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.

In previous tutorial, Lighting A Bedroom Part 1, you were using internal lighting to lit a bedroom. Now, in this Part 2 tutorial, you will use external lighting, a sunlight, to lit a bedroom. Technique described here can be used to lit any scene with openings like windows or doors.

1. Continue previous tutorial or download Part 1 finished file here (3dsmax, Zipped, 69kb). This file already has one Photometric light. You will not need this light anymore. Select that light and delete or turn it off.

2. Now, we need to create another light system. We will use Daylight system. Daylight systems use light in a system that follows the geographically correct angle and movement of the sun over the earth at a given location. In Command Panel, click Systems tab. Then, click Daylight button. Click twice in Top viewport to create Daylight system. Don't bother to create exact location of this Daylight System. We can adjust its location later.

Daylight system consist of 2 part, sunlight and skylight. Sunlight is like the "sun" that lit the scene (Direct Light). Skylight on the other hand gives indirect illumination to the scene. Actually, in Daylight system you can choose location, date, time, and compass orientation. This is useful when you want to study shadows in some location. For example, you design a building in San Francisco, you can have exact "sun" movement in San Francisco using Daylight system. For this tutorial, go to Modify tab, and use Manual option in Daylight Parameters. This way, you can simulate daylight without given exact location.

3. Now, move Daylight and its target. Make sure its target is in the middle of the scene and shot from above. For example, I set Daylight system to shot from upper left corner (in Top and Left Viewport).

4. Open Rendering window (F10). Open Advanced Lighting tab. In Radiosity Processing Parameters, click Reset All button. Then, click Start to calculate Radiosity solution. In Interactive Tools, click Setup button. Change exposure control to Logarithmic Exposure Control. When finished, click Render. You will get over-washed scene like image below.

5. Now, open Logarithmic Exposure Control Parameters again. This time, activate Exterior Daylight. Click Render. But this time, the scene looks too dark.

6. To fix dark rendering, adjust Brightness in Logarithmic Exposure Control to 85. Render again.

7. Last step, use Color Correction to remove orange color. But be careful, if you took a lot of orange color, you may get unexpected color, like bluish color in image below. Just use pale orange color to remove a little bit of orange color. Actually, this isn't the desired result I want. Next, I will try using another Exposure Control.

8. Change exposure control to Automatic Expose Control. Set Brightness=62, and use Color Correction to remove orange color (R=239, G=211, B=166). Do a test render again. Your scene is now looks more natural. But, I think the sunlight is too bright and the wall that near window should be more bright than other area.

9. To enhance the rendering, we will use different type of Sunlight and Skylight. Right now, we use Standard sunlight and skylight (not Photometric), that are not optimized using Radiosity. Select Daylight system, and go to Modify tab. In Daylight Parameters rollout change Sunlight=IES Sun, and Skylight=IES Sky. Btw, IES stands for Illuminating Engineering Society. In Sun Parameters rollout reduce Intensity to 2000lx. Then in IES Sky Parameters, set Coverage=Partly Cloudy to make softer illumination.

10. When finished, go to Radiosity Processing Parameters rollout. Click Reset All and Start. Then click Render. This image below show your pro-like rendering image. You have finished this tutorial. In this example image below, I add background image for finishing touch (Rendering>Environment, choose background image file in Environment map).

Download Part 2 finished file here (3dsmax, Zipped, 80kb). (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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