Maya mental ray help Lighting issues

[Meechy]

Greetings

I am having problems setting up a realistic sun light through a window in this model
http://www.digitaltutors.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=3346&cat=500

I still have a few pieces of furniture to create and add blinds to the window, but I want to have the sun light stream through into the room and give off a photo-realistic look.

It's my first room and lighting attempt, any help or guidance would be most appreciated.

thank you.

[richmondlu]

If you have 8.5 the enviornment sun/sky light in mental ray works pretty good other wise what i did in older renderings is use a directional light as the sun and shadow casting of the windows. Then use a mental ray area light facing inside the room from outside the windows. then play with the photons on the area light till you get the fill you want with Global Ill. on. from there you just have to play with settings and light bounces till you get the feel you want.

[Meechy]

Thanks for the info, the sun/sky env works great, I just have to tweak it to get what I want.

[richmondlu]

When using that remeber to tweak the gamma in the mia_ exposer tab under the cammera you are using. Other wise you might get washed out materials and colors. I usally set it between 1.0-1.5 to get the right colors i am looking for in my materials.
Here i posted a pic for you where it is. Also it is under utilities in the hypershade