white corrugated metal / lighting balance

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Permalink Reply by Rich Hart on June 15, 2016 at 5:13pm

Can you post the model here? So that we can play with it and see what might be done.

If you zip up the .skp file, you can attach it to a reply using the Upload Files button, if it's not too large.

Thanks,

Rich

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Permalink Reply by jeff bergeron on June 15, 2016 at 9:26pm

rich,

thanks for your reply.

i have attached my file here.   and please excuse the messyness of the corrugated siding (best way i could do it) so if you have any suggestions... let me know... i have only been working on the one view for a marketing peace.

let me know what you think of the lighting...

thanks again,

j

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Permalink Reply by jeff bergeron on June 15, 2016 at 9:27pm

rich,

thanks for your reply.

my file is over 5mb even zipped.  do you have email?  would love for you to look it over.

thanks again

thanks again,

j

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Permalink Reply by Rich Hart on June 15, 2016 at 9:53pm

Yes. Send it to support@renderplus.com

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Permalink Reply by Russell D. Houlden on June 16, 2016 at 8:32am

Jeff:

Here are a few images.  If this is moving in the right direction, that is, more along the lines of what you're hoping to see in the renderings, the changes are not difficult.

The corrugated roofing was white.  When light, especially sunlight hits this roofing, it's going to get brighter and so the result is that the roofing goes flat.  Of course corrugated metal isn't white, it's gray.  It's also got some ability to reflect.  I made it gray (although I didn't take the time to do an actual color match) - and I set the reflection on the roofing to "plastic" because I think you wouldn't like too much reflection.  The rendering preset I used is HDRI and using a hi-res HDRi image that I have on my computer.

The images are after just 35 passes.

White is always tricky because all visible light gets reflected off of white and that can mean that although your mind perceives "white" - there is usually very little actual white on any given surface of a real building.

Black is interesting too, a computer can represent black very well (0,0,0) and true black doesn't reflect any light.  So black that will reflect (a shiny black car, for example) - actually has to be not perfectly black (10,10,10) to mimic what black typically does in the real world.

Were this my model, I would bump up reflection on the metal roof, especially if this is new construction.  The glass is reflecting properly, it's darker behind the glass than in front which will make glass more specular (mirror like).

I do hope that this is helpful.  This particular rendering does not use the sun but only because the sun angle and shadows are being set by the HDRi.

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Permalink Reply by jeff bergeron on June 16, 2016 at 9:04am

rich,

this is definitely going in the right direction. few things on reflections in this software.  you mentioned you used a hi res image... i'm assuming that this is the (tree) image in the background?  is this how windows reflect?  from the background image?  this is going to be a tricky image to get just right... as in this case the corrugated metal (both on roof and walls) are 'white' corrugated metal.  but i'm liking the way this gray is translating this.  i'm excited to see this thing render as a whole.  anyway you could send me back my file so i can see the settings that you changed... or take screen shots?  i really appreciate your help on this.   

j

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Permalink Reply by jeff bergeron on June 16, 2016 at 9:10am

ohhh... btw... i am using a free version of sketchup (make).  does that make any difference with this software?

thanks again!

j

Russell D. Houlden said:

Jeff:

Here are a few images.  If this is moving in the right direction, that is, more along the lines of what you're hoping to see in the renderings, the changes are not difficult.

The corrugated roofing was white.  When light, especially sunlight hits this roofing, it's going to get brighter and so the result is that the roofing goes flat.  Of course corrugated metal isn't white, it's gray.  It's also got some ability to reflect.  I made it gray (although I didn't take the time to do an actual color match) - and I set the reflection on the roofing to "plastic" because I think you wouldn't like too much reflection.  The rendering preset I used is HDRI and using a hi-res HDRi image that I have on my computer.

The images are after just 35 passes.

White is always tricky because all visible light gets reflected off of white and that can mean that although your mind perceives "white" - there is usually very little actual white on any given surface of a real building.

Black is interesting too, a computer can represent black very well (0,0,0) and true black doesn't reflect any light.  So black that will reflect (a shiny black car, for example) - actually has to be not perfectly black (10,10,10) to mimic what black typically does in the real world.

Were this my model, I would bump up reflection on the metal roof, especially if this is new construction.  The glass is reflecting properly, it's darker behind the glass than in front which will make glass more specular (mirror like).

I do hope that this is helpful.  This particular rendering does not use the sun but only because the sun angle and shadows are being set by the HDRi.

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Permalink Reply by Russell D. Houlden on June 16, 2016 at 9:22am

While this rendering is processing - (at around pass 130) I opened the "Adjustments and Filters" and "Light Balancer" dialogs.  Even though these are typically considered to be post-processing features, they can be used while a rendering is underway.

I lowered the brightness, increased the contrast, and lowered color saturation.  This was all in an attempt to make the rendering more natural.  The model doesn't have a ground plane (landscaping) so the ground is just the HDRi and obviously the building is not "sitting" on the HDRi very well.

White (255,255,255) can't get "more white" - it can only get less white based on direct and indirect lighting.  The HDRi does have an affect on the building because there are multiple (natural) sources of light from the image, the brightest of which is the sun.  The shadows are realistic and a bit softer than what the sun would produce were it not obscured by the trees.  It is not difficult to match the HDRi sun position with SketchUp's interface - and then you can balance the intensity of the sun so that it isn't as harsh as it will be if left at full intensity.

Using Adjustments and Light Balancing while the rendering is processing ensures that the completed rendering will match my expectations because the lighting solution and reflections will only improve with each successive pass. 

Very interested to hear your comments and again I hope that this information is answering some of the questions that you have and is helpful to you as you continue to explore the features of IRender nXt.

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Permalink Reply by Russell D. Houlden on June 16, 2016 at 9:25am

Jeff:

Our software does not discriminate and works exactly the same for SketchUp Make and Pro.

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Permalink Reply by Russell D. Houlden on June 16, 2016 at 9:40am

The HDRi is a 360 degree image around the model.  It's high resolution and so works well with a high resolution rendering.  Yes - that's why the trees are reflecting in the glass, because this HDRi is surrounding the model.

jeff bergeron said:

rich,

this is definitely going in the right direction. few things on reflections in this software.  you mentioned you used a hi res image... i'm assuming that this is the (tree) image in the background?  is this how windows reflect?  from the background image?  this is going to be a tricky image to get just right... as in this case the corrugated metal (both on roof and walls) are 'white' corrugated metal.  but i'm liking the way this gray is translating this.  i'm excited to see this thing render as a whole.  anyway you could send me back my file so i can see the settings that you changed... or take screen shots?  i really appreciate your help on this.   

j

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Permalink Reply by Russell D. Houlden on June 16, 2016 at 9:49am

Here's the model:  lot4_modified.skp (.zip)

Russell D. Houlden said:

The HDRi is a 360 degree image around the model.  It's high resolution and so works well with a high resolution rendering.  Yes - that's why the trees are reflecting in the glass, because this HDRi is surrounding the model.

jeff bergeron said:

rich,

this is definitely going in the right direction. few things on reflections in this software.  you mentioned you used a hi res image... i'm assuming that this is the (tree) image in the background?  is this how windows reflect?  from the background image?  this is going to be a tricky image to get just right... as in this case the corrugated metal (both on roof and walls) are 'white' corrugated metal.  but i'm liking the way this gray is translating this.  i'm excited to see this thing render as a whole.  anyway you could send me back my file so i can see the settings that you changed... or take screen shots?  i really appreciate your help on this.   

j

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by jeff bergeron on June 16, 2016 at 9:53am

russell,

thank you very much for your help on this...

where is the link to the modified model? 

thanks again!

j

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