Skylight in max is to ??? in maya

MeshModeler

Hey everyone im trying to render something in maya with the same results from using a skylight in max?

and help?

thanks

xillyriax

which renderer in Maya? Mental Ray has a Sun & Sky option in the Indirect Lighting tab in the render settings

there's also the Final Gather option

I'm not a Max user but these two option *may* be what you're after

MeshModeler

Sun and Sky might have been what ive been looking for..

is there a certain setting in final gather to make the shadows crisper

im trying to get something that looks almost like a clay render


THANKS!!

Invertex

What I believe you're looking for is the mia_portal_light. First, create a basic area light, then check Use Light Shape in its attributes. After that, scroll down to the mentalray section and click the checker box beside the "Light Shader" input. Choose the mia_portal_light, which is in the Mentalray Lights subsection.

After that, you are pretty much good to go, you can place it in front of windows to focus/optimise your outside light into a room better.

But if you're looking to do a sort of studio clay render type setup, then check "Use Custom Environment" in your "mia_portal_light", then plug a "mib_blackbody" into the environment spot. You can control the temperature of the light with this which gives great realistic natural light colors, just like how different temperature rated lightbulbs give off different hues of light. It's usually good to use a cool and a warm light facing from different directions. Also, you'll likely need to pump up the portal_light Intensity Multiplier to make the light show, depending on scale. Probably a few hundred, or even thousand.

3 area light setup with blackbodies:

MeshModeler

@Invertex YES!!!!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

exactly what i was looking for :):)

can you tell me what intestity and temperature you have ur 3 area lights set too..

i keep getting some weird shadows..

xillyriax

Invertex -
whoa, gonna try that next time I light something. Had no idea about it

MeshModeler

Did a test, anyway to get rid of those harsh shadows on the tob of the cube and on the plane?

thanks

xillyriax

Just did this in Maya, may be the same for Max:
in the Area Light attributes is a section that says "High Samples, High Sample Limit, Low Samples." My default High Sample was 8, bumping it to 64 fixed the shadow problem

MeshModeler

@xillyriax rad! just tried it, that's what i was looking for!

Invertex

Sorry for the late reply!

I didn't save that scene, just threw it together quick for ya, so I don't remember the exact values I used...

But for the right side, I think it was something like 3100k, and the left/front was around 6700k, and the backlight was around 8000 or 9000.

You can use this chart here to get a sense of what colors are at what values:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature#Categorizing_different_lighting

Also, I probably should of mentioned to check "Use Ray Trace Shadows" in your Area light settings! haha

As for light noise, I use Unified Sampling, and only a tiny increase in the light samples, something like 8/1/4, pumping it up to 64 is quite inefficient. You get a better global control over quality this way, and area lights render a fair bit faster, among other things. You can read about that here near the bottom when it comes to area lights:
http://elementalray.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/area-lights-101/

And for unified sampling itself:
http://elementalray.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/unified-sampling-visually-for-the-artist/

(Also, I turned Final Gathering on, with 2 diffuse bounces.)

Moosebish

Hey all, I've been lurking this thread It's helped me A LOT to get a nice render... I was working on a light setup when I found out about this thread... just thought I'd share...

devingeesr

Thanks a lot!