> "Bernard" <ber### [at] flyonahookmeuk> wrote:
>> "Kenneth" <kdw### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
>>   Make the lights into area_lights, to add a bit more
>>> realism.
>>   I am struggling with the lighting. Will keep your comment in mind.
>>
>> Just before I move on to my next, here is a close-up. It occurs to me that there
>> is no point in modelling more detail than can be seen at the intended field of
>> view - if, of course, there is an intended field.
>
> Great modelling for your first proper CSG image especially on the table.
>
> For lighting I find area lights, choosing the correct colour for the light,
> adding light_fading settings and of course radiosity settings are vital when
> aiming for realism.
>
> Also, the thing that I find makes a very big difference to the quality of an
> image is abandoning antialiasing and adding focal blur settings on the camera,
> if the scene does not require blur just set the aperture to a very small value.
>
> I usually use something like below in my camera section then adjust the variable
> from 0-10 to go from test renders to high quality final renders.
>
> #declare useFocalBlur = 10; //0=off 1=low quality 10=high quality   50%
>
> camera {
>    location  <0.65 , 2.5 ,-4.0>
>    look_at   <0.85, 2.1  0>
>    right     x*image_width/image_height
> #if(useFocalBlur)
>    aperture 0.001
>    blur_samples 10*useFocalBlur
>    focal_point <1.0,2.5,0.4>
>    confidence 0.9+(useFocalBlur*0.0085)
>    variance 1/(2000*useFocalBlur)
> #end
> }
>
> Only downside is focal blur is a lot slower than AA but IMO well worth the wait.
>
> After that, the best advice ever given to me (really should remember who it was
> but it was a comment on an early IRTC entry) is to start to think about the
> lifetime of the object you are modelling, if it is not a new object it would
> have knocks, dents, chips etc and adding dirt to places/parts that are more
> likely to be dirty etc..
>
> Sean
>

As of version 3.7, you can use both aa and focal blur. In version 3.6 
and earlier, aa was automaticaly disabled when using focal blur.
The main advantage of using focal blus as a substitute for aa it that 
you can catch sub-pixels details and very narow objects that can 
otherwise get missed.
Using version 3.7, focal blur is also faster.

When using area_light, you should always use adaptive. It makes things 
MUCH faster.
Use adaptive 0 for test renders.
Only if needed, go for adaptive 1 or 2 for the final renders.
Here are area_light parameters that tend to work well for me:

area_light x z 17 17 adaptive 0 circular orient

A 1 by 1 light using a 17 by 17 points aray of sub-lights that orient 
itself as neded. Good for a light bulb or other mostly spherical light 
sources located inside the scene as oposed to lights situated far away 
like the Sun. With adaptive, this will render faster than the "default" 
4 by 4 aray with jitter and without adaptive, especialy when using 
antialiasing or focal blur.


Alain

Post a reply to this message