Huge noob here! Lighting references anyone?

[Amie]

I'm seriously the biggest noob of all nooblandia for Indigo AND sketchup.
But I'm figuring my way around a few things. Any tips on how I can actually get some light into my renderings!

Whats the whole concept? You make an object and assign a lighting material to it? I thought I did that on a simple rendering of a bottle I made. But bottle is too dark.

I made a circle, colored it yellow and assigned an incandescent material to it. I turned on Shadows in SU and then rendered my bottle with a translucent glass material to it.

I mean, you can tell its a bottle in the rendering, but yeah......

I know there is a lot to it, but is there a way a general idea be explained in a few short sentences? Thanks.


PS: I invite anyone to screw around with my file and upload it again so that I can get a general idea of what is involved. I think it is the best way of learning.

Thanks again.

[crojack]

there is a tutorial if you search the forum you can find it.

also, as a good starting point, there are preset in the mat editor, you can choose those and adjust from there.

the search function works really well, most stuff has been covered here in the forums-

and have fun!

oh and you want to turn off sun/shadow if you are using lights, at least as a starting point. put that bottle in a room.

[Blazedremedy]

Download the getting started tutorial. That will get you on the right foot.

[Amie]

Thanks guys! I did download the Getting Started Tutorial--I'm not very resourceful in finding good info...some of those tutorials are lacking for dimwits like me. When I read the Getting Started it didn't specify that you have to put objects in a room OR that the material editor had settings that can AND should be changed to very high integers in order to see a change for lighting. I discovered it by accident, playing around with it because I wasn't getting results. The Manual is just over the top rocket science.


Any chance or talks out there of someone organizing a REALLY clear and comprehensive tutorial?

[crojack]

Thanks guys! I did download the Getting Started Tutorial--I'm not very resourceful in finding good info...some of those tutorials are lacking for dimwits like me. When I read the Getting Started it didn't specify that you have to put objects in a room OR that the material editor had settings that can AND should be changed to very high integers in order to see a change for lighting. I discovered it by accident, playing around with it because I wasn't getting results. The Manual is just over the top rocket science.


Any chance or talks out there of someone organizing a REALLY clear and comprehensive tutorial?

this is pretty much how I, and I think others here, learned. I know nothing about all the math and stuff involved.

and you don;t have to put anything in a box, just think about the sun being super bright and so you have to power up the light source to do it.

most nice renders aren't done with sun anyways it seems, usually inside a box/room with lights that are controllable, or with exr.

[Amie]

BINGO!!

Thats the answer I was looking for! Thanks crojack!
I kindda thought you dont really need the sun---for example, I took a look at the gallery and someone did this excellent looking ceramic Roman stump. But there seemed to be many directional lights coming through, including an omni light and highlights coming from the left. I didn't think that that kind of expert lighting be achieved with just a sun. Thanks for confirming my thoughts.

[crojack]

[Amie]

Another Q: how do you remove materials to objects?

Also forgot to ask what is exr by the way?

[crojack]

remove materials to objects? Do you mean from objects?

exr = search function