Basic Exterior Scene Settings Written by Corey Rubadue    Thursday, 08 February 2007 ObjectiveThis tutorial helps to set up a basic exterior architectural scene using Physical Sun and Physical Camera.Basic Settings Global Switches>Gamma 2.2 (all other values default)Camera>Physical Camera enabled>Still Camera>Shutter speed 125>Film Width 36>Zoom 1>F-number 12>Film Speed(ISO) 200>Exposure enabled>Vignetting enabledEnvironment/Sky>GI enabled 1.4>Texture Editor (double click on “m”)            Common>Type Sky>Multiplier 1.5 (all other values default)Image Sampler>Adaptive QMC>Min 1 Max 16>            Antialiasing enabled>Area 1.5Color Mapping>HSV Exponential>Dark 1 Bright 1Indirect Illumination>GI enabled>Primary engine Irradiance MapSecondary engine Quasi Monte-CarloIrradiance Map>Min-3 Max –2>HSph. Subdivs 50>Samples 20 (all other values default)Quasi Monte-Carlo>Subdivs 8>Secondary Bounces 3     Global Switches

 

Camera   

Environment/Sky  

Image Sampler 

Color Mapping     

Indirect Illumination 

Irradiance Map

(For faster test renders you can reduce the HSph. Subdivs to 30)(To increase the quality you can change the Min Rate to –2 and Max Rate to 0, however this will increase render time)   

 

Quasi-Monte Carlo GI   

 

 

            Scene Setup Image 1 shows an architectural exterior scene. The goal is to render the exterior using a physical sky and physical camera available using vray. It’s important to note that vray takes the sun location and time of day from the SketchUp shadow settings as shown on Image 2.  In this SketchUp scene, the only Vray specific material applied is to the glass. The rest of the materials are SketchUp applied materials. This is important to note since a lot of users will have existing SketchUp models that they want to render without spending too much time re-applying materials and this example is meant to illustrate exterior render settings only. Nonetheless, it still demonstrates the speed and quality that can be achieved with a simple and fast setup.      

Image 1: Exterior Scene in SketchUp

 

 Image 2: SketchUp shadow settings   

 

NOTE: If you enable “Show Calculation Phase” under the Irradiance Map Rollout>Basic Options,You will get a preview of the IM calculation and lighting distribution as shown on Image 3    

Image 3: IM Calculation Phase

Image 4: Final Rendering using VfSU setting listed above.

 

Render time approx. 12 min 800X500  The VfSU render options can be saved to be used on other scenes. Open the Render Options toolbar, select File>Save, Load or Restore Defaults.  VfSU comes with preset

settings for low, medium and high quality renderings.  The above method is just one way of many, I encourage everyone to experiment with their own settings based on their own scenes. I hope this serves as a good starting point.

Basic Interior Scene Settings Written by Corey Rubadue    Thursday, 08 February 2007 Objective This tutorial helps to set up a basic interior architectural scene using V-Ray Rectangular Light and Physical Camera in Vray for SketchUp

Basic Render Option Settings

 Global Switches>Gamma 2.2 (all other values default)Camera>Physical Camera enabled>Still Camera>Shutter speed 125>Film Width 36>Zoom 1>F-number 10>Film Speed(ISO) 800>Exposure enabled>Vignetting enabledEnvironment/Sky>GI enabled 1.4>Texture Editor (double click on “m”)            Common>Type Sky>Multiplier 1.5 (all other values default)Image Sampler>Adaptive QMC>Min 1 Max 16>            Antialiasing enabled>Area 1.5Color Mapping>HSV Exponential>Dark 1 Bright 1Indirect Illumination>GI enabled>Primary engine Irradiance MapSecondary engine Light CacheIrradiance Map>Min-3 Max 0>HSph. Subdivs 50>Samples 20 (all other values default)Light Cache>Subdivs 750>Sample Size 0.01>Scale Screen>Num. Phases 2 (Eq. # Processors)    

 

Global Switches

            Camera

Environment/Sky   

Image Sampler 

Color Mapping     

Indirect Illumination  

                     

Irradiance Map

 

(For faster test renders you can reduce the HSph. Subdivs to 30 as well as reduce the Max Rate to –2)

Light Cache

(For faster test renders reduce the Subdivs to 500 and increase the Sample Size to 0.02. The Num.

