Topic: Best natural environment settings help please

[b.lamein]

I`m using Lumion for a while now, and I think it is great. But everytime I have problems with the environment settings. They don`t look so natural in my model. I mean, the lights are to bright, shadows to hard/soft, sky to bright/dark. It seems I can`t get the right mix of settings for my models.

Can you all help me with this? Perhaps share some settings with me or give some advice?

Thanks in advance!

[peterm]

Sorry for bouncing back with more questions, but;

Would it be suitable if you provided a couple of examples with some of the settings you have and then we could suggest alternative settings?  

Without knowing the type of environment, the parameters about how it should look, the feel and atmosphere required etc, then there's so many looks that can be produced it tends to be a case of "how long is a piece of string?".

Are you just in Build Mode, or is it in rendering a Photo or rendering a video?  Interior or exterior scene?

Is it the model itself, or the whole scene that concerns you the most?

Also, what is your yardstick for comparing against re "dont look so natural"?

Often the default settings are used but of course are middle of the road, so for example, reducing amount of sunlight, and usually same time cloud lighting to control brightness and then also tweaking Camera Brightness and Contrast settings are obviously some of the things towards getting that control over the right brightness.

[b.lamein]

Thanks for you detailed reply, I don`t have any samples now because I`m not in my office today, I can share some settings tomorrow.

But to give some answers and a description:

I`m looking for some general/average settings for my scenes. And true, the most of the time I`m in build mode. I can imagine there is al lot of difference between build and video/picture.

So it is the whole scene that consernes me the most, I`m using SU for the model and I`m pretty sure that te model is good enough.

But as said before I wil post some settings tomorrow. Maybe you could give me some settings you use in advance so I could see how you work in a model? Or maybe send me a model/scene.

[peterm]

OK.

What about using a common scene for all users taken from the Lumion Examples - Alpine Dwelling, a SketchUp model, with some good textures, but with surfaces applied as Lumion materials?

In Build Mode of course quality you see depends on Editor Settings, and won't be quite as good as final render, especially where shadows and light are concered and smoothing of edges, but it should be close in terms of amount of required for the settings ie for the amount of light etc.

Have attached 2 pics:
1. build mode screen capture:  default weather settings as a starting point.  My Editor Settings are set to highest ie Editor Quality: 4Star, Editor Resolution: 100%
2. a photo rendered without changing any of the weather settings.  Differences between Build and render are more in the smoothing of edges, softer shadows etc.

So, how do the images compare to what you are currently getting with your models in Lumion?

--------------------------------------------------------------
Facebook: Lumion Community Showcase
Web: Lumion NZ