STEP by STEP

ADD EFFECTIVE LIGHTING TO AN INTERIOR SCENE

01One add Vraysky Environment

of the most common mistakes when it comes to creating effective interior lighting is not using the Environment and Effects tab. For this type of project we can set an HDRI or a Vraysky so that we can have natural lighting going around our model. In this case we will use a Vraysky.

Press 8 to bring up the Environment and Effects panel. Now in the Environment tab click None, this will prompt a Materials tab. Select + V-ray, scroll down and select Vraysky. Once that’s done, render and we will be able to see the effect of the Vraysky on the lighting in our scene.

02 SET up the Camera

Once we have the Vraysky added, let’s enter the right settings for our cam so we can have more light in the image. In this project I’m using the 3ds Max 2014 version design, but changes are minimum with newer Max versions. The only change would be setting the ISO and the shutter speed.

Once we have selected our cam we go to the Modify tab, and there we will see all parameters for our cam. Set the white balance to Neutral, ISO to 100 (in newer versions of Max) and the shutter speed to 35 (35 will enable us to have more light, but if you want a darker scene then increase the value). Let’s render and see the results.

03 IMPLEMENT Vraysun

We have now decent interior lighting in our model, but we still need shadows. That’s why we are going to use a Vraysun to get nice and sharp shadows in our image. Let’s go to the Create panel and select Lights. From the options select Vray and choose Vraysun. The first click will set our sun, and the second click will set our Vraysun target. Once it’s done 3ds Max will ask if we want to set a new Vraysky, and in this case we will press OK (if we were lighting without a Vraysun and only planes, the first Vraysky we added would work just fine).

Right after we create the Vraysun press K so we can move it. Place it high so we can have shadows. Experiment with different positions to get the result you’d like.

04 add Vray Planes

We now have a pleasing, naturallooking interior lighting and nice, realistic shadows, so now it’s time to make the lighting smoother by adding Vraylight planes. We have to create a plane light and give it the size of our window, place it inside the model and then copy it as Instance; this way when we change one parameter it will change in all of our planes. Now set them as invisible, as this way we will only see the lighting, and finally set them as Skylight portal. Now the lighting coming from the planes will be the same as our Vraysun, and the resulting lighting will also be smoother.

Once the image is ready you can right-click on it and a little window will appear. In Color Float the value always has to be less than 1, otherwise there is a burned area. There are several ways to correct it, and in this case you can use the globals editor in the V-ray Frame Buffer. With the Exposure tab you can remove the burned parts and also give some extra contrast to our render.