[Carrara]Lighting Problems

[ericsnapple]

My godness. I've been working on this for hours...

And I still cant get it to work. The areas circles in the pic ar both the same shader, yet one looks waaayyyy darker than the other. I try adding light from the top of the scene, no help. I try changing the one shader to a lighter value... still nothing. How can this be fixed?

[rickei]

these are definitely different shaders. it's more than just a different color, the highlights and shininess are different. did you add the shader to a group of objects and forget to "apply to children" ? Does the model have shading domains that you may have missed?

[ericsnapple]

No, actually, they are the same. See for yourself.

[Shonner]

They are different. I assigned your Shade1 to the lamp parts and now they are the same.

[ericsnapple]

Hmmm... But I need "shader" applied to both those areas. not shader 1. And that does not seem to be working.

[Joppe]

Hi Ericsnapple,
I tried to find whats wrong here and noticed that the light in your lamp, the bulb, is giving you the extra light. Put it out and the models have the same colour. Or am I seeing it wrong.

[ericsnapple]

That seems to solve the problem, although I wanted the lamp to be on... But when I do, they look too different. Ho-hum.

[bwtr]

Eric. Just some thoughts. You may be overcomplicating your approach to things at this early stage. You seem to be involved with HDRI files which I (still )don't see a need for, there are some approaches to texturing and lighting and rendering, where you are trying to use the complexity of the available "solutions options" rather than leaving things to the basic default settings perhaps.

It's good to see the enthusiasm but, perhaps, taking a slower, one step at a time approach, may be better as a "learning curve" understanding.

I hope I am not being presumptious and that those thoughts are of help.

Brian

[ericsnapple]

The HDRI file is only for the reflection in metal areas, not for lighting.

[bwtr]

I have never needed that to get the result. Why?

[bwtr]

A very simple example

[Grendel]

The reason they look different is that your base is receiving light from the bulb and the distant while the top outer shell is just receiving the distant lights rays. Since it's receiving more light the highlight channel is picking up more and it looks brighter.

This would happen in a real lamp as well, if you want them to look the same you'll need to add another light to affect only the top piece and that should even them out.

[Patrick210]

I find HDRI to be an indispensible tool for many situations, lighting and reflections. Some of my better renders would not be possible without it.

[Grendel]

Originally Posted by Patrick210

I find HDRI to be an indispensible tool for many situations, lighting and reflections. Some of my better renders would not be possible without it.

I agree 100%, I use it in 99% of my renders as well.

[jbshorty]

Yup. Decent lighting is not that diffuclt to setup. But unless your model is within an environment to reflect, then your model will always look a bit "off". HDRI just makes it so darn easy. The problem is that it's so often misused, and can be quite obvious when someone does something silly like use an HDR of a beach to illuminate a kitchen scene

shorty

[bwtr]

Ahhhhhh--shorty explains something of very real importance.

I was making a point earlier perhaps, that there is a gradation of end results which are maybe worth comparing in stages. If, for a "satisfactory" result, why go to more complex exercises which may add even more complexity/difficulty in getting a required result?

If simple works why not?

[Patrick210]

Because the real world is not so simple. HDRI is more than just reflections, it is a complex light source which more closely resembles real world lighting. Why go for just "satisfactory"?