Dark Ceiling

First off, I really like this program, it’s just what I’ve been looking for. My problem is that I’ve drawn a large church auditorium with a ceiling height of 24’ with lights at 7’ centers. Everything looks fine except the ceiling, which is white in Sketchup is a dark grey. I realize there is no light reflecting up to the ceiling but is there a setting so it doesn’t look so dark. I’m using NXTRender (trial).
Thanks

[Edit by Al Hart - added image to post using icons above the edit window]

Attachments:

church2.jpg, 137 KB

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 19, 2011 at 9:38pm

The easiest way to make the ceiling brighter is to add some self glow to it. But that is only available in the high-end version - IRender nxt.

In nXtRender you could try adding some dummy lights and pointing them at the ceiling.

Here is a similar rendering using nXtRender:

Then I added two dummy lights to SketchUp, and marked them to make the lights invisible while rendering:

Anand I got this result:

You may have to play with the lights a bit to get the effect you want. (4 lights pointing towards the corners might work better.)

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Permalink Reply by Boothy on May 20, 2011 at 2:53am

1.With your example the render engine will always create a shadow from a large bias of directional light from ceiling.

2.The other quick way (not the best photo-realistically) is to tweak the material luminence \ colour in material channels after render in render window (if material is applied to ceiling).

3.Als suggestion of offsetting with `uplighters` is the better quality suggestion.

I was going to upload an example image but some reason the I am having problems attaching images to forum (Al - browser sends a java file then nothing happens) I have therefore included jpeg example as attachment.

Boothy

[Edit by Al - added image. I saved it and re-uploaded it for testing of uploads]

Attachments:

irender-uplit-example.jpg, 159 KB

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 20, 2011 at 7:52am

The material Channel feature is not available in nXt Render.

Sometime additional uplights are necessary, but if would be better if we could find a realistic solution.

Jeff, can you send me your model (support@renderplus.com) So I can try some other solutions on it?

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Permalink Reply by Boothy on May 20, 2011 at 8:03am

Hi Al\Jeff

Sorry missed the bit about nxt render - the product names are far too similar !

Boothy

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 20, 2011 at 8:51am

Thats why we want to look at Jeff's model. We want to see how this could be done in the nXtRender product.

If he used lights which hung below the ceiling, or we attached to the ceiling, rather then recessed, it might make a big difference. Also, I suspect in actual building like this people want to illuminate the ceiling, they wil add some additional lighting. (Not just "dummy" lights for a rendering)

It may be that we can tweak the overall brightness, or the ambient light to get a better effect.

Boothy said:

Hi Al\Jeff

Sorry missed the bit about nxt render - the product names are far too similar !

Boothy

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Permalink Reply by Boothy on May 20, 2011 at 9:52am

This would appy to white walls also - Sky illumination is also a factor in this sometimes

Boothy

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Fernandez on May 20, 2011 at 4:58pm

I was going to email you the model but the file is to large...19mb

Al Hart said:

The material Channel feature is not available in nXt Render.

Sometime additional uplights are necessary, but if would be better if we could find a realistic solution.

Jeff, can you send me your model (support@renderplus.com) So I can try some other solutions on it?

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 20, 2011 at 5:39pm

our email can handle 20 mb with no problem.

you can also use the upload tab at the top of this page to send lsrger files.

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 21, 2011 at 1:45pm

I tried this with Indirect Lighting turned on. It worked much better.

Indirect Lighting takes into effect the light reflecting from the floor.

We will make a new version of nXtRender next week which allows indirect lighting.

Normal image:

With Indirect Lighting:

We are also going to add "self glow" which will let you add to the illumination of any material.

(Self Glow was designed for illuminated screens or back lit signs, but it can also be usd to augment the illumination of a wall or ceiling.)

15% self glow applied to ceiling:

(I added more self glow than was needed to you could see how it works. Smaller percentages would create a more subtle effect.)

Self Glow isn't the answer for everything. Adding lights to represent the lighting in the actual scene is better. But it can be handy sometimes when you want to fix a specific problem.