Modeling
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How do I evenly light internal walls

Anonymous
Not applicable
I am not rendering the scene. I am just creating a concept plan in OpenGL mode.

PROBLEM:
No matter what colour I use for the internal walls, they are not uniformly colored. They always look dark even when I use white. I have tried shifting the sun position, one wall appears as if it has been painted a darker color. (pls see attached image) How do I evenly light an interior?
Also, white always shows up as grey. I understand that it cannot be totally white, but perhaps a slight grey tint is more realistic. Currently, I have used an image for the ceiling, which is why it appears white.

- I have attached the interior and sun positions as well.
- I am using Archicad 19
- Would appreciate it if anyone could share their settings, or if you have come across videos online that present a solution.
Thank you very much
4 REPLIES 4
Anonymous
Not applicable
Sorry it's me again.

I forgot to mention. I would like to evenly light the model, something like this :-
Eric Bobrow has done a video on evenly lighting the exterior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVaHR5nDbtk
Erwin Edel
Rockstar
For slightly lighter look (personal preference), I use 80% sunlight, 30% contribution to ambient, 25% ambient. Colours for sunlight and ambient light pure white (255,255,255).

If you don't like the shaded look, you can turn off the shadows in 3D Window Settings, sun altitude to 90° (straight down). All walls should be the same shade of grey.

If you just want this as still presentation, you could save out 3D document and go for 'Surface colous non-shaded' model display.
Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5
Two things you could try:

1) position the sun in your scene completely directly behind your camera so that it's pointing the exact same direction as your view, and then place the sun altitude angle to something very low like 1 degree.
Yes, it matters where your sun source is relative to your camera even in interior scenes like this since the engine uses the position of the sun to determine how light is spread and which part is lit or not.
And in your scene the sun is in front of the camera facing TOWARD the camera, which actually isn't the best way of staging a scene even in real life. Your primary light should always be behind your camera ( or your back).

2) Under 3D Window Settings in the Edit menu, click on Advanced Options and turn off 'Spotlilght' and 'Smooth surfaces.

You won't get a white bright scene but it might flatten the light spread and even out the shade between the lit and darker areas.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thank you for all your answers.

This worked the best for me:
- position the sun in your scene completely directly behind your camera (a great tip thanks) and sun position 1degrees. With this setting the walls were evenly coloured, but the floor was darker.

I did try the sun settings, but on my computer, the scene was darker. I did uncheck the 3D Windows Settings->Shadows. Guess you just have to experiment.

In the end, I decided that I needed to render the scene to get a better idea of the colours.