Please! Need help with with using vray Lighting and camera

[mstrasko]

Hi all,

I'm hoping the great people on this site can help me, I've been using 3DS Max for about two years (for classwork) and a week ago began using vray for lighting. The problem I'm running into while trying to finish a demo reel, is that each render I create comes out grainy. I have tried using tips, techniques, and tutorials that I have found on this and other sites.

But regardless of what settings I change I cannot seem to get rid of the grainy effect in my renders.

In addition to this I added a 360 rotation to my model and the platform it's on, while at the same time making sure that my vray camera was not selected but was frozen and hidden. Yet when I tested the rotation animation, the camera moved along the rotation of the model and platform. I don't remember having trouble with this when using a normal camera operation, but then I am using a vray camera now.

So I'm hoping to find out how to keep the camera stationary, while the model and platform rotate. As well as seek answers/advice on how to remove the grainy effect and improve the clarity of my renders.

I'd be grateful for any assistance!

Thank you,

Mike

P.S. I have more screen images, but I could only post three.

[mstrasko]

Here are the additional screen images that show more of my settings, including the scene layout.

[Badsmile]

Definately too many lights.

Start with 1 Light and adjust the settings. If it looks good (no grain, correct brightness,...) you can add another one (Filllight, Backlight,...) IF you need one.

Your settings are way too cranked up for that simple car. How many hours did you render for this?

You should get a grainless result even with the low settings:

Irridiance Map Preset: Very low. // HSph. subdivs: 50 // Interp. samples: 20

Light cache Subdivs: 50

At the Environment-Settings (Hotkey 😎 acticate The Vray Exposure Control. Try Shutter 100-200 and f-number 4-8.

Your Sampling Subdivs at your Vray light should work just fine with 12 or 16. 140 is way too much.

In your case, I would recommend HDRI Lighting. There are plenty of tutorials for that. If you dont get along with them, i can also explain you what to do.

greetings

criss

[mstrasko]

Thank you for the information, Badsmile! I entered the new settings and I'm currently making a new render to see how it looks. I have the resolution set at 3050 x 1750 (trying to get the best resolution possible) so it may be a half hour before I know for sure.

As far as the HDRI Lighting, oddly enough that's initially what I was attempting to set up along with the vray. Except that apparently I kept finding tutorials for advanced users, because there seemed to be various (possibly simple) steps missing, or something.

Two of the tutorials I tried were https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6jad1lkg9w&list=FLUsBEBCSr1XwdfbHhkGXaXg&index=9

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPCAEEUvn0A&list=FLUsBEBCSr1XwdfbHhkGXaXg&index=8

While the HDRI image came through on the vehicle, my scene was otherwise too bright or dark as night when I rendered it. I couldn't seem to find a middle ground, plus setting it up using a skylight seemed to cause it to expand as large as the entire workspace. If there is a way of focusing the HDRI on the stage behind my vehicle and control its illumination; that would be awesome!

I also still need to find a way to keep the camera stationary, so that it doesn't rotate along with the vehicle.

Anyway, I'll let you know once the render is done and any additional advice on the HDRI setup would be very appreciated!

For now, thank you for the information you've given me.

[Badsmile]

Before you are not completely happy with the look of your Picture, u maybe should use a lower Resolution for the rendering. Just in order to save time. 700pixels width will be just fine to check the lighting, shaders, etc...

A quick Checklist for HDRI Lighting:

Get a spherical HDR-Photo. e.g. here: http://www.hdri-hub.com/hdrishop/freesamples/freehdri

You will get a Zip File with a Blurred and a Highres-Version of the Picture

Create 2x a VrayHDRI Shader, one for the blurred, one for the Highres Version of your HDR-Photo.

Set Both VrayHDRI-Maps from "Texture" to "Environment" and from "Screen" to "Spherical". This is very important. If you need to brighten up the scene later, u can do so by increasing the "Render mult"  value (Values can vary between 1 and 100, depending on your settings and picture)

Create a Vraylight and set it to "Dome".

Drag the Blurred HDRI into the Texture slot of your Vray Light and the Highres HDRI into your Environment slot of "Environment & Effects" (Hotkey 😎

Being there, also activate VRay Exposure Control and play with the settings shutter speed and F-Numbers. Choose realistic settings, like if you had a real Photocamera.

It doesnt matter where u play the Dome-Light. The Light will ALWAYS come from the Top of your scene, embracing everything thats underneath it, so you might have to delete your "Background-Roof" in order to get light on the top of the car. HDRI Lighting enlights the whole scene, u cant emphasize certain parts like Fore- and Background. The Photo is your sky and environment that will light up the scene and will be reflected by your car. That way you get photorealistic results.

If your shadows and Reflections are too grainy, increase the sampling subdivs from 8 to 12 or 14.

hope i could help you.

greetings criss