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Lighting Problems

Question asked by Alex Jindrrk on Jul 26, 2016
Latest reply on Aug 5, 2016 by Alex Jindrrk

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Hi there,

I am struggling with the lighting part of Visualize unfortunately. I have attached two renders that I did with Blurred studio (looks very glowy and no hard reflections) and High Contrast (cant get any reflection on front face)......and the 3rd is one that I did with photography. I am trying to get the lighting to be more like this or better.

Its a high gloss plastic USB charger (only half finished in Solidworks) and I cant get any reflections on the front face whatsover, like the hard gradient like on the front face of the photography/photoshop image.

Is it possible to create direct reflections on faces and bodies and follow them etc? Thanks.

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Heiko Sohnholz Jul 29, 2016 3:13 AM
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Hi Alex,
yes, it seems to be a little bit difficult... high gloss plastic and chrome are always "sperrig" as we say in German.
I modeld a solid with a not-planar face, and tried. For me the best results are given, when an environment with some structure in the roof was used. Find the attached picture for an example. I used a environment i found *elswhere* in the web. It's a HDRi from "by zbyg". You should find it via google.
Greetings, Heiko
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- Alex Jindrrk @ Heiko Sohnholz on Jul 30, 2016 5:31 AM
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  Thanks for the reply.
  
  'Sperrig' translates on google as bulky?
  
  I used another render program and it reflects light on the front face quite easily, but using that same HDR with Solidworks Visualize I cannot get the same result. For instance as the attached (ignore the led noiose thing, I think it was a quick render).
  
  Its hard to show the product as a glossy face when I cannot get the environment to reflect on it like it would if I used my softboxes or reflective cards I could do it in Photoshop but prefer to work out why its not doing it. I even used the same HDR environment from that 3D render and cannot get it to look like that.
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Alan Sweetenham Jul 29, 2016 4:12 AM
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Hi Alex

Not sure i could think of of a better way that Heiko suggested without custom lights etc. You could add an object I suppose and give it an emissive (light) appearance or if using Visualize Professional add a physical light.

Also might be worth trying HDR light Studio as this looks like the most intuitive way to achieve what you are after. For 2016 SP1 onwards this is supported for Visualize Standard and Pro but is an extra cost. It allows you to modify and create HDRs putting lights exactly where you want them. Haven't had much of a play myself yet but looks like if could benefit you. This link shows it working in the old Bunkspeed product that became Visualize.

Alan
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- Alex Jindrrk @ Alan Sweetenham on Jul 30, 2016 5:31 AM
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  Thanks for that info and I didnt think of that. So you mean create a solid in Solidworks and then bring it into environment and basically turn it into a reflective card by adding a emissive appearance to it? That seems like a good idea.
  
  I tried using the 'light' in environment but I find it a headache to move around. and I couldnt get any reflection on it, or perhaps I dont know how to use it well.
  
  Thanks for the video, I will check that out.
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- Alex Jindrrk @ Alan Sweetenham on Jul 30, 2016 5:28 AM
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  Looking at that video, it seems very intuitive and a great way for lighting and exactly what I would need I think
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  - Ron Bates @ Alex Jindrrk on Aug 1, 2016 12:58 PM
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    Alex,
    
    I didn't see the video being referenced...just wanted to mention and make sure you know that you don't need to create the geometry in SW for simple "light cards".
    
    Alan is correct; HDR Light Studio is the tool here. BUT in lieu of that; just go to the scene tree in Visualize, right click and add a new object, like a plane. Then make it emissive and position it where you need to get the highlights. Then set it's properties to Faded, so it will still give reflection and illumination (in accurate mode) but not be visible to the camera.
    
    For example, this is how I got this edge highlight on the headphones. it is not from the environment image; instead I used a small planar piece of geometry which was quick to add and position in Preview mode right in Visualize... Then I added material, and set to faded...
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    - Alex Jindrrk @ Ron Bates on Aug 3, 2016 5:32 AM
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      Thanks for that. I will give it a try soon.
      
      And I have been playing around with HDR Light studio and it takes some time to learn it (well on a small USB charger it is very tedious to get the lighting right since the movement is so minuscule). I did a nice render which I have attached.
      
      The only thing I noticed (it took me 2.5 days to render this on 3000 passes) that when I bring it into PS and put a different background I get some fringing and the shadows are very white. Which needs to use adjustment levels on shadows and create a new mask.
      
      I also cannot work out who to get this LED to create a glow of light. It seems to just illuminate and then blow out and not effect anything else.
      
