. I suggest you set up one of your scenes for animations then send it to me. I'll tell you how you can improve it and set up the scene. Then I'll send it back to you if u want.

camillo_lopes@yahoo.com

g69 - For still images I render with hidden glass. I save the irradiance map , unhide glass and then render again with the saved irradiance map. As for the glass material I usually go for the standard 15% opacity with a vray material in reflection slot.

[Stylez]

Gerbilho: I tried sending you the file, but because it was 3MB you couldn't recieve it, so i sent you an FTP link in your email for you to download it, check your email it should be there, if not i'll resend it

thnx for your help

- Stylez

[Stylez]

here's a render - same lights as mentioned before, i just added the objects to see how the shadows would cast

[Stylez]

heres a render without the Vray plane light - just 1 direct light outside with Vray Shadows...

[Stylez]

ok, i think i've got it...
here's a shot with only one direct light outside the house (multiplier of 12)

[Stylez]

another shot....

[Stylez]

kitchen area...

[Stylez]

library...

[sarN]

the one with the stairs in the shot i seriously thought was a photo, but maybe the floor is too shiny? Great job, i think youve got the lighting down :) definitely a huge improvement!

[Stylez]

hey thanks sarN, I really appreciate ur comments - i have been working very hard to try and get this to look right and i'm glad to see that u like it :) ... now hopefully my client will like it ;)

[Stylez]

here's a shot of the family room...

[g69]

Massive improvements man!

lighting have started takin shape....
u mite try editing the final renders with PS.

here have a look what i did to your images...
i hope u dont mind :)

image1:

[g69]

& image 2:

[Stylez]

wow - they look very nice, only problem is i'm animating it, so i wouldn't be able to change them in PS

[g69]

how do u usually animate?
frame by frame? (i mean sequence files?)
or normal AVI file?

y dont u try...animated the scene...
take the seq. of images... create an action and automate/ batch process all the images... and then join em to make an animaton ;)

hehehe.... would solve tht wont it?

[Stylez]

i create an avi or mov file by animating a camera from 1 point to another - max creates the in between frames - then i render frame by frame by frame to create the avi

[saby]

Stylez I really like your work:D. They are great. I got couple of question though.

1 How do you create those plants. R they 2d? If it is then how do u do that.

2 I have downloaded vray free for max 5 after seeing your work. But my one is not working:( . Every time I trying to render its getting hang. Vray messenger is not working. How I can use the free version if u or any one else can help me please let me know.

[Stylez]

thanks saby - i appreciate your comments.

1 - the plants i bought from XFrog - i can use either 2D plants or full 3D plants... i used the full 3D ones because I am animating my scenes.

2. if it's not working you may want to try redownloading it and re-installing it. You may have downloaded the wrong version for max5 by accident - anyways that's the only reason i can think of.

try that and see what happens

- Stylez

[novoAlias]

those last 2 renders are beautiful, you learn fast :D sry i cant help i dnt use vray or do indoor animation :p, if you are going for picture perfect once you have the animation down you might bump up the texture rez right now some of them are blurry and F.I. the door in the study/office looks untextured..

[Stylez]

thnx BlackWolf; i did want to go for picture perfect, but because i have a really really tight deadline i can't make it so perfect :( - next time :P

[Stylez]

hello again everyone

i have a problem i dont know how to fix or whats causing it... im getting white patches all over my image, now i think it's caused by either a transparent object, or maybe something with reflections or i dunno, anyways here's the image, if anyone at all could help i would really really appreciate it

thnx
- Stylez

[Stylez]

Not to worry everyone!

i solved the problem, thnx to a very nice person on another forum i was able to achieve the image i wanted, so here it is;

let me know what u think..

[g69]

hey styles how u doing?
the door looks a bit weird... u mite wanna fix that.
so for the shadows, i dont see any :(

[novoAlias]

heya

i didnt see the post but.. was it the statue?

[Stylez]

Hey g69; im doin pretty good :D ... u mentioned a door? but you cannot see a door in this image, you may be talking about the mirror, and yes it does look a bit weird to me aswell. And for the shadows, since i used Vray, I made the shadows as smooth as possible and since the only light source is the sunlight, there's not too many shadows to see ;)

BlackWolf; I never found out if it was a problem with any of the objects, I learned a trick where you check this box in the system properties of the Vray Rendering menu and it will get rid of the splotches :P

thnx everyone

- Stylez

[g69]

hmmm...a mirror?
taking another look at it...it looks like a portal to some other world.

keep it up man...i am waiting for the final animation :D
ps. is there any chance we can have a look @ it?

pls link me, if you can...would be gr8.

L8er

oh n btw, could how please share tht box which gets rid of those splotches?

[Stylez]

lol g69, it does look kinda like a portal :P

umm, the animation won't be complete for another little while, but when it's done there will be a low-res version posted on my website

oh an the box which gets rid of the splotches; it's in the rendering properties, under Vray: System, in the ShadeContect compatibility, check the Max-compatible checkbox. It cheats the system basically by making shadows correct and only working in camera space. Note that when this is checked, plugins like afterburn or shag hair will have compatibility issues

[sarN]

very nice styles, looks like someone massacred your room with paintballs before. Do you have actual textures on the walls and stuff? The lighting looks great :)

[Stylez]

lol sarN; maybe i'll make a shot of a paintball place and hopefully those splotches will show up n make the image look cool :D

oh and no, there's no texture for the walls, just a matte-paint material

[otacon]

The lighting looks pretty good. Maybe a little bit more shadow would be best, but i know how hard it is to get the right amount.:) A few crits: The banisturs on the stairs look way too thin, might want to thicken them up some. Whats with the pillars in the middle of the room? They are right in the middle of a walking space, and would be a nuesance (sp?) to walk around. They are blocking the main part of the scene too. The mirror looks like a door because there is a frame around it, and it has a crack in the middle....it looks like a closet to me. Does it open up?

[saxo_boy]

Hey, Great work mate, think its well kewl, i cant wait to produce work like you!

Keep up da good work

[Gerbilho]

Glad to see your improvements! This image is good but it would be even better if we could see some shadows. I'm glad you've made it !