Renders are so dark...

[puntloos]

When I use the camera, my renders always look very dark, and I don't quite understand if this is 'true', and the house will be this dark, or if I'm just not telling Chief the right things to draw realistic lighting? 

 

See attached image.

 

- Daylight outside (didn't change sun settings/brightness)

- 'beam' of light coming from the light gap above

- Grey cabinets, ok. I can make them white

- Side window to the right off-picture

- No electric lights on.

- Ceiling: default (white!)

 

Dark. No?

 

Instead, also attached - a real kitchen picture that has no direct light at all.. but well, clearly a flash photo - but it looks a lot brighter overall? Is that really just the flash and the small ceiling lights on?

 

If I wanted to simulate this kitchen's settings, how can I render a 'flash' and ceiling lights?

[Kbird1]

Try upping the Ambient Interior and Daylight in your Defaults to about 48-52% ...I have this set in my Default template so I don't need to change it for every Camera , every Plan.  ( night-time is 5-6% so it looks like night-time not Dusk....

 

* this effect Standard Renders  mostly

 

 

M.

 

[mtldesigns]

Thanks Nick...

 

This def helped my standard view, but how do I get the either the RT or PBR to show more accurate?  I know I, as others have, kinda gotten frustrated on all these settings we are to know, and margins are not big enough these days to pay someone else to do this work, especially, IMO, when Chief should run a decent RT or PBR right out of the box.   

 

I've attached views from the entry of this house (standard camera, a PBR camera and a Ray Trace (10 passes), and two looking back to the entry from nook (RT & PBR).  The wall color is SW 6252, trim is SW 6246; attached the swatch's so you can see where I need to go.  As you can see the PBR is not even close esp. at the column or the mantle.   However with the RT view, the foyer view is very dark and the view showing the FP is pretty descent.  Same RT settings for both.  How do I lighten the view from foyer?

 

Not a expert on Lumion or Twinmotion, but willing to learn them.  Would these make these views better?

This house with all the windows on the east and west side, should be very bright. 

 

Sorry for all the questions and attachments.. trying to communicate.  BTW, anything with a rope light will take a min of an hour for a RT.. all those lights!

[Renerabbitt]

1 hour ago, mtldesigns said:

margins are not big enough these days to pay someone else to do this work

I think you'd be surprised, A few $100 can get you this rendering in much better quality. You've probably spent that much in machine down time and messing with settings. I do as-is scene renderings such as the ones posted here from $100-$200 all the time, I don't promote them as I'd rather show off more extensive scenes in my portfolio, but everyone ends up happy. 
Twinmotion is worth learning in my opinion as fantastic exterior scenes can be done in 20 minutes time with 20 -30 hours of experience.

 

[puntloos]

I think what I would love to see, to 'ground' my ideas a bit:
 

1/ Renders made by Chief, vs the final product. Surely there are a few chief-designed houses out there where some photos compare reality with render? 

2/ Is there some way to have chief architect 'predict' the brightness in a specific spot (what would a light meter say if you held it in that spot)? - that way, if chief says "100 lux" and you then find a room where your real light meter also says 100 lux you can kind-of mentally compare the scenes?

 

 

[TheKitchenAbode]

48 minutes ago, puntloos said:

 

1/ Renders made by Chief, vs the final product. Surely there are a few chief-designed houses out there where some photos compare reality with render? 

 

Here's an example.

 

CA PBR done January 2020

 

Actual Site Progress Pic taken last week.

[puntloos]

56 minutes ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

 

Here's an example.

 

CA PBR done January 2020

 

Actual Site Progress Pic taken last week.

 

Wow, that's amazing. I've also never seen PBR look that good. Other than 'place the things' what type of stuff did do you do additionally? The yellow light through some 'paper like' cover on the window casts interesting shadows that might be the core trick?

 

If that chair is in the standard library I might have to place it somewhere just to see what it looks like. 

 

If anything though the PBR is too bright, but I suppose the weather outside in real life is a little drab? What's your own take on this comparison?

 

[mtldesigns]

4 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

Twinmotion is worth learning in my opinion as fantastic exterior scenes can be done in 20 minutes time with 20 -30 hours of experience.

 

Actually Rene I have always been a fan of your work, and others on here.  I found your YouTube videos on Twinmotion and watching now that Fathers Day dinner is digesting. I will keep in mind for future jobs that require more than out of the box renders, that people like your self can do better and help me out.  I will need to make clients aware of this adder to the charge. 

