I switched 2 months ago on Maya (from C4D which I love since the very beginning ...), cause I was a bit disappointed 'bout the way it computes FG/GI ... mostly when using HDRI maps. Not that it's bad on this particular point, but Mental Ray is far more accurate with bounces.
So, as I got to completely review all my lighting workflow in Maya (... being really, really poor with light types and settings), i'm starting with this project.
What I intend to produce is a natural look, mostly concentrating on photons and their bounces, shadows ... and respect of their relative colors according to time, orientation and so on ...
I like tricky situations (as these are best to improve hehehehe). So I decided not limitating the analysis on 1(2) windows, and 1(2) lights, with HDRI, as often done, but more smthg goin this evil way :
- Entry :
7 small squared windows with thin frames, no grid, only thin one around each (5 south, 2 north).
- Main (with some future floating glass bed-platform) :
1 main large window with a thick grid-frame (south)
4 non-direct (corners) windows with kinda venetian blinds
2 rear, window and door (north)
2 secondary windows (east)
- kitchen/canteen
1 window (north)
1 window (east)
1 high window (south)
What I want is having all sorts of lighting situations.
- Darken and isolated room, with weak lighting (like the entry corridor, west).
- Large room with heavy local lights and photonic sun which will share lighting with the 2 extreme rooms.
- Small opened room (canteen , east), with a particular high window, half occluded (sun concern) by the roof.
Translucent wires on elevations gives you an idea of the weird proportions I choosed.
I used ALL light types amongst the 17 lights i used (except ambient, which I don't really need, as photons are heavily bouncing everywhere - 1 million photons, from SUN light. I pushed on that chapter as told earlier).
Here are renderings of each main light-groups.
Top-left is SUN (white) only rendering, with 1Mill photons, very high intensity, optimal 3 bounces setting and a light radius to get a result close to area shadows, but with much lower rendring times.
Top-right are south-windows distribution only (light yellow). No photons but shadows as accurate as possible. Some with shadow maps, others, with light-radius setting on raytraced one. Ones adding light effect from a very bright outdoor ground, as if it was photonic bounces from a very bright noon summertime.
Bottom-left are is the backlighting (light blue) from north AND side lighting (light orange, from east).
Bottom-right is my false HDRI (which is a reconstructed 360°*240°) environmental map. False because it's 32 bits standard picture. I don't really care here 'bout the lighting being a bit too weak (cause of the 24 missing bits par color chan), as the lights really give me the control I want. So I use it mainly for reflections (wooden ground) and also to avoid having dark windows, with bright lights through them ...'t would sound too bizarre.
Something very important so far to mention also is that AMBIENT OCCLUSION is still missing. I'll render this pass when project completed. I don't want fg_occlusion nor amb_occlusion when tuning lights, cause it would be harder then spotting light errors in order to tweak them ... mostly with bounces and gatherings in the corners or small shadowed areas.
well ... STOP PYRUS !!!!!! hehehehe
I won't explain ALL HERE NOW cause i'll write kilometers otherwise, and i'm still tweaking and modeling remaining and unfilled spaces. I'll finally post a complete analysis which I hope will become a reference in this area, for beginners, and why not, for pros much more involved in modeling/texturing than lighting workflows.
Entry/corridor is almost filled up with books, shelves, sofas, frames and so on now .... so i'll soon post further evolution of the concept.
Crits are of course, welcome
Regards, Py.
