Architecure Ilumination

[bilfrok]

hi all, im just new in this forum.
I just want to share my preocupation with xsi render ilumination. I do love XSi but since vray its the architectural render standard this work its getting so hard to do in xsi. The thing its that i´ve learn vray and i dont really know whats the solution to get similar results in xsi, maybe some big studios knows how to do a nice work with mentalray but i havent seen any nice architectural mental ray interior-exterior render yet, compared to vray i mean. I have tryed GI and Final gather and nothing really works.

wait 4 your comments.

[irakli_san]

Jeff Patton works great with Mental Ray. you can visit his gallery on
http://jeffpatton.cgsociety.org/gallery/

Maybe we should ask him to share his "secret" settings.

I believe this are the steps to success.

In most cases use Light Falloff - Exponent 2
use Correct Gamma - 2.2 or 1.8 if you prefer.
set Global Ambience to 0,0,0
use mia Architetural Shader

other are just render settings that specific to scene be it AA, GI Accuracy or FG Ray Number.

[bilfrok]

woowwww, i will investigate how to and render times. AMAZING
but made in max, did u realize that??

[irakli_san]

Unfortunately i haven't see that quality renders made with Xsi. But MentalRay is same in 3dsMAX, Maya, Xsi. I mean you can render same scene in Xsi theoretically whit no difference. I think the reason maybe is that people who are working in Architectural Visualization are using 3ds Max with Autocad or other Cad software. XSI and MAYA users are mostly animators or people who just don't care about photo real renderings.
???

other Arch-Viz Renderings made by Alex York. this time made in XSI

http://alexyork.cgsociety.org/gallery/218690/

[bilfrok]

I´ve already seen alex york portfolio, and it´s such a nice work but probably focused in sunset renders, and i was looking for typical interior renders, just like vray.

Do anybody know how to do Jeff Patton mental ray light set up in xsi:
[Jeff Patton: I configured the scene in mental ray with the mrSun/mrSky, one skylight portal at the window opening, and one photometric light in the shower area. Subtle DOF was added in post as well as the chromatic aberration and slight color correction.]

http://features.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/11835/11835_1205169636_submedium.jpg

Do these lights exists in xsi??

[CiaranM]

Physical sun and skylights are in XSI 6.x, but skylight portal is from the latest version of MR, which has not yet reached XSI. However, you can find some user created SPDLs for this shader if you search on xsibase.com.
Having said that, I don't think you necessarily need those particular light shaders to achieve a photorealistic render with MR. They may just make life easier. As you can see, most of Jeff Patton's and other nice renders out there were made before these new shaders. IMO advances in Mental Ray's Final Gather have been more important in achieving such high quality light distribution in renders.

[wurp]

vray is available for xsi as well now, it's in alpha but you can test it by sending an email to: vray@chaosgroup.com

I've been testing it and I can say for being an alpha it's already pretty damn stable and functional.

As for jeff pattons images, they are indeed stunning and he proves you can do great renders in mental ray as well, he does use max but those renders could easily be rendered in xsi as well (by someone with the right kind of skills).

[bilfrok]

thnks wurp for the info, do u know anything about when will the vray will be released for xsi? maybe with xsi 7 dont u think?

U have tryied the alpha is it similar to the max plugin?
Chaos group forum its not working properly nowadays.

as well i have a question for u CiaranM (http://community.softimage.com/member.php?u=738) about the FG and GI rendertimes, is it affordable? coz now im working at a virtual gallery just with scanline and rendertimes are about 1frame-1minute at least, if i switch on FG-Gi... it will take too long i expect..

[CiaranM]

Howdy,
it really depends on your time budget. The good thing about MR is that there is always room for optimization. For something like a virtual gallery - I imagine this would be some kind of camera fly through - there is plenty of scope for shortcuts.
For example, if your lights are stationary then you only need to calculate your GI map once. It can then be re-used for every frame since it is a scene based map. Likewise for FG, although the FG map is camera view based, you can generate it in 'append mode' so that only new FG points are calculated each frame, rather than a whole new map. Also, check out the newer FG modes (Multiframe - I think), which are specially designed for fly throughs and such.
For some scenes, you might even want to bake all of your secondary illumination into the textures of your objects using rendermapping. Although this will be pretty slow to do initially, your subsequent rendertimes shouldn't be much different that a standard scanline render.

[alexyork]

Hi guys,

Thanks for linking to my cgsociety page and the kind words. bilfrok I actually do a wide mixture of work from interiors (modern or period) to exteriors, animations etc, they're not all dusk shots :) Trouble is I can't show anything commercial online due to NDA/contracts. For now at least.

However I've just upgraded to v7 so I'll be testing XSI out again and hopefully positing some personal work soon.

As has been mentioned, MR is MR is MR - the package it's housed in shouldn't make any real difference. The principles of lighting and MR are the same across all the main packages. There are a few features missing from XSI that MAX users rely on but ultimately it's all just pixels in the end.

I hope to post some new XSI-based work very soon.

Cheers,

[thefatninja]

Not to be a sales person, but I have gotten a lot out of Digital Tutors architectural interiors. I also purchased the HDR pipeline video as well - but have not gone through it.