by Didik Wijaya
This tutorial needs you to understand basic use of 3dsmax.

There are a lot of times when we need to lit an exterior scene. Usually we need to apply exterior lighting in architectural rendering. For example, we have a building need to be rendered along with its environment. One of the fastest and simple way to do exterior lighting is by using Light Tracer. This tool is one of Advanced Lighting type, beside Radiosity. Light Tracer is less complex than Radiosity so it is easy to use. In this tutorial, you will try to lit a building using Light Tracer.

1. First, download building model here. This model is a simple building design, textured using only solid color. When you open this file, you may asked to adopt unit's system file. Click OK Then, try to do a test render (F9). Image below show the current result.

2. To use Light Tracer, we need to use Skylight, a type of standard light that behave like a dome light. In Command Panel, click Create>Light and click Skylight button. Click in viewport to create Skylight. Position Skylight above the building.

3. Now, activate Light Tracer, by clicking main menu Rendering>Advanced Lighting>Light Tracer. Rendering window will be opened. In Light Tracer, there are a lot of parameters, but you need only to consider several options, like Global Multiplier, Filter Size, Bounces. This options will absolutely increase rendering quality. You may adjust other options like increasing Rays/Sample or decreasing sample spacing in Adaptive Undersampling, but they will kill your computer resources. Better leave them as default. Use them when needed only.

4. Click Render. Image below shows how Light Tracer gives excellent depth into your scene. A little bit dark though.

5. Increase Bounces=2. Bounces control how many times light is bouncing back onto the surface. A bigger number is better, result in brighter rendering. But usually 2 is enough. Click Render button. Notice that, your scene is now brighter, but there's a lot of grainy areas.

6. Increase Filter size=10. Bigger Filter Size value will remove grainy areas. Click Render and watch the result.,

7. To remove darker areas, we need to add another fill light. In viewport, add omni light in the bottom front of the scene. (refer to image below for reference). In Modify tab, decrease light intensity to 0.2.

8. Click Render. Now, you have much-much better rendering.

9. To enhance a little bit. Increase Global Multiplier to 1.2. Global Multiplier acts like light intensity, to control brightness. Instead of using more bounced light, you can easily brighten image using Global Multiplier. Do a test render. Now, you have final rendering result. It is very simple, isn't it? Now, you can lit almost anything with ease.

10. Image below shows the same Light Tracer setup applied with textured building. With simple lighting setup, you can achieved professional result.

Not only for architectural rendering, light tracer can also be applied when you need to render an object in outdoor environment.

Any question or comments regarding this tutorial should be sent to:
Didik Wijaya, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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