Interior:Need more soften shadows

[effectic]

I have shadows like at space ^^
i show you picture later

[Kristo Vaher]

Hey there. To get softer shadows you should use an area light. Point lights or restricted point lights cast light from only one spot and thus shadows will be sharp.

There are mr area lights with 3ds max so use those. You can set their size under area light parameters and you have an option to set area lights shadow samples separately to make sure they aren't grainy.

[tragicanimation]

Turn on FG as well if you are not already using it. Yeah it will increase rendertime, but you will get that softer GI feel that I think you are looking for.

[effectic]

thanks, i'll try

[shikuku]

hi guys~ I realize something that always puzzle me but can't find anyone to explain it.

when working with lightings like the MR area light and ies photometric web data light, I will always have problems getting grainy blotches on my image. By increasing the image size (e.g 800X600 increase to 1200X900), the grain reduces in size and apparently the image turns out dimmer.

Is it the photons adjustment that I shall take into consideration here?

[junz]

what type of shadow do you used.. shadow map? try using raytace shadow it's also speed up the rendering time's i hope it will be help full..:)

[tragicanimation]

Yeah raytrace shadows will help with that, but if you are looking for the softer shadowmap shadows then you will just need to up the shadow map resolution. I do remember getting this grainy effect once with a MR area light when shadows were set to shadow map and the area light parameters were on. If you are trying to do the area light thing you need to use Raytraced shadows.

Hope this helps.

[shikuku]

But if raytrace shadow is apply onto the MR area light, will we still get a soft shadow in the end?

All I know is that the different in the size of the MR area light will affect the softness of shadow casted.( as told in the Max Help topic and Jeremy Birn's Digital:Lighting & Rendering )

[tragicanimation]

Well it will give you an area shadow if you enable that on the light. The area shadow is a soft shadow depending on the size of the area light that you set.

[Michel]

At use of system Daylight (mrSun \mrSky) in 3ds max 9 it is possible to receive soft shadows from a light source mrSun, look a picture of my test scene

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/2322/test018m32spy9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[hot chip]

i have make a little test movie of the daylight-system from mr 3.5.

i hope you like it. :)

7MB / divx 6.0 / http://www.infinity-vision.de/temp/stadt.avi

mfg
hot chip

[JeffPatton]

Oooh, that's a really neat animation! I like the cloud shadows, and the text at the ending!

[hot chip]

thanks for this comment :o

[chocot]

hi !

Looking around and trying to get a lot ( lot lot lot) of new tricks evrywhere.
jste received my "rendering with mental ray " handbook, i advice YOU ;) to have it...many things to learn into it.

Im trying to improve myself with thread with franscesca, ctrl_shading , p_mega tpass , and things like this...a bit hard, but i'ts working..a lot of control , i LiiiiiIIIiiiike it ! make me think about old 'control color ' or a plugin like this ( dont rememer name)

Btw -->

Thanks again, jeff..for all
.................................................. ....................
i'm sending a sample of what i get when i try a simple lighting in a room with MAx 8 Mr 3.4
render time ok something like 1Min 30
But i want to improve myself and do not know how to add better effects during render ( learning passes too but things to many learn there)

as you 'll see, i work with a zindozs background that makes me crazy, but,...that's how i like to learn and trying to understand.

this is a room made by too shipping containers ( 40 Ft long each one) that i tried first to create a construction project from my brother,(ideas on www.containercity.com ), too expensive to get positive point from it.. ! :)

these are not direct links, you can get them by left click on it and then click free on bottom right of the page and then typing the three letters validation (center of page ) for accessing my "no premium rapidshare free account"

http://rapidshare.com/files/5670638/027.jpg

http://www.visuals-concepts.com/compte/image/027.jpg

and my workspace + scene details
http://rapidshare.com/files/5671308/027_arealight.jpg
my workspace2 + scene details2
http://rapidshare.com/files/5671309/027_spot.jpg

scene max files with 4 used wood maps
http://rapidshare.com/files/5679321/148_container_inZeuh17.zip


if someone could help..i really don't know how to first deal with this vray like, i would like to make soften rooms.

Reading every new news (niouniouz) about max 9 , i think i'll have to spend money if i find offers this year to get max9 from max8 but i missed the last september offer...ouch..know, i cryfor Exp.Log.

Feel free to learn from this zip.file or to help me creating a knew better one.... hi hi ...
Thanks for any help if you can !!:D

Bye, Charles!

[chocot]

getting the white more white is maybe the way to get it ...?!!?
i think i'm getting it but not easy to understand what could improve, (post of course ...)

http://www.visuals-concepts.com/compte/image/029.jpg
http://rapidshare.com/files/5706629/029.jpg
old one :
with the metal structure of the container, without any human work ( except painting)
http://www.visuals-concepts.com/compte/image/003.jpg
the first and final draft for my brother. i stopped because the project was not good and i stopped using the light too, it was too cartoon for me.
http://www.visuals-concepts.com/compte/image/008__Vue01.jpg

BUt, now, when i see it, i find that the light is nearly the same as the one i show you in the first picture of this post'all_white_one
'. there is not much difference between them, except a dark area on the floor near the walls , down the windows ,and on the green wall too, morever, maybe more realistic than the all_white_one shadows


to be followed
The chok

[chocot]

New setting for my tool ::)

has many of us, i used to get bored with rendertimes that took more than about 2h.:(
now that i control much the small resolution times rendering ,
i did a 1000 fg test instead of my usual 100 :rolleyes:
this is not the same at all. I like it very much But i'm not talking about objects for now, i made no special adjustements.


http://www.visuals-concepts.com/compte/image/031.jpg

about 1h 20 with 3 computers , about 3h30 with single comp.(something like d 920 or a bit less)

i tried too to lower sky impact on ceiling but i'll show this on next post , image is rendering now in 3500 fg points

[slipknot66]

I think you dont need that high number for FG.
You could use a photometric area light with a square projection in front of each window, that will help you to get the contact shadows.You could also use the built in AO shader , that can help even more to enhance the contact shadows.

[ghostlake114]

So you are usign FG only, with Secondary bounces? That will cost more the GI+FG method

[slipknot66]

Heres an example.. its using a low value for FG. 250 FG rays
1 photometric area light.
GI+FG
Im still trying to understand photons inside max|mentalray, as im used to Maya|mentalray
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/9549/teste2gt4.th.jpg (http://img80.imageshack.us/my.php?image=teste2gt4.jpg)

[chocot]

i was looking for next answers..sure i did not post in the right place..

rapid trick to understand photon mapping in Mr:
let's create a room, a light a the window, all in white material ...bla bla bla
let the light send about 100 photons and in the render rollout of GI, send 50/100 photon, to test, and specify a radius...

This is the point,.... , i used ( and many people advice to use this) to set a radius for photon of about 1-2 meters (/ 60 -100 ? in generic units ?) but i tried then to set radius for photon to a size that approch reality, 0 !!! in fact, we are in computer technics so dont try 0, i guess you 'll get bored soon :p

something about 0,2 or 1 so 0.03 meters and maybe less if you can,

test with a render and you ll see the place of some of te photons sending in the room

now, estimate the size of the photon ( is it too litlle for my enormous room to create or is it too big for my little room)
and send more photon with your light ( 1 000 000 ...) aand same for render parameters
with this technic, you need final gather then to smmotth all

it works !! :)

[blitzmaya]

Wow nice renders. How did you get the white to look purely white?

[nisus]

i have make a little test movie of the daylight-system from mr 3.5.

i hope you like it.

7MB / divx 6.0 / http://www.infinity-vision.de/temp/stadt.avi

Broken link... can you fix it hotchip?

nisus