@anstvam
ies lights can be tricky if you don't have good files. The ies files have light intensity as part of the file - so it varies greatly from one file source to another. Try finding other sources of ies lights with greater intensity and the values you need in vray can be much more reasonable. Also, make sure your settings are for interiors - if you are trying to compete with daylighting, it is very difficult to get ies lights to show at all.

@frederic

Your modeling is very nice. I agree it's great to bring a sketch into 3D, that's why SU is so far ahead of other modeling programs. I have to agree with jarynzlesa that there is something about the renders that don't look very warm and spa-like. One part of the image that sticks out is the stone wall. Maybe if you add some soft reflection to it, it would look less forbidding. Otherwise, your materials look quite convincing. One thing you could play with is emmissive materials - that could add some warmth - like having the candles give off a warm glow.

For the rendering settings - the splotchiness can definitely reduced. One option is to try using DMC sampler for the final image (that will give more of a photo graininess.) There are some good tutorials that explain the quality settings.

-Andy

@Brodie

This is within the vray materials editor - things like reflection and emissive layers, etc. It would save time to be able to copy these layers from one material to another.

That would be a nice feature. Things have gotten so much better with vfsu in being able to arrange the layers within the materials. Most of the time, if I need something from another material, I load whichever is the more complicated material and then manually copy settings from the other one.
-Andy

I have rarely had any success in bringing in textures through 3DS import. If you have the original material folder for the file, you may need to manually set up the materials in SU. If you have a way to convert the 3DS file to DAE - I've had most success with getting the right scale and getting geometry to come in correctly. For materials, I've had most success with OBJ files. Good luck.
-Andy

That looks very nice. What is the displacement amount in the options menu? Do you change any of the other options - edge length, max subdivisions? It would be good to know the values you use.
Thanks
-Andy

@unknownuser said:

Maybe my rectangular lights lit in both directions...

That's what I assumed - which is what I figure is the light source for the shadow. A light like that would be open on the top and would not have that shadow - which is why I noticed.

Thomas,

Nice clean look, everything is so crisp and coordinated. Nice work!
One comment: I was looking more closely at your lighting and have a question about how you did your fluorescent fixtures. It looks like they are supposed to be direct-indirect, but there's a shadow on the ceiling above each one. Do you have a rectangle light under each fixture? You may want to disable shadows in the material you use for the interior of the lights to get rid if the dark areas.

Andy

Allan -
That's a beautiful watercolor effect. It adds wonderful depth to your rendering. I am curious about your technique. I have been trying to learn the best way to do watercolor technique and I am curious about what layers and brushes you are using (I am guessing it is all done in Photoshop?) Are you just using the colors that are in your original rendering or do you add gradients and colors on top of it? Do you use filters other than blur filters, like the watercolor filter? I think you might be a good person to ask since your technique is so well developed.
Thanks!

Andy

A plug for CS5 - it is 64 bit, so large files are so much easier to work with.
I did try GIMP and tried to like it, but just never could get it to behave they way I'm used to (having used PS since 5.0)
For simple editing, I end up using faststone most of the time (resize/ saturation/ hue, batch modifications, etc.) best of all - FREE
http://www.faststone.org/

Best,
Andy

You are welcome Jamal!

I think the material you used already had reflection, but with the higher light levels, it showed up more strongly. (when the camera is turned on, you are better able to control light levels than with just GI)

I found some more information about photometry units.

from http://www.olino.org/us/articles/2009/10/29/background-measurement-data-lamp-measurement-articles

@unknownuser said:

The unit is Cd/klm (klm = kilo lumen). This enables comparisons; say a 120 cm long tube light has a value of 100 Cd/klm in the 0° direction. This means that when a number of these tubes, physically close to an other, would give in total 1000 lm, than then the intensity right underneath them would be 100 Cd.

When taking the 150 cm variant of the same tube, it will most likley have 1.5/1.2 x more intensity (Cd) in the same direction, and will give 1.5/1.2 x more luminous flux in total. Result is that the parameter expressed in Cd/klm remains the same; less tubes are needed to get to 1000 lm and hence the intensity will remain the same.