 

I like the idea of the light meter thing too puntloos, if that would have helped.  Like my view showed, same area, same light, same time of day, yet one is obviously darker.  

 

 

[Kbird1]

3 hours ago, puntloos said:

if chief says "100 lux" and you then find a room where your real light meter also says 100 lux you can kind-of mentally compare the scenes?

 

The Lux values in Chief at not "Real World"  as far as I have ever been able to ascertain......

 

Much of Graham's PBR advice is in his Thread "Lets PBR".... if you have not read it .....very in-depth info   ( He also has a Ray-Trace Thread if interested )

 

Older thread now as PBR has been around for 3 versions now but still worth a Read if you really want more in-depth Info on PBR ...there are NO MAGIC  Settings or quick Fixes as every scene is different.....

 

 

Mick.

 

[Kbird1]

11 minutes ago, mtldesigns said:

I will keep in mind for future jobs that require more than out of the box renders, that people like your self can do better and help me out.

 

Several Others also Offer Services in the Offers Forum Like Jintu ( Chiefer here on the Forum )

 

http://www.jintudesigns.com/

[Kbird1]

7 hours ago, mtldesigns said:

As you can see the PBR is not even close esp. at the column or the mantle.

 

PBR Views rely heavily on the Sunlight, even if Interior views and as you can see your Background ( green trees) is adding a Color cast to the Light , if you'd used and Autumn scene or perhaps a Sunset the light cast would be orangey/red instead. 

 

Rooms also play into the scene as Chief normally lights the Room the Camera is in , not others you can see from the room you are in , so in Open plan situations you need to take a bit more control of the lighting yourself or even add 3D lights to help out.

 

* I always make sure Clients know that Colors on a monitor will not match the real world swatches especially since most don't own Color Calibrated Monitors.

 

Mick. 

[TheKitchenAbode]

13 hours ago, puntloos said:

Wow, that's amazing. I've also never seen PBR look that good. Other than 'place the things' what type of stuff did do you do additionally? The yellow light through some 'paper like' cover on the window casts interesting shadows that might be the core trick?

 

If that chair is in the standard library I might have to place it somewhere just to see what it looks like. 

 

If anything though the PBR is too bright, but I suppose the weather outside in real life is a little drab? What's your own take on this comparison?

 

Thanks puntloos.

 

All of the light fixtures are used as is the sun. The yellow cast is the result of some color added to the sun and the interior lights, there is no paper like covering on the windows. All of the items are CA models including the chair, how they look is dependent upon how they are lit and how you adjust the material properties. The overall brightness of the scene is more of a personal choice, just wanted that look. A detailed comparison at this time would be a bit premature as the actual project is still a month or so away from completion. The site pic was just a quick shot by the client and there is no other contributing light other than that from the sun. Given this you can see that the actual camera likely reduced the exposure time to avoid blowing out the sun lit areas which in turn resulted in darker shaded regions. Though the real pic may be more technically accurate than my rendering, the real pic is lacking in emotion. It's important to keep in mind that essentially all of those great interior pics you see have in most cases been extensively post processed, they are not how the interior actually looks under normal lighting conditions when the shot was taken. When rendering, you through the choice of light, materials and composition decide/control what you wish the client to see and feel.

[TheKitchenAbode]

This comparison may be of interest.

 

The first is the CA PBR posted above. The second is a similar CA PBR but the sun intensity was reduced and you can see the exterior view through the windows. I went with the first PBR as I found the view through the windows to be distracting and I did not want to spend time making it look good as the interior is the primary focus. The brightness was punched up to provide a heightened sense of the impact that all of the back and side glazing systems would have. It's also a good example of how drastically you can alter a PBR's appearance by making a few changes in the sun light and background.

 

 

[DrewFenton]

On 6/20/2020 at 1:40 PM, Kbird1 said:

Try upping the Ambient Interior and Daylight in your Defaults to about 48-52% ...I have this set in my Default template so I don't need to change it for every Camera , every Plan.  ( night-time is 5-6% so it looks like night-time not Dusk....

 

* this effect Standard Renders  mostly

 

 

M.

 

Wow Kbird1---this REALLY helped me.  I have been struggling with very low interior lighting for a while where most all renders are so dark.  These settings instantly fixed the problem.  I was starting to believe it was my hardware.  Oddly though, the lighting in Chief renders will magically appear much brighter on rare occasions after making a setting change on an object within the view.