topic Re: Photorealistic render in Visualization

Photorealistic render

Anonymous — Thu, 11 May 2023 10:29:18 GMT

Hi!
I'm trying to make an exterior photorealistic render. I'm using AC10 and my settings for the rendering is:
- Sun 110%, low fog, shadow parameters are set very high.
- Skyobject, light blue 35%, quality is 400
- Sunlight object as "underlight" 30%
- No ambient light
- Original image is 2500*1875 and takes about 5 hours to render.

I'm trying to create a scene for a sunny day. Look at the attached file, i'm not happy with it. The background and other details will be fixed in photoshop. But i need a render as realistic as possible. Does anybody have suggestions to improve the light?

thanks

/Mikael

Re: Photorealistic render

Dwight — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 15:23:53 GMT

1: Sun too intense. Set intensity in Photorender settings to 100 Pull back to 80 in sun dialog. Make sun yellow.
-- get better sun with "Realistic sun" shader.
2: Skyobject - reduce quality to 32 - 400 is too fine - takes time.
3:Undersun - no shadows, yes?
4: Always add ambient light - mauve - to mitigate shadow intensity.

But real problem is not light, but main wall material.
"There's NO such Thing as WHITE!!!!™"
Add roughness to walls with displacement shader.
Design note: Children's play area more fun when toys include flame and large dog on tether.
Ugly glass, too.

See below for "LightWorks in Archicad" book ordering instructions.
Book is specific to your issues.

Re: Photorealistic render

TomWaltz — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:04:46 GMT

Dwight wrote:
"There's NO such Thing as WHITE!!!!™".

I don't know. Refrigerators are pretty white, especially the brand new ones with the gloss finish.

Re: Photorealistic render

Dwight — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:13:53 GMT

It's just a slogan.

Re: Photorealistic render

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:22:19 GMT

Thank you for your reply. Dwight, there's no way i can use Skyobject - quality 32. It will look awful. Keep in mind this is a pretty big scene. Objects in a distance will not look real at all.

I agree with the materials..I have to do something about the white material. Also, I used standard glass-clear, which came out all wrong when i rendered it from a distance.

I used underlight because the shadows were too dark. Compensing with ambient light only made the scene look "washed out".

What is "Realistic sun" shader?

From my experience with 3d studio a great exterior render has to take time and i think it's the same in AC10. However, i will try to apply the settings you suggested and maybe i'll post the result. It would be fun to see an example of an exterior photorealistic render here. I'm beginning to think that this is not possible with AC10.

/Mikael

Re: Photorealistic render

Dwight — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:34:57 GMT

How Photorealistic is Photorealistic?

Okay. Sky Object is bad at 32, but certainly anything over 128 is overkill and exponentially increases render time.

Glass isn't like that. Look to the LightWorks Archive for better glass. Lose the green, reduce the transparency.

My suggestions aren't prescriptive, but strategic:

You always use a little Ambient to mitigate the shadows: your shadows are dark.

To increase speed, use the plain Sun shader with hard shadows. At this distance, you don't need soft shadows, just ambient-filled shadows.

The overall scene will improve when you reduce the reflectance of the nosuchthingas white walls since they are the main source of grief.

Re: Photorealistic render

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:47:03 GMT

I will try to fix the white and the glass. The scene will be completed in Photoshop - grass, trees, characters etc. I'll post the result soon.

Hmm..back to the drawingboard..I'll try to add roughness to walls with displacement shader...if i can find it..

Thank you for your comments.

Re: Photorealistic render

Dwight — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:08:57 GMT

I DID write a book about this, so maybe I can guilt you into buying it with one more tidbit:

For any material, there's a shader called roughness that keeps walls from "glaring out" in renderings. See attached.

Re: Photorealistic render

Dwight — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:45:37 GMT

And reduce reflection to prevent glare.

Re: Photorealistic render

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 20:43:03 GMT

Hey! I'm actually making progress with the glass and the white..who could have thought that! Will still take a whilte to get it right before i can post a pic. Just wanted to thank you for pointing me at the right direction! If i get the contract this sample image is for, i could use that book!

*edit* saw you posted those settings when i updated the page. Great stuff!

Re: Photorealistic render

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 15:44:12 GMT

The final image will look something like this. Colours are adjusted for printing. Next scene will be different..maybe i'll loose the white materials as much as i can. I managed to get a nice white stucco though, but it only shows on closeup.

Re: Photorealistic render

stefan — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 20:43:24 GMT

Not bad. I especially like the integration of the scenery, to make a scene that is more real. The purple playground element looks quite plastic and computer-generated, but the rest has improved.

Re: Photorealistic render

Dwight — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 21:00:15 GMT

The technical issues seem resolved, but what about the artistic?

From my personal notions of what makes a good rendering after seeing dozens of images like your posted on Archicad Talk:

-- What are we really looking at here that makes us want to be there, or should we just flee between the buildings over to that inviting bosk of trees?

-- Can you recompose the view to contain and beguile the eye? Perhaps to lead the eye obviously to the entrance of the building, or make the play area the focus of the shot by placing it in the foreground, with buildings as a mere background to happy play. Make up a story.

-- Another thing: Those white walls. Perhaps changing the sun angle will make them glare less, or simply turning down their reflectance ever so slightly. They will still look white but not overpowering.

-- And the last thing: lose that geezer on the left scoping the kid. Bad juju.

Re: Photorealistic render

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 09:33:55 GMT

Hahaha! Yes, he looks a bit suspicious..

Dwight, i agree completely about the artistic issues here. However, i made these buildings out of my head in a total of maybe 3 hours. I'm not an architect (clearly), but a building engineer.

This was a test to find out if we could use AC as a tool for visualisation on already designed buildings. My collegue made this scene look more real using photoshop. Conclusion is..that if we get this job. We'' use AC and maybe Artlantis för modelling and lighting. Then photoshop to integrate real background, images etc.

Thank you for your feedback and help. See you later!