      Thanks.
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      - Brian Hillner @ Alex Jindrrk on Aug 3, 2016 10:28 AM
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        Hi Alex,
        
        The lighting on your most recent image looks stunning! HDR Light Studio is definitely the way to go with very specific lighting needs.
        
        Not sure why it took so long to render...
        What are your system hardware specs
        What render mode are you using (Fast or Accurate)
        What resolution pixel amount did you choose?
        
        To help with the bloom you desire, try the new Bloom filter, located in the Cameras Tab. This is a Visualize Professional feature that will give you excellent realistic glow around your LED. See my attached example (which is a bit exaggerated).
        
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        Alex Jindrrk @ Brian Hillner on Aug 3, 2016 10:49 AM
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        Many thanks for the compliment Brian. It was my first 3D I did of a product before and I struggle with Solidworks still as I am still learning. Much better at lighting and Photoshop and photography, so that background helps with the lighting when I know how to use the HDR Lighting.
        
        I can do the flare and glow in PS but I'd rather do it in the software as it provides less work, so I will definitely check it outs o thanks for the tip.
        
        I still need to do a bit of post processing on the render as it looks too much like a render still.....either that or I need to add some more work in appearance in Visualise. But it isnt far off my photography/photoshop retouched version. Just the lighting and edges are too clean. Not that is impossible to achieve in photography though.
        
        My system I am using is a MS Surface 3 so its not a very great system to use for 3D. In Fast preview mode it is 'ok'.
        
        For my rendering I think I choose around 3000px res on one side as it needs to match the camera resolution for other media matching in InDesign etc. I wanted to see how long it would take. I used Advanced mode since fast mode is 500 passes.
        
        It could also be that the LED is textured semi transparent plastic (1mm shelled) and another blue LED inside that so maybe the refraction took a while?
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        Brian Hillner @ Alex Jindrrk on Aug 3, 2016 11:51 AM
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        Hi Alex,
        
        The fact that you are a new user and creating this level of photo-quality content is awesome...keep it up.
        
        While Visualize runs fine on a Surface, especially in Fast mode, rendering on a Surface is not ideal since it doesn't have much hardware inside to accelerate the render speeds. We have some new technology coming out in Visualize 2017 (this October), so sit tight and get ready to have your mind blown
        
        For your type of product (USB charger), doing the final render in Fast mode should yield great results...which will also significantly decrease your Accurate mode render times. Give it a try and see if you can tell the difference between Fast & Accurate mode images.
        
        If you still feel that you need to render in Accurate mode for final images, then for your USB charger, 1000-1500 passes is more than sufficient.
        
        To increase the amount of bloom when you turn on the Bloom Filter in the Cameras Tab, try also increasing the Intensity of the Emissive Appearance as well. In order for the Bloom Filter to work, you need an Emissive Appearance on your blue LED:
        
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        Alex Jindrrk @ Brian Hillner on Aug 5, 2016 6:27 AM
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        Thanks for the info.
        
        I didnt think my Surface would be very good for 3D. Just my only option unless I put it on someone else's system. I travel a bit and these days dont like carrying anything bigger than 11" and most of those systems that size are weak in performance.
        
        I did have a look at the LED glow and cant seem to get it to work so well but its prob the way I have the setup the part, I am not sure. I put a blue plastic in another plastic Shell and set the blue plastic to emissive. It might be the other plastic is blocking it. It illuminates but doesnt seem like it should.
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Michel Gurzeler Aug 5, 2016 8:04 AM
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Hi Alex,

I think you have to play a little with the options in the background setting, especially with caustics and floor reflection.
Brian has already mentioned that your appearance has to be an "emissive", i found out that the value for Brightness should also be thing to play with.

With these two steps I was able to get a reflection of your led on the ground.

(for visibilty I have created a grey floor)

Greetings from switerland!
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- Michel Gurzeler @ Michel Gurzeler on Aug 5, 2016 8:07 AM
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  OK, after a quick look at the caustics section: You don't have to use caustics, but floor reflection and floor roughness should be the key
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  - Alex Jindrrk @ Michel Gurzeler on Aug 5, 2016 10:14 AM
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    Thanks for that. I will have a play around with that when I go into it next.
    
    I remember when I had a look at Keyshot It would work and had those similar options. I find the renders in Visualize seem to look a little more realistic, at least the very few models I looked at anyway. The only thing is the preview mode in Keyshot is very fast on my system and also the controls are easy to move around the camera, but I prefer to use Visualize due to the better realism.
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