Vray04

Technique : I’m not giving a tutorial here, simply because I’m not good enough to do so, so I won’t elaborate so much on specific settings to achieve the imagery. Anyway, I don’t really know how to explain to you how each feature works, I will tell you what I know, and if you are really that eager to find out, please refer to the help file which comes along with the free Vray package. The worse thing ever happened to me was – I lost the settings for this rendering! No matter how I tried, I never get the same lighting effect back. It could be a strong multiplier for the spotlight, and in indirect illumination (GI), the multiplier for the fist diffuse bounce could be a 1.2, and secondary bounces of 0.85 ?

Outcome & Issues : The reason I suggested strong multipliers was because it was possibly the settings to achieve this image with ‘over’exposure. Yes, it is too bright, the glass is too reflective, and it looks like a UFO is casting its rays upon the building, but the good thing is, it strongly suggesting one of the idea that I am pursuing – the contrast of lightness and darkness. This is an exaggerated version of it. The best thing I like is the well-lit textured ceiling and the pitch-black interior – the light is giving hope to the space.

Vray07

Technique : There is always hope in this world – I finally achieve the effect which is almost similar to vray04, AND the exterior is visible and clear from the interior this time! Here are the settings for my vray07:

Ok, this is what I know:

• Image sampler (Antialiasing) : pretty straight forward, this is have to do with image antialiasing. Fixed rate is good for test renders, fast and blotchy. Raise the value will smoothen up image as well as slightly increase rendering time. Adaptive subdivision would be the best option for most of the scenes, but if your scene has lots of glossy reflections, for instance my scene, simple two-level is recommended. I used to render my scene under adaptive subdivision, trust me, I fell asleep.
• Depth of field : you know what it does, max users! - Antialiasing filter : basically if you turn it on, you will know the difference, there is a description under each filter. I used Sharp Quadratic for sharp pixel reconstruction.
• GI Environment (skylight) : yes, turn it on, it will illuminate your exterior - Reflection / refraction : I don’t know why it makes no difference on my scene, a smart person like you might know better than me.
• Indirect illumination (GI) : This is the crucial part – first diffuse bounce and secondary bounces of light, turn it on, you will see. Refractive GI caustics should be on, but try not to check reflective GI caustics coz it may cause some over-bright highlights. Difference settings and configurations on both sides will offer different results, but for my scene, Irradiance map with HSph?.subdivs of 30 and interp.samples of 10, plus Direct Computation : subdivs of 10 and depth of 1, give me the best results so far. Increase of values will of course, increase your rendering time, smoothen up the rendering as well as having a more detailed evaluation of bounced light in the scene. This appears to be same for Irradiance map presets.
• QMC Sampler : This is so-called the quasi-random generation engine, I’m not sure what I does really but according to some source, but turning the ‘lock to pixel’ on, it can actually avoid some flickering effect in your animation renderings. Try to keep the noise threshold as low as possible, and around 15 for min samples, I tried to raise the value before, and rendering time will be doubled.

Vray08

Techniques :

I forgot to mention something : even you can rely on bounces of light in vray to illuminate the scene, as I said, this is not a conventional scene which can be simulated easily. Therefore, can extra omni is placed again right on spot between the entrance and the staircase to simulate a secondary bounce. So the whole scene relies on 2 lights : a strong spotlight as sunlight, and an omni. The scene will be quiet dark and spooky if you just have a sunlight and try to rely on it to light up the scene, it just doesn’t work at all. The result is pretty close to radiosity rendering you see, but the light bounces more subtly throughout the entire scene. IMO, I would say, much better than radiosity. The shadows at the entrance area have improved quite a lot, as well as the glass. The only thing is the back bits behind all the glass, they are a bit too bright don’t you think.

Outcome & Issues : No fancy stuff, no changes on the rendering settings, all I did was just overlay vray04 on top of vray07, adjust the opacity and try to get a balance between 2 renderings, and this is what I got. The scene is lightened up a little bit, especially the exterior and the ceiling. The bit behind the glass is darkened a bit, not much. But somehow, I have a feeling that these 3 renders have their beauty of their own...

Note : Another powerful rendering plugin (very powerful...) which you can give it a try is Brazil Rio. It offers more flexibilities than vray, but experience and LOTS of practice are needed to tweak an image. This is another free, public beta testing version, render size is restricted.
http://www.splutterfish.com
Enjoy!