Rendering a bit strange on a white surface

In the image below, the bed is covered by a white sheet, defined by a mate material.

I think a bit strange it's rendered so grey.

Sides, directly enlightened by the lamps are white, I agree that the sides facing the camera are grey because in shadow, but I'm a bit surprised about the top of the bed.

Any idea?

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on October 20, 2011 at 6:45am

You might consider placing some additional lights somewhere to light up the sofa better.

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Permalink Reply by Alain Bonnefoy on October 20, 2011 at 7:29am

I forget the image. in fact pillows, look black now

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on October 20, 2011 at 7:36am

Self glow is always going to look unrealistic. Its main use is for illuminated signs, tv screens, etc.

If you want to bed to appear "well lit", you are going to have to add more lighting. Perhaps lighting between the "eye" and the bed.

You may want to isolate this part of the model to make it faster to re-render it with changes.

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Permalink Reply by Alain Bonnefoy on October 20, 2011 at 8:46am

Ok, I'm going to do that.

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Permalink Reply by Richcat on October 20, 2011 at 10:53am

Have you tried the ambient light settings, made a little test model to emulate what I thinks happening

No Ambient

Medium Ambient light

Medium Ambient light with balance slider in Lights tab set to 25 towards ambient

Then just playinhg around with Tone operator

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on October 20, 2011 at 11:09am

Thanks for piping in Richcat.

If you still have the model, try putting a ceiling light at the very front of the ceiling.

You could also, (heaven forbid!), turn on camera lights to see what effect they had.

(On the Lights Tab)

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Permalink Reply by Richcat on October 20, 2011 at 12:15pm

Hi Al

Go on then - just for you. Both with no ambient light.

Its a while since I have had chance to get back in the rendering groove

Ceiling light

Camera lights

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Permalink Reply by Richcat on October 20, 2011 at 12:32pm

Sorry couldn't resist

Pathtracer with tone mapping

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on October 20, 2011 at 12:36pm

Thanks Richcat.

The ceiling light helped a lot.

The camera lights helped a little. But I suspect they were dimmer than the floor lamps. If the camera lights were brighter, then they would have more of an effect. Still, the "real world renderers" out there just hate camera lights.

Camera Light example:

In this particular model we have the camera behind a wall (rather than in an illuminated second room which would provide additional lighting), and Susan and the couch facing the wall. If we reversed susan and the couch and looked from the other end, and had more lighting, it would probably look more realistic.

Or he could put some windows in the front wall and let some daylight in.

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Permalink Reply by Richcat on October 20, 2011 at 1:00pm

Is Alains camera in an illuminated second room? and looking at Alains image there appeared to be no external lighting sun sky ground and hdri.

The only way I could get it to look the same with black background with no lighting effect on the interior was to have set sketchup style colours to black back ground.

The pillows and small tables legs either side of the bed being to close to the outside wall to get enough lighting and therefore appeared very dark.

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on October 20, 2011 at 1:04pm

Is Alains camera in an illuminated second room? and looking at Alains image there appeared to be no external lighting sun sky ground and hdri.

No. I was just adding those ideas as a suggestion to improve his scene.

I was also thinking we might be looking through a one-way glass mirror. But in that case the mirror would reflect light and help illuminate the "front" side of the couch