Escalight - 3ds Max tutorial, Photoshop, Flash, V-Ray, Blender, Free 3D models, etc

by Didik Wijaya
This tutorial needs you to understand basic use of 3dsmax. If you are unfamiliar with Radiosity, please refer to our previous tutorial Introduction to Radiosity and Simple Light Setup in Radiosity.

This time we will try to light a simple bedroom scene using Radiosity. This bedroom has specific characteristics, a large opening on the side. This tutorial will be divided into 2 Part. The first is trying to light a bedroom using indoor lighting. The second covers how to light a bedroom using external light source (sunlight from opening).

1. First, download simple bedroom scene here (3dsmax format, zipped, 68kb). You will notice that all objects in this scene is very simple. Mostly created from box. All objects in this scene also has been textured using standard material available in 3dsmax. When you load this file, 3dsmax may asked you about Unit's file. Choose Adopt the File's Unit Scale. When making this scene, I use 1 unit=1 cm.

If you render this scene, you will get something like image below. Pretty ugly, isn't it? Next, you will render this scene beautiful like a pro within simple steps.When you finished this tutorial, you will be able to render any interior scene like this.

2. First step before you begin. Always turn Ambient light into pure black, before you use Radiosity. If you don't, you will get unoptimized rendering result. Go to Rendering>Environment (or press "8" in keyboard). Under Common Parameters, click on Ambient color box and turn into 100% black.

3. Create a light. Use Free Point Photometric type. Place it in the middle of the scene and a little bit below the ceiling. In Intensity/Color/Distribution rollout change Intensity to "lx at". And use this values, lux=250 at 225 cm. Why I use this values, please refer to our previous tutorial Introduction to Radiosity.

4.Now, turn on Radiosity plugin. From main menu, Rendering>Advanced Lighting>Radiosity. When there's a small popup window opened, just click "Yes". In Radiosity Processing Parameters, use Initial Quality=90, Refine Iterations (All Objects)=5 and Indirect Light Filtering=2. These value should provide enough Radiosity result quality.

5. Press Start button to begin calculate Radiosity solution. When calculation finished, press Render. You will get a darker rendering like image below.

6. Open Radiosity Meshing Parameters rollout. Enable Global Subdivision Settings. Use Maximum Mesh Size between 25-30. Deactivate Shoot Direct Lights option. If you activate it, this option will brighten your scene a little bit. But I prefer counting only indirect light rays.

7. After you changed any Radiosity option or Light properties, you need to re-calculate Radiosity solution. In Radiosity Processing Parameters, click Reset All. Then click Start button again. When finished, all object in viewport looks subdivided.

8. Click Render. You should have something like image below. A slight increase in quality rendering. But still too dark.

9. In Radiosity Processing Parameters rollout, click "Setup" button right next to Logarithmic Exposure Control. Environment window will show up. Increate Brightness to 65. And to remove collor bleed, activate Color Correction. Click on color box, and change its color to bright brownish yellow (R=251, 242, 218).

10. Render Camera viewport. Note: After you change exposure control, you don't need to re-calculate Radiosity again. Exposure control just create an image effect.

To increase rendering quality, select Photometric light. In Modify Panel, activate Shadows and use Area Shadows type. In Radiosity Processing Parameters rollout, click Reset All and Start. Then render again. Image below shows your current rendering.

11. If you like to experiment, you can achieve different style of rendering result. Logarithmic Exposure Control is great, but tends to be monotonous. More dramatic range of color rendering can be achieved using another exposure control. We have another option like Linear Exposure Control and Automatic Exposure Control. The other one, Pseudo Color Exposure Control, most likely never be used in production rendering.

Automatic Exposure Control usually gives more high contrast than Linear Exposure Control. Thus, Linear Exposure gives more softer looks. Now, change Exposure control into Linear Exposure Control. Use Brightness=55-57 and use Color Correction (R=246, G=227, B=185).

12. Press Render again. This image below shows your final render. Next, in Part 2 you will learn to light a bedroom scene using a sunlight coming through windows.

Download Part 1 finished file here (3dsmax, Zipped, 69kb) . (I disable Radiosity solution in this file. To render, you must go to Rendering window (F10), open Advanced Lighting tab and calculate Radiosity solution by clicking Start button. Then, press Render).

Lighting A Bedroom Part 1 | Part 2

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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