How does one simulate sunlight without the help of YafRay for an architectural render? I’m trying to render a bedroom in the morning sunlight (with no lights turned on inside) for a comic scene I want to work on, and the lighting is not cooperating.
So far I have Ray Tracing turned on along with a spotlight shining through the window and another couple of lights. I really don’t know what I’m doing here. I want to make the lighting ultra-realistic (i’ve tried Radiosity with ray tracing with no great results, my models came from Turbo CAD DWF–>3ds–>Blender so they’re triangulated), YafRay just doesn’t want to work, and regular Ray Tracing by itself looks like cheesy CG, like something off of DAZ Studio, at least it does to me. oO
I need some clues here, whether in the form of a tutorial link or your lighting methods…if someone get me unstuck I’ll be quite happy cuz it will mean i can get a go on my comic book. Thanks in advance!
“Yafray doesn’t want to work” is concerning…you’ll want to provide more info on that, although I’m no pro, it so I would be of minimal help there, but others here can be. You should also post a render of what you’re getting for better response.
To answer you’re question, as it is asked: I’ve had good succes with Ambient Occlusion. It is in the World buttons panel. Play with the settings 'til you like it. It creates that sort-of grainy shadowing effect that makes things look more photorealistic, if you do it right. Look for a wiki entry, or tutorial on it.
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/output: “I just wrote a wiki page on lighting rigs that might help. See Manual/Lighting Rigs”
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I just wrote a wiki page on lighting rigs that covers common setups. I think you want to use the 4-point rig, with the sun outside the room and the three points inside, with the key on the actor. you may have to raise the side fills up so they light up the room. Over that, I would suggest very low ambient if it is to be very early in the am (before 9). After that, raise up ambient and kill the fills. Turn off Raytracing and dont use Yafray until you have the levels and postitioning correct. Just from what you’ve shown, your sun is way too bright, and isnt yellow. And you other lights are not in the room, so they dont shine through walls, so your outside is very bright, but your room is dark. Also your key light (spot) is way too bright and is also outside the room.
see also http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=87743
Quick update, I’m having a new problem…I found out what was making YafRay fail, it was a silly mistake. I had my camera inside the closet, go figure. oO My new problem goes as follows: I have my skydome working and a three arealight array outside the structure, and I have revised the windows. When I render it in YafRay, I get these odd noise-type shadows. I don’t know what’s making the noise (I checked all over the materials, and nothing has noise in it), so I’m thinking it might have something to do with the renderer, but I don’t know what. Also note, the chair is supposed to be orangey plastic. I have the reflection turned to Zero, but it’s still turning out black like the other furniture.
looks like you have a texture assigned to your lights that produces the bumpy effect all over.
If the chair is not reflecting any light (refl=0) then it is black. A material has to reflect some of the light so it can give off a color, like orange.
