WIP_First Kray render

[inakito]

Hi everyone!
After reading lots of posts, watching some tutorials and reading the manual, I decided to do my first try. I have rendered this image last night. The timing for the render was around 4 hours and 10 minutes at its original resolution but I am not really happy with the final image just yet. I still need to add some more details to the scene but I would like to get it looking better before adding any more stuff.
The setup of the scene is basically area lights all around and lightmap mode, and the number of cells is around 70,000, is that enough?
I have also experience the difference when texturing objects using kray in parameters such as reflection, or reflection blurring, in comparison with Lightwave native render. As an example, the regular reflection parameters in Lightwave when using incidence angles are way to high in compare when using the same settings in kray. Is this right?
I would love to carry on improoving this image and make it looks great!
Thanks!

[jure]

Area lights all around? Too much area lights will certainly slow things down. Try using lumi polygons instead.
70.000 cells sounds good. Try playing with tonemap blending plugin to get more contrast in the scene.

I have also experience the difference when texturing objects using kray in parameters such as reflection, or reflection blurring, in comparison with Lightwave native render. As an example, the regular reflection parameters in Lightwave when using incidence angles are way to high in compare when using the same settings in kray. Is this right??

Reflection and reflection blurring should look the same - but make sure you have "Compatibility" in surface panel set to "Default". However if you use different tonemaping in Kray than in LW the textures and reflections etc. will look different (brighter or darker).

[inakito]

Hi Jure,
I didnt understand what were you referring to when talking about compatibility option in the surface panel...
Also, do you recommend using lumi polys instead of area lights?
Cheers

[jure]

Hi Jure,
I didnt understand what were you referring to when talking about compatibility option in the surface panel...
Also, do you recommend using lumi polys instead of area lights?
Cheers

This is the setting I was talking about:

Compatibility setting

Yes, in general lumi polys seem to work better than area lights.

[inakito]

Hi again!!!
After long time, I just have some spare time to get back to this scene.
I have change my textures and the lighting setup but still far away from the look I am aiming for...
I see peopple so often gettin great render s and even if I think I have imprrove since last time,
I would like to get much better results.
I am using Phisical sky and some area lights for the windows, using fallof and photon intensity multiplier, at the back windos.
I have 59.168 cells, 2 FG passes and the resoution is 1280x720. The render time is 42 minutes and 59 seconds on
my dual core.
Comments are welcome and tips or tricks to improove my render...
Thanks!

[jure]

Everything is too uniform. You don't need any photon multipliers for this. Key is good TONEMAPPING and good SURFACING.

Try this:
1. Add Kray override and select "Override with Color". This will give you neutral gray render
2. Add QLWF with default settings and Tonemap blending plugin with 2.2 gamma 4.0 exponential, blending 50%.
3. Increase window light so that you get enough light in the room without overexposing areas near windows.
4. Tweak your surfaces untill they look good.

[inakito]

Cool jure, im on it and will post the image as soon as i got it ready for more comments
cheers!

[inakito]

Did some work and change lighting and surface properties.
Still not finished but I am starting to be happier than before.
I'll keep on polishing it and will posted once its finished.
Cheers.