A different type tube light ca have 200 Cd/klm in the same 0º direction. Placing that many tubes such that their sum equals 1000 lm, then the intensity will be 200 Cd.

This way the lamps can be compared.

As for how vray interprets "power" it states that the values are in lumens. If you have a specific light value on a surface, you may be able to do some math with candelas and lumens and distance, but that's more than I can stand to think about too long

The ies viewer is very useful, as the data display shows the maximum candela(? I think) output of the ies file. If you compare ies files - you will see this varies greatly as Thomas noted. The maximum output is 92 in the original ies file you used. In looking through some ies files I've used, they've varied from numbers like 500 to 1500.

OK - I opened your model to see what I could figure out. I was not able to get your light to shine at all even at 80,000,000 power. How's that for being impossible to understand!! I think it depends on your ies file how much power is needed (I looked at the light with the ies viewer, and it looks like the values are very low for this particular light file.) Here's an image with a different ies file (at only 30,000,000 for power.) I ended up changing the options settings to get the right exposure (turned camera on, etc.)
I've attached an image of the new settings, the new ies file I used, and the visopt settings I used. You may try some different ies files, I think the one I used has a beam that's too narrow.

Andy

And one more thing I forgot - I typically turn on soft shadows too. (I did for this rendering)

vray-support-files.zip

Are you looking to make a separate image file with the alpha layer? In Photoshop - you would go to "layer -- layer mask -- from transparency" This way you get an new alpha channel that you can save into a new image. I can explain further if that's what you're looking for.

In your light properties - the "power" setting should be something like 20,000 or 150,000. Play with the power settings until you have what you like. If you have a specific wattage, I don't know how to help you there, I'm not sure how the power number translates to reality.

Best,
Andy

Hi Thomas,

One solution I used to make a material map (same issue - I needed to cover a wall with ivy but didn't want all the additional polys for vray.)
First, I took a leaf component from an ivy model I had (17,000 faces with just one component!) - then used component spray on a rectangle in an empty model. I added and deleted leaves until it looked how I wanted to to look in my full model. I set up a view straight on, and with the right sun angle, did a vray render. As a result, I have a png (with transparency) that I can use as a material map in vray (I also made a bumpmap layer with a b/w version of the image.) Like Csaba suggests, I place it at a distance from the backdrop so it casts shadows. Here is an example in a rendering.

-Andy

Problem solved!
I was able to select all and copy (ctrl-C) my model and paste it into a new drawing (all with vray plugin disabled.) The blended material problem is gone and the textures show up (and render) correctly when I open with Vray (1.48.89) enabled.
Now, however, I can't find where I read this suggestion to copy and paste into a new file (I thought someone had posted here, but I guess I read it in a different thread. Whoever you are, many thanks!)

for a wire, I usually use an extruded square profile - something around 1/8" Then I soften the edges so that it reads as a circular object (only in the middle along the extruded lines - not the end squares, otherwise you get weird shading where it turns around the end edges.) Also, having a thickness will have the object show up in Vray (lines don't render)

Your second image looks like your exposure is about right - it looks like you just need to work on your quality settings. For a lot of reflected light, I find DMC and Light Cache gives me the smoothest image. There are a variety of visopt settings you can try at asgvis downloads for final render quality. The one tip I found useful is to set the color threshold very low in "Image Sampler" to .01 or .005 for the final image (as long as your computer is up to the task... it can take really long on a slow machine.)

nice sunny image, looks great! I like how the light colors of the house work with the background "wash" and the dark green of the plants to balance the tones. I agree about the crop comment. I also notice the tree in front of the right corner looks like it's tucked under the eave.
I'm curious - did you use the vray toon material or did you add the sketchup wireframe post-process? I go back and forth about which to use and am wondering which you prefer.

Good point Edson - I use face me people too when I need to have people in my models. It helps a lot as there are then shadows and lighting from the light sources in the model. example using vray and 2D face-me person: