Retail interior

[unclebim]

Hello to the community!

I am new to SketchUp and Twilight, using them for the last 1 1/2 months, decided to do the modeling, drawings and rendering myself instead of outsourcing the activity to other people for projects that my wife and I do. It is great fun although very time consuming and I am posting two render images of the second model I ever made.

The model is made in SketchUp, including 2d cutouts. I made most of the materials from photos and then applied Twilight templates plus eventually tweaked some of the settings. The time I made the renders I did not realise that i needed specular map for the wood veneer on the gondolas for instance so it looks flat. The window glass is unchanged architectural glass template and the reflections are ok but I find it too opaque maybe.

Rendering took about 15-18 hours for 150-180 passes at 1200x592 px with Metropolis Light Transport (BPT) settings each, rendered on a i7 875K @ 3,45 GHz (8 threads) machine. I suppose it is because of the many lights, mirrors and textures (not hi-res).

Postprocessing included saving the original render image at three different camera exposition settings, say 0,8 - 1,0 - 1,2 and then blending these with the Exposure Blend script in Gimp, then tone mapping, some noise reducing with G,mic's Photocomix presets (tweaked) and some local contrast enhancement.

I shall appreciate your opinions and critics as I am aiming to get the best out of the software as soon as possible. Thank you in advance!

Serafim

[Fletch]

for the exterior, you should see reflections of street facades across the street. so you need to put a vertical face in the scene, and apply a photo of the facades across the street.

set opacity for Architectural Thin Glass to 1 or zero. it defaults to 30.

MLT/Bipt is slowest render setting. great for difficult lighting situations, but Easy 09 would be just as good, I believe, for these scenes.

essentially, lighting and materials is what brings good renderings up to great renderings.

I think calibrating your monitor can also help for your tonemapping.

and finally a postpro trick or two.

I usually make a bump map for any material that needs it, and many times can use it in my specular map slot.
Choosing right template is key, but also, feel free to tweak the shininess of any material template you apply... and the IOR changes shininess as well.

With Easy 09 or with MLT/Bipt, the number of lights in the scene does not effect render time significantly... 10 or 1000 lights, renders about the same speed. So use mesh lights (light emitting surfaces) as it gives best light, use physical sky, put in something for glass to reflect... reflecting blank skies is boring for any glass.

http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... 388#p15388

[unclebim]

Thank you, Fletch! I appreciate your advice.

[fymoro]

Hi, and welcome to the twilight world...
For the interior view use the easy preset 9 it's faster...
And also use IES effect if you have some spot light It will look nicer, you can have a look on this http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... 937#p11985

Good for a start; congrats...

[unclebim]

Thank you, Monsieur Moro!
An expert's advice is more than welcome.

[tomyong]

Welcome welldone
I M O the display repeats too much you shld try to use more 2D cutout displays

[unclebim]

Two further renders of retail interiors, they had to be done really fast so there was no time for small details and further entourage on the shelves. If I have the time later I shall go on with them. I really enjoy the Twilight material editor and especially the templates, they make the job faster and tweaking them after applying gives good results for my custom made textures.

I shall appreciate your comments and critics.

[Fletch]

I LOVE the style of these just great!
Care to share the technique?

[unclebim]

Thank you! Sure I would share anything, what exactly would you like to know?

[Fletch]

Are you overlaying a grainy render in a photo editor onto a SketchUp export? If so, can you be more specific about what exactly you are doing?