don't be afraid of the dark. no really, let there be dark! too many night renderings i've seen are so thoroughly (and artificially) lit up that they're just not worth the trouble. might as well have gone with a daytime look.
My renderings always look bad. I should get a book and read it. At work, I've been f'ing around in Max. I get ok results, but once I add materials, it's done for. I can only do daylight also. My artificial lights always look weird. I can't get consistant results ever. I think also, my models usually suck, so they just look bad once rendered. Maybe that's why everyone always does wireframe...
if you're using MAX-mental ray or Brazil RS, use MR omni - try 5000 photons, and work your way down to save rendering time. you can pretty much light up the whole building using 2-3 MR omni lights, and try out different positions.
thats why i always did renders at school rather than models.... everyone (including myself) who did a model after 1am got the day after full of cuts and stitches, and bloody models, and anyone who brought more renderings and a shitty paper model got their few hours of sleep
Volume lights. If you're using 3DS Max, learn to use volume lights and other atmospheric effects. They add a real smokey urban nighttime look to the whole thing.
Also, you'll end up needing twice as many light sources as you would in the real building: one to produce the beam/spread of your light fitting, the other to provide a hint of general lighting from a similar point.
Otherwise, just add a bunch of omni lights to a scene, drop their stregth to 0.1-ish, see what happens. It's all trial and error anyway.
Jul 19, 06 7:27 pm ·
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Night Rendering Question
I was wondering if anyone had any good tips for night time renderings?
1) hit render
2) win key + L
3) turn off monitor
night rendering and alcohol - it's a winning combination!
don't be afraid of the dark. no really, let there be dark! too many night renderings i've seen are so thoroughly (and artificially) lit up that they're just not worth the trouble. might as well have gone with a daytime look.
My renderings always look bad. I should get a book and read it. At work, I've been f'ing around in Max. I get ok results, but once I add materials, it's done for. I can only do daylight also. My artificial lights always look weird. I can't get consistant results ever. I think also, my models usually suck, so they just look bad once rendered. Maybe that's why everyone always does wireframe...
Turn up the reflectivity of your materials, just a tad. That way you don't have to over-light to be able to see things.
if you're using MAX-mental ray or Brazil RS, use MR omni - try 5000 photons, and work your way down to save rendering time. you can pretty much light up the whole building using 2-3 MR omni lights, and try out different positions.
thats why i always did renders at school rather than models.... everyone (including myself) who did a model after 1am got the day after full of cuts and stitches, and bloody models, and anyone who brought more renderings and a shitty paper model got their few hours of sleep
Volume lights. If you're using 3DS Max, learn to use volume lights and other atmospheric effects. They add a real smokey urban nighttime look to the whole thing.
Also, you'll end up needing twice as many light sources as you would in the real building: one to produce the beam/spread of your light fitting, the other to provide a hint of general lighting from a similar point.
Otherwise, just add a bunch of omni lights to a scene, drop their stregth to 0.1-ish, see what happens. It's all trial and error anyway.
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