greg
December 6th, 2008, 05:50
hi,
in recent projects we've been rendering characters with using a reflection HDRI rendered out of mental ray from our environment, and a corresponding HDR map skylight along with any direct lighting (usually mrsun/sky). this has worked pretty well to integrate characters into final gather baked environments without creating excessive flicker. however, in setting up materials for the characters, we've noticed some serious differences in how the Arch&Design material reacts under different lighting conditions. a character set up to look good in an outdoor environment, for example, will look extremely "wet" and almost metallic when rendered in a more ambiently-lit scene (indoors).
i assume this is related to energy conservation in the shader, but the balance between diffuse and reflection does not seem to be scaling proportionately with light. it's almost as if the diffuse contribution from indirect light is not factored in as much, and the shader is returning much more intense reflection values. what's more is that in order to correct things, reflection values in A&D materials and zap's fast skin+ material (which uses A&D reflections) must be reduced to extremely low amounts.
does anyone have any input on this?
thanks,
greg@blur
in recent projects we've been rendering characters with using a reflection HDRI rendered out of mental ray from our environment, and a corresponding HDR map skylight along with any direct lighting (usually mrsun/sky). this has worked pretty well to integrate characters into final gather baked environments without creating excessive flicker. however, in setting up materials for the characters, we've noticed some serious differences in how the Arch&Design material reacts under different lighting conditions. a character set up to look good in an outdoor environment, for example, will look extremely "wet" and almost metallic when rendered in a more ambiently-lit scene (indoors).
i assume this is related to energy conservation in the shader, but the balance between diffuse and reflection does not seem to be scaling proportionately with light. it's almost as if the diffuse contribution from indirect light is not factored in as much, and the shader is returning much more intense reflection values. what's more is that in order to correct things, reflection values in A&D materials and zap's fast skin+ material (which uses A&D reflections) must be reduced to extremely low amounts.
does anyone have any input on this?
thanks,
greg@blur