Questions about emitters in free Maxwell Render
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I'm doing a scen where the camera is just some meters outside a house facing towards the livingroom. I'm using physical sky and sun, but to get more light inside, I tested to use the ceiling as an emitter, but I don't get the result I was hoping for. It's the same as before when I only used the sun. The emitter is set to 100 watt and I habe tried to increase the value. Isn't this working or can I improve it in some way or do another way?
I also has a TV in the room with an "TV" image on it to look relistic. Can I use an emitter for the image to get som light from the screen and get a more realistic screen?
Preciate some tips! Thanks!
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I would say this is a really bad idea with the free version due to the FIRE/draft engine limitations -- and more importantly it's generally a bad idea for realism.
The reason why is because the sun is super intense compared to any emitters, and being an exterior shot you have to base your camera exposure on the sun -- which would normally be somewhere between EV 14-15 (lower for dawn/dusk)... conversely, the EV values for normal interior lighting is somewhere between 5-8 (generally).
The only way to get the emitter in such a scene to be seen as "bright" (in relationship to sunlit objects) is to make them completely unrealistically powerful.
For more information perhaps you will find this helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_value
And yes, you can make an image an emitter, but it would need to be an HDR/EXR to do so... however the same physics of light apply (as I outlined above).
Best,
Jason. -
OK, thanks for the reply! So, it's a bad idea to make a interior scene with a camera facing towards the outside when using sun!? Would it be better with just the Physical sky or Sky dome and use some emitters? But then I don't get the nice sunlight on the floor
Should I forget about doing a interior scene with the free Maxwell Render? Preciate some tips before I'm put a lot of work on something that won't be good.
Thanks!
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The free versions draft engine is designed to be used with simple lighting -- so an emitter only scene is OK, as is any type of environmental lighting (HDR, Skydome, Physical Sky)... however combining them is not going to be easy.
I've seen plenty of nice interiors using just Physical Sky or HDR only, and it will be just fine, but add a emitter to the interior and you are asking for noise that may not resolve until very high SL.
This also happens with the production engine to a lesser degree because of unbalanced emitter power. Maxwell is optimized to resolve the noise from powerful emitters first, leaving the noise from weaker emitters until higher SL... and as I said before the sun is much more powerful than any interior light.
If I was intent on rendering a daytime interior with the free plugin I would use Physical Sky only... but be warned that interiors always take longer than exteriors due to the more complex light bounces that must occur within an enclosed space.
IMO the draft engine included in the free plugin is most ideal for exterior shots with environmental lighting, or product renders where you can use emitters without needing to be within an enclosed space. Interiors benefit significantly from the regular Maxwell engine, known as "production" within the paid version of the stand-alone plugin.
Best,
Jason. -
I might chime in here if I can.
I also use Maxwell for SU and want to know how to get the interior renders out of it. I've had a look through the YouTube vids but not much there I can find.....Jason, do you have any ideas? Attached is a sample image of what I'd like to render. it does have some indirect light from outside but only that...
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If you are using the Pro version of the plugin then doing interiors should be easy enough, just make sure you set the engine to "Production" -- the "Draft" engine is really not very good in these situations.
The most important things I can say about interiors are:
- Use AGS instead of Glass for the windows (my preferred version of AGS is attached).
- Use IBL (image based lighting) for the sky, the Physical Sky "Sun" is too intense and will compete with the interior emitters creating noise.
- Use the correct exposure for the interior lighting (usually EV 5-7) and adjust the intensity of the IBL to suit your taste.
- Try to carefully control the reflective qualities of your materials -- rougher materials generally render quicker.
- Expect render times to be 3-5 times as long as similar exterior shots -- this is due to the much more complicated light bounces that have to be calculated.
- If you know there are areas where you are not going see at all, use a "light absorber" material (attached) to reduce the bounces.
Best,
Jason.
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Thanks Jason, your advice is very much appreciated! I'll give it a try and post again if I have queries.
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Thanks Jason! Useful tips and materials!
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i would like to add something to the first question with the ceiling: the bigger the emitting face is, the less powerfull the light comes out of it, so when you have a big face like the ceiling of a living room you'll have to crank up the power of the emitter to get a result.
when you have a very small face, let's say 1x1 cm, you'll get much more light with the same light-power settings. -
Hi!
It was I who wrote this question back in 2012 and I haven't worked with any 3D-visualization since then. But I have missed it a lot and I'm thinking about start again. So I have been playing around with free version of Sketchup 2015 and Maxwell Render. And it's about lights again. Is it impossible to create a nice render of a kitchen interior with the free version of Maxwell Render? Are there better performance and options available in the paid version?
If I do a room with a big box in Sketchup and open one side. I then create some spotlights and point the face downwards inside the box, I see no light at all from them! The outside light is sky without the sun and time is set to evning. Shouldn't there be any light?
Is the paid version of Maxwell Render worth the money or are there any other free or low cost renders out there that is better? Renders made by SU Podium seems very realistic, especially the of interiors. Kerkythea is free, but I guess there has been no development with that since the release in 2008?
Thanks!
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