Help with learning Twilight

[leedeetee]

Hi guys,

So, I'm slowly but surely teaching myself TR by reading and doing, doign and reading. It's taken a while but think I'm slowly getting somewhere.

Last night I was working on a totally made up scene - I understand this probably isn't the best way to learn, but I was bored and couldn't think of a real life example to do. Anyway, my test render is attached.

Its pretty basic/bleak at the momement so what I am after is how to make this better, if possible. Or would I be better modelling a 'real life' example so I can compare and contrast?

Sorry for the questions and thanks for your patience.

Lee

[flipya]

Looks like you're doing pretty good so far!

Couple of things when it comes to this one:
- Consider that reflections may come from unexpected angles. The setup of your glass parts ends up reflecting 'empty space' (marked yellow below) since you only put a treeline in the directly visible area.
- The ceiling inside and outside probably have different textures in real life.
- Have you tried using one of the progressive methods yet? Like Easy-08 through Easy-10? I think they'd look great on this project.

When it comes to real life vs made up, I like to use real life buildings for practice. Oftentimes when I try to design a building just for practice I spend so much time on getting the model to look the way I want it to that I'm tired of it by the time I get to the actual texturing and rendering. Also, using real buildings allows you to check images for reference when it comes to lighting and materials.
I searched WAN for 'loft' and it came up with these projects. I could imagine that this one, for example, would be easy to model and nice to practice on.

Keep it up, it's looking good so far!

[leedeetee]

Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out, I really appreciate it.

Are those reflections in the windows, from the outside, or from the room? I guess I'll have a play and find out for myself!

As you guessed, this was done with Easy05 (how did you know that btw?!). I must dig out the thread on the differences between 1-7 and 8-11.

I'm going to try to add a few more bits, work on your suggestions and see where I get. I haven't added any lights yet as I don't 100% understand what I'm doing with them exactly but myabe this is another step, too? I''ll post up what I finish up with ...

Thanks again.

Lee

[flipya]

You're very welcome

My guess is reflections are both inside and outside, but it's been a long day and my mind isn't firing on all cylinders anymore

The difference between progressive and non-progressive is quite easy to spot. There can be a lot of telltale signs for the experienced eye (which I don't have) but the most obvious is that 'it just doesn't look as neat'. I started out using mostly E07 for my renderings, but after one try with E08 I was hooked on progressive, hardly ever go back.
There are certain things that you can and cannot do with certain renderpresets like caustics, fake transmitters and other stuff, but imo when quality counts nine out of ten times progressive is the way to go

[flipya]

And some reading:
http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... =12&t=1646

[leedeetee]

Thanks so much, I reckon I owe you a pint if you're ever in North England (York to be precise).

[flipya]

I tend to hang around the equator when I'm not working, but I'll keep it in mind. Not one to say no to a free beer

[leedeetee]

Ok, I left this one to bake overnight, Easy09.

Need to sort out the lights I think, and think I'm nearly there? Those reflections aren't moving though ....

[Dan_ddd]

Lee

I bet now you've rendered that in Easy 9 you never go back to Easy 5!

That looks really good. Especially the lamp.

I would look at spots in the ceiling using IES. Fymoro has a thread somewhere in TWR where you can download a group of 5 light. I use them all the time.

The reflections in the windows are the opposite windows. I'm not sure how you'd get around that. depends on the material used I suppose.

The only thing I'd change is to have a more glossy wood on the chairs. you can easily change that on the Index of Refraction and Shininess settings in the Material editor.

Good effort though

just found the IES post from Fymoro check it out

[leedeetee]

Hey Dan, thanks so much for your reply. I think I owe you a pint, too! That link to the thread with the lights on is superb, much obliged.

Anyway, here's my final render for this scene, going to do a different one now as a bit bored of this one.

Thanks again guys.