Phases should be equal to the number of processors on your machine)   

    Scene Setup Image 1 shows an architectural interior scene. The goal is to render the interior using a Vray rectangular light and physical camera using vray. It’s important to note that vray takes the sun location and time of day from the SketchUp shadow settings.   Image 1: Interior Scene in SketchUp

                      For this interior scene, a Vray rectangular light was placed directly outside the window as shown on Image 2.  The color of the rectangular light is light blue to simulate the color of the sky. Multiplier 30, Invisible enabled (to the camera), No Decay enabled, Ignore Light Normals enabled.  Image 2: Vray Rectangular Light

          

 NOTE: If you enable “Show Calculation Phase” under the Irradiance Map Rollout and Light Cache Rollout, you will get a preview of the calculation phases and lighting distribution as shown on Images 2 & 3

  Image 3: Light Cache Calculation Phase

 Image 4: Irradiance Map Calculation Phase    

 

Image 5: Final Rendering using VfSU settings listed above.

 

Render time approx. 20 min 800X500  The VfSU render options can be saved to be used on other scenes. Open the Render Options toolbar, select File>Save, Load or Restore Defaults.  VfSU comes with preset settings for low, medium and high quality renderings.  The above method is just one way of many; I encourage everyone to experiment with their own settings based on their own scenes. I hope this serves as a good starting point.

Church of Light Tutorial Written by Damien Alomar    Wednesday, 16 May 2007 This tutorial explains the settings and steps used to set up the scene "Church of Light by Tadao Ando" using Vray for SketchUp

Basic Render Settings

Global Switches>Gamma>Output 2.2 (all other values default)Camera>Physical Camera enabled>Still Camera>Shutter speed 125>Film Width 36>Zoom 1> F-number 10>Film Speed(ISO) 800>Exposure enabled>Vignetting enabledEnvironment/Sky>GI enabled 2.4>Texture Editor (double click on "m") Common>Type Sky>Multiplier 1 (all other values default)Image Sampler>Adaptive QMC>Min 1 Max 16> Antialiasing enabled>Area 1.5QMC Sampler>Adaptive Amount 0.9>Noise Threshold 0.01> Min Samples 6Color Mapping>HSV Exponential>Dark 1 Bright 1Indirect Illumination>GI enabled>Primary engine Irradiance MapSecondary engine Light CacheIrradiance Map>Min-5 Max-4>HSph. Subdivs 50>Samples 20 (all other values default) Detail enhancement EnabledLight Cache>Subdivs 500>Sample Size 0.02>Num. Phases 2

Global Switches

Physical Camera

Environment/Sky

Image Sampler

Indirect Illumination

Irradiance Map(For faster test renders you can reduce the HSph. Subdivs to 30)

Light CacheSample Size 0.02 was used to reduce noise in the scene. Since this scene does not contain a high level of detail this number was acceptable. Num. Phases was also set to 2 to ensure a low amount of noise in the scene.

Lighting Set-up

Images 1 & 2 show the basic scene exterior and interior. The goal is to render the interior using the physical sky/sun and physical camera available with Vray for SketchUp. It's important to note that Vray takes the sun location and time of day from the SketchUp shadow settings as shown on Image 3.

Image 1: Exterior View of Model in SketchUp

Image 2: Interior Camera View in SketchUp

Image 3: SketchUp shadow settings

Image 4: Sun Location in the model is set to be perpendicular to the exterior wall with cross opening for this specific scene where we want the light to come in directly behind the wall. Note the shadow direction which is perpendicular to the wall with the opening.

Image 5: One Vray rectangle light was located directly outside the cross opening of the model to supplement the sun light entering the space and ensure the light rays would enter the space perpendicular to the room. This is typical for a lot of interior scenes. In some cases, where light is entering through glass, you may position a rectangle light next to the glass on the interior.

Image 6: Vray Rectangle Light Settings

Materials Setup

In this scene, SketchUp materials with no textures were replaced with new Vray materials. Textured elements in the SketchUp model were brought into the material editor as Linked Vray materials. This is important to note since a lot of users will have existing SketchUp models that they want to render without spending too much time re-applying materials and also, it's very easy to apply and adjust the textures on objects using SketchUp controls

Image 7: Material Editor shows the Vray materials as well as the Linked Vray materials. Most elements have a certain amount of reflection. This adds to the level of realism in a scene since most materials have reflectivity in real life, even if it's barely noticeable sometimes. This image also shows the specific settings for the Linked Walls material, it's important to note the level of

reflection noted by the level of grey (22) as well as the Glossiness factors (0.6). The glossiness was turned down to create the blurring effect of the light and the reflection on the material.

Here is the final scene rendered by Vray for SketchUp using the rendering and material settings described above.

