Bright but soft light

[candybird]

To contretize my question I attach 2 screens of my current project.

http://07-design.de/3d/tennis_view02.jpg


http://07-design.de/3d/tennis_view03.jpg


I think the geometry is quite ok but the lighting and the render settings are
nonstaisfying.

I also attach my current settings for GI and FG.

http://07-design.de/3d/rendereinstellungen.jpg


(http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&p=eL4jU.&search=nonsatisfying)

[israelyang]

hi
i love the look of your current project, really great.
Right now you have high contrast in light:shadow ratio, and you want a softer look.
I assume right now you have a directional light or a spotlight for your key light which is the sun. A bright sun with clear blue sky is not a soft light source, in order to make the light softer, in real life outdoor photography you can have a large piece of white frame/silk material between your subject and the sun. When the sunlight hits it, the silk will disperse the harsh sun light and make the light wrap around the subject better to create a softer effect, the shadow will be softer as a result as well. Thats why many photographers like to shoot on a bright cloudy day where the light is diffused but the light is strong enough to create contrast and directionality.

Now in order for you to recreate this in 3d, I see that you have FG and GI turned on. You can get rid of your key light, and create a large plane, you will have to experiment how large you want this plane to be (the larger the softer the light will be), make its colour black, and at its incandencense channel pick a colour which will be the colour of your light, and for the value of that colour, change it from one to a very large number, maybe something like 50. You will have to experiment with this value as well. This will turn the plane into a light source such as the silk in real life.
you can likely do the same with an area light.

show us your result.

[phix314]

That would work, yes, but with the amount of FG and GI going on, it's a pretty safe bet that your render time would skyrocket. What kind of lights do you have now that you are not happy with?

In the photos you posted of other's work, chances are they have a lot of lights that supplement the GI on their own, controlled further with light linking. It shows by the quality of your render that you have a pretty good idea of lighting and texturing, so give us some more information!

Cheers.

[candybird]

Thanks for your advice. That really sounds great!

I was just trying to test that, but where is the incandense channel?
Does it exist in Maya only? Is there something similar in MAX?

I used a daylight system with Mr. Sun and Mr. Sky for the screens
I attached. Was that the first mistake is made for my approach? :)

The high Num of photons will be reduced. How many photon should be sufficient?
With how many bounces?

[israelyang]

Hi
Last time I used max was 6 years ago, so I am not familiar with the settings.
Sorry I can't help you further. There is a 3dsmax forum on cgtalk, you can try ask your question there.
good luck.

[phix314]

Crud... I'm with Izzy... been a while. Something similar might be an illumination, self illumination, or ambient color, something to that effect. As for your lighting approach, no, I don't think that's a bad idea. Perhaps if you just had the MR Sun take care of the direct illumination and had a few spots and point lights around to take care of the indirect illumination, that might give you the most control over the brightness and whatnot.

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