Dear Community Members,
This month’s tip, shared by @derekjackson, shows you how to enhance the lighting in renders made with the Redshift (Cineware by Maxon) renderer. @derekjackson shared this solution after trying to render interiors with ceiling grids and diffused lighting panels. Initially, the Area lights in the scene appeared as black rectangles due to a misconfiguration in the settings.
The fix posted on the forum describes how to properly set up the Area Light object and create new surfaces. Below, we’ve created a visual guide for achieving realistic lighting in Redshift renders.
For those unfamiliar, Redshift is an advanced GPU-accelerated rendering engine available to Archicad users with an active subscription plan. It is integrated as part of the Cineware by Maxon rendering engine in Archicad, offering faster rendering times and more realistic results.
You can learn more about Redshift in this article.
Here's how to make light sources realistic:
Before diving into the steps, let’s clarify the scene setup and the role of the Area light. Area Light is a type of light source used to simulate realistic lighting in interior renders. They act as light emitters and are often used to create soft, diffused lighting. They won’t visibly appear in the final render unless configured improperly. Here’s how to ensure their visibility is turned off:
1. Adjust Area Light settings
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Select the Lamp Tool, then open the Object Settings
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Navigate to the Area Light settings and turn off ‘Visibility in Render’. This ensures the area light will not appear as a black rectangle.
Area light setting
2. Create a new surface with luminance
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Go to Surfaces in the Attributes menu and create a new surface
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In Engine settings, choose “Cineware and Redshift by Maxon”
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Enable the Glow and Luminance in Cineware Settings
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Adjust the intensity to make the surface emit light effectively
New surface with luminance
3. Apply the surface to the light object:
- Assign the newly created luminous surface to your light object in the Lamp Selection Settings. Apply it to the surface that emits light
This set up will make the light appear visible in your scene, eliminating the black areas while providing accurate illumination.
If you want to check out the original forum post, take a look here.
This tip is a simple yet effective setting for creating realistic lighting in interior renders. Thank you, @derekjackson, for contributing this efficient nugget of know-how on Redshift renders!
Remember to share your challenges, solutions, and insights in the Graphisoft Community Forum. Your contribution could be the next Tip of the Month!
Cheers 🎉