The VfSU render options can be saved to be used on other scenes. Open the Render Options toolbar, select File>Save, Load or Restore Defaults. VfSU comes with preset settings for low, medium and high quality renderings. The above method is just one way of many, I encourage everyone to experiment with their own settings based on their own scenes. I hope this serves as a good starting point.

Basic Architectural Glass Material

Settings Written by Corey Rubadue    Thursday, 08 February 2007 ObjectiveThese settings create a glass material suitable for architectural exteriors and interiors. It is a clear glass which lets light through as well as reflects the surrounding environment.Basic Settings

 

 Sample Rendering  

 

Lighting in V-Ray for SketchUp Written by Damien Alomar    Thursday, 08 March 2007 This tutorial goes over the different types of lighting within V-Ray for SketchUp.  These include Global Illumination, HDR (High Dynamic Range) images, point lights, rectangular lights, and emissive geometry.

There are several different options for adding light in VfSU.  The simplest is GI or Global Illumination.  Then we have the built in lights within V-ray, and lastly we have light emitting geometry. So let’s get on with it.

For these tests I am using a model of the new Camaro which I downloaded from here http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=a3da1cce792763fd33898df841c4de85

 

Global Illumination

Global Illumination (GI) is by far the easiest way to add light to a scene in vfsu. Basically GI simulates a dome around the scene that emits an even light from all directions.  The result is a very soft light that does a great job at providing a good lighting basis for a scene.  In order to be able to use GI you must enable Indirect Illumination.  If you don’t the side of the car facing the camera will be completely black because it isn’t visible to the Sketch Up Sun. After enabling Indirect bounces in Global Switches disable Default Lights.  Now go to the Environment Rollout and enable GI, this is what allows us to set the illumination for our scene.  For right now you can keep the GI values where they are.

And here is the result.

 

You’ll notice the nice soft shadows at the base of the car, and the nice light coverage on the front grill.  This is because the light is coming from all around the model.  GI is very useful for providing quick tests and visualizations because its easy to set up and can give good feedback on how the geometry will react to light.  In this case this is an exterior scene and the model isn’t blocked from its environment, so this is giving us a very even light.

 

 

Using HDRIs

With VRay we also have the option of using an image to light our scene.  Although we could use any image, the types of images that are best suited for lighting are HDR images, or High Dynamic Range Images.  Basically what this means is that the image actually contains information that is brighter than white, and we can use this information to add lighting to our scene.  I have downloaded this image from here (http://gl.ict.usc.edu/Data/HighResProbes/) (this image is not the actual HDR, but a jpeg)

 

So let’s put this HDR to use.  In the Environment rollout click on the little “m” next to the GI multiplier.  This will bring up the Texture Editor.  On the left next to type there is a drop down list.  From the list select bitmap option and all of the image parameters appear on the right.  Now you can add the map by clicking on the “m” towards the bottom of the window and find the image. In order for any image to be used correctly for either GI or environment backgrounds the must be mapped using the Environment option at the top of the texture editor.  Now we need to specify the mapping, and In this case we know that our image is a spherical image, so we will make sure that the spherical option is selected from the list to the right.   Go ahead and repeat the same process for mapping the background and then go ahead and render.

 

 

Go ahead and repeat the same process for mapping the background and then go ahead and render.

 

 

You might notice your image is a bit noisier now, which is due to the sampling on the hdri (the example above was done with higher quality settings which are in the frame stamp).  You can also see how the shadows themselves look a bit sharper, as well as looking as if the lighting is a bit more directional.  This is because the illumination from the image is mostly directly above our scene.  You can tell by the sharper shadows along the side of the car, the elongated shadows in the front of the car, and the shadows underneath the side view mirror.  Below is the same rendering with a jpeg version of the same file, and as you can see the image is darker and the shadows aren’t really as distinct as they were in the rendering with the HDR image.

 

 

 

Adding Lights

V-Ray supports both rectangular lights and omni lights (or point lights).  We are going to go over some of the features the omni light first.  In the V-Ray toolbar the yellow ball icon will add an omni light. 

After clicking the icon simply pick a point in your scene then position the light in your scene.  Omni lights will emit light in every direction, so remember that when your placing in you scene.  Also depending on the size of your scene the omni light may be small or

large.  The actual size of the light doesn’t affect anything, but it’s a good idea to have it be a size that doesn’t effect moving, viewing, or creating anything in your scene.  After adding the light you need to edit the light properties.  You can do this by either right-clicking on the light and at the bottom of the menu will be an option for VRay for SketchUp.  From that option select edit light.  You can also do this in the main menu bar by going to Edit > VRay for SketchUp >Edit Light. 

