How to use non-IBL lighting in Inventor Studio?

[Amit262]

The image in the IBL is reflected on the parts causing an image overlay that is not always desired. See the two screenshots below, the one with a greyish hue over the red is with IBL lighting in Inventor studio, The other one with well saturated red color is in assembly environment with 'Two Lights' lighting.

So it seems, in studio,  the grey wall of the IBL image is overlayed on the red colored part.

All the lighting in Inventor studio seems to be IBL based, how can I have non IBL lighting in Studio?

Thanks in advance

Greyish hue caused by Studio IBLWell saturated colors if no IBL is used

[Daniel248]

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@Amit262 wrote:

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So it seems, in studio,  the grey wall of the IBL image is overlayed on the red colored part.

All the lighting in Inventor studio seems to be IBL based, how can I have non IBL lighting in Studio?

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The grey wall of the IBL image is reflected by the red coloured part.

Try reducing the reflectivity of the red coloured part (in Appearance settings). Reduce glossiness also...

As far as I know, it is not possible to use non IBL lighting in Studio.

[Amit262]

@Daniel248, Reducing the reflectivity or glossiness is not really a solution, may be a workaround at best. Besides, reducing the reflectivity/glosiness absolutely changes the look n feel of the part.

Isn't Inventor Studio for creating photo realistic renders? And there is no way to create lighting without an image overlay?? Really??

How are the professionals create renders?

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Amit262

Inventor studio has been around for many years and hasn't really changed.  Inventor 2016 is when IBL lighting was introduced.

If you only need a rendering (no animation), I would actually recommend that you enable view realistic and ray tracing and not use Inventor studio for rendering an image.

[TheCADWhisperer]

This video doesn't address your question directly, but might indirectly answer the question.

If not, he has several other videos.

[Amit262]

@Mark.Lancaster, I did actually use the assembly environment with raytracer to get some pretty good stills. And I must say they were better than I could manage with Studio. 

Now, I need to create a video of a driven constraint, so I was hoping to get something out of Studio. But my initial experience with Studio hasn't been good so far.  Even the non raytraced view in the assembly environment looks more realistic than the default view Studio opens with. 

Also, I tried the record function in the drive constraint dialog box. The video had horrible compression artifacts. Read several posts online suggesting to use Studio, so i gave studio a try.

[Amit262]

@TheCADWhisperer, Thanks, I have already seen that video, very useful but doesn't address my issue exactly

[ToddHarris7556]

Not to throw a 'cop-out' answer out there, but I think it's fair to say that Inventor Studio is a nicely-capable integrated rendering package, but it isn't 'what the professionals use'. Studio has it's limitations. 

For more detail, control and quality, there tools like vRay, Keyshot, mental ray, 3ds Max, etc. 

I'm not trashing IV Studio, but any of the tools in the dedicated rendering space will offer a LOT more capability for advanced needs. 

[Lewis.Young]

Are you using one of the default Studio lighting styles?

[Cris-Ideas]

Hi,

I had a very long e-mail exchange with development after IBL was introduced to studio regarding very similar problem as you have.

So General answer is there is no way now to have not IBL lighting in Inventor Studio.

But

There is a way to define your own IBL lighting style where you can use your own image. I suppose you could use image that basically would be white. I am not sure what would he outcome be as I am not a master in rendering and stopped using studio at all.

I have found this link https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor-products/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticle...

have not tried though.

If you will please give some feedback.

Cris.

[ToddHarris7556]

I admit I probably output 1 or 2 quick renderings a week out of studio to share with clients, mostly because I'm efficient enough at the timeline to get the task done there without having to fire up 3ds Max. It's useful enough that I keep doing it, but the artifacting does bother me.

I can't say great things about outputting to avi/wmv with limited control - I feel like it probably hamstrings the whole process.

[Amit262]

@Lewis.Young

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@Lewis.Young wrote:

Are you using one of the default Studio lighting styles?

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Yes, I am using Grid Light

[Amit262]

@Cris-Ideas

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I had a very long e-mail exchange with development after IBL was introduced to studio regarding very similar problem as you have.

So General answer is there is no way now to have not IBL lighting in Inventor Studio.

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Too bad 😞

There is a way to define your own IBL lighting style where you can use your own image. I suppose you could use image that basically would be white. I am not sure what would he outcome be as I am not a master in rendering and stopped using studio at all.

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I was thinking along those lines, about adding my own ibl. A white image will not work though because Studio will still overlay the white (the image in my original screenshot was close to white). Similarly I guess black will either darken or oversaturate the render. I am guessing a transparent png may do the trick but not sure if transparent pngs can be used in ibls.

I am trying it out now, will post back here with results.

[Amit262]

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@ToddHarris7556 wrote:

It's useful enough that I keep doing it, but the artifacting does bother me.

I can't say great things about outputting to avi/wmv with limited control - I feel like it probably hamstrings the whole process.

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Seriously I don't understand why is video output in such bad shape. The record button in drive constraint is such a big joke, then comes Inventor Studio, much better than the record button, but is still very unsatisfactory.

I don't get this, really how difficult is it to take a bunch of frames and stitch together a video?

"Autodesk Inventor Professional" cannot even output a decent enough video? really?

[ToddHarris7556]

To be honest, I'm not sure if I really expect final output quality from a MCAD package or not.

It's pretty convenient to get something quick. 

Re: improving the quality with cool lighting tricks... if you folks figure anything out, I'll look forward to learning how to get better quality. For ME, when I need better quality I go to 3ds Max (that's the rendering environment I'm least bad at)

[Cris-Ideas]

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@ToddHarris7556 wrote:

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It's pretty convenient to get something quick. 

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It is not quick at all. It is as slow and as annoying as can only be possible.

Cris.

[ToddHarris7556]

Fair enough 🙂 Maybe 'quick' isn't the right word.

How about 'quicker than I can export out and set up in 3ds Max'

[Lewis.Young]

One thing i found out early on is that the "Photo Booth" lighting style seems to look a bit better.

This is a 200 iteration render using Grid Light:

And here's a 200 iteration render using Photo Booth:

Although these are just quick renders, i have produced some really realistic pictures using Studio, so i wouldn't give up on it just yet aha.

Try changing the lighting to Photo Booth and have a play with the settings, let us know how it goes! 🙂

Lewis

[Cris-Ideas]

For me personally it was much faster and a lot less frustrating to import to 3DS, link to a scene I have lighting set up before and render.

Only problem was that import was not working properly but even though this was far better solution than resultlesly fight with inventor studio.

Cris.

[Cris-Ideas]

Another idea come to my mind.

If you are not able to come to an agreement with lighting style maybe it would be some solution to place whole model inside a sphere (hollow) that would have self illuminating material assigned. (not sure thought if self illumination works in studio)

Than theoretical scene lighting style would be totally  separated from the model you are interested in rendering, so you would got no reflections from it.

Other thing that I had once noticed is that lighting environment in inventor has finite dimensions and it is technically possible to place model outside of it. Only not sure how it would then render.

Cris.

Cris.