 

This will bring up the Light properties box, and there are several key parameters that we must go over.   

 

In the intensity section there are parameters for both color and the multiplier.  Color is fairly self explanatory (the color of the light) and the multiplier will control how brightness the light.  Under the Options section is a little option that says Decay with a drop down box to the right.  This option will control how the intensity of the light changes based on how far away the light is from an object. 

 

The default setting is Linear which basically means that the intensity of the light will not change at all.  This is not a very realistic setting because in the real world lights decay.  The second option is Inverse, which decays the light based on the inverse of the distance value.  The third option is Inverse Square, which decays the light based on the

inverse of the distance squared.  Inverse Square is how light decays in the real word, so it is recommended that you use this setting.  You don’t really need to know the math of it, but just be aware that each option, from linear to inverse square, will need a progressively higher multiplier to achieve the same amount of brightness.   Here are some sample images to show different decay.  The only thing changed in each image is the type of decay.

 

The Sampling section allows you to control how V-Ray samples the light.  Unless you are creating caustics or using other features these settings are best left alone, so we will leave them for another tutorial.  The Shadow section has some other helpful features.  First is the option to enable or disable shadow.  The Radius feature will allow you to control the sharpness of the shadow, or in other words blur the shadow edges. Omni lights by their nature create very sharp shadows, so if you would like to minimize this effect then you would use this feature. 

Be careful as this can increase render times and if you set too large of a value your shadows may disappear.  Subdivisions are a way to control the quality of the shadows.  A lower value will allow the render to be quicker, but may have lower quality. A higher value will have better quality, but will take longer.  Only adjust this value if you are not getting the quality that you would like for your blurry shadows.

 

Rectangular Lights

 

Rectangular Lights are the other lights supported by V-Ray and have their own distinctive characteristics. 

 

The intensity of a rectangular light is related to their size. For example, a very small light with an intensity of 10 may have just the right effect, but if the size were tripled or quadrupled then the intensity would be greatly increased even though the multiplier is the same.  Here are two images with the light at two different sizes. 

 

 

 

The size of a rectangular light also has an affect on the shadow quality.  A small light will usually have a sharp shadow (not as sharp as the omni light though) compared to a light which is bigger.  Because the blurriness of the shadows are controlled by the size of the light itself we really only have the ability to turn shadows on and off.  Rectangular lights do have many of the same features as the omni lights with several differences.  The Intensity controls are the same, but under Options we find many more choices.  First we’ll skip down to the No Decay option.  This is similar to the decay options of the omni lights.  However, we only have the option for Linear or Inverse Square decay.  Having No Decay check will make the decay linear, while having it unchecked (the default and recommended value) means that the decay will be Inverse Square.

Double-Sided will allow the light to emit light from both sides, not just the front face. Invisible will make the light invisible to both the camera and any reflections in the scene.  Enabling Ignore Light Normals allows for an even distribution from the front face.  Disabling this feature will force the light to be emitted predominantly in the direction normal to the front face.  The Skylight Portal function causes the light intensity and color to be taken from the environment behind it.  This is mostly used in windows for interior scenes, but its use is not entirely effective or accurate.  Store with Irradiance Map allows for the direct light to be calculated with the Irradiance Map which will speed up calculations. In this mode quality is controlled by the IR settings.  Within the Sampling section we do find one value that was not in the omni light settings.  The subdivisions value will control the number of samples that are taken for the rendering.  The default value of 8 is usually sufficient, but with interior scenes more subdivisions may be

required.

 

 

Light Emitting Geometry

In V-Ray it is also possible to have objects emit light, which provides a lot of flexibility in how we can add light to our scene.  Effects like neon signs, glowing objects, and other things are now possibilities by using light in this way.  We will actually create these effects via the material editor, so click on the M in the V-Ray toolbar.  This brings up the material editor, and if we look on the left we have a list of all the materials in the scene.  Right click on Scene Materials then Add Material > Add VRay Material.  This will add a standard V-Ray material which is named Default Material.  Right click on this material to rename it if you like.  Now click on the little plus sign next to the name of the material.  This will open the material layer structure.  As you can see there currently there is only a diffuse layer in our material right now.  To add a light emitting layer, right click on Emissive Layer and click Add New Layer.  Now you will see the Emissive rollout over in the material options. 

 

There are 3 simple options within the emissive layer; color, intensity, and transparency. 

Color and Intensity work in the same way as regular light do.  The transparency will be useful to allow other layers that are underneath the Emissive Layer (like the Diffuse Layer) to be visible in the material.  Keep in mind that making the material more transparent will decrease the intensity of the light.