Camera settings and Daylight Renders

[RichardDobell]

For a long time now, I've struggled to get an authentic renders for outside settings. I've adjusted expoures to negative numbers. Set the sky to .1 intensity and adjusted the sun accordingly too. But for me, the renders always seem flat. or the sky is nice and vivid, but then rest of the scene is dull.

If someone could help me out on this, I'd be very grateful.

Please forgive the generic outdoor scene - it's non-client specific thus doesn't break NDAs!

Attached are a series of screen shots with settings...

Using Corona 10, Cinema 4d 2023 on PC - 128GB RAM, AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X 64-Core Processor    2.90 GHz

[romullus]

Your issue is not exposure, it's tone mapping, or to be more specific, the lack of it. It's better to leave sun and sky at default values, because they are set to be physically accurate out of the box. If you need to change exposure, do this in the camera settings. Like i said, the biggest issue with your image is that it's not tone mapped. You can't expect to have pleasingly looking render without tone mapping. It's absolute must!! Don't be stuck in the noughties with your workflow, learn about tone mapping, or simply enable Aces OT in recent Corona and for most cases you will be half way there.

[RichardDobell]

Thank you, I'll have a tinker a bit later today!

[bnji]

Hi @RichardDobell,
Could you please let us know the method you're using to integrate the BG into your scene?
I mean, are you using a Corona Light Material or a Corona Sky object?
Additionally, if you're using a Corona Sky object, are you using a PSD, EXR, or an HDR file? and what is its color depth (8, 16, or 32 bits)?
The more info we get, the more accurate the suggestions you'll get.
As Romullus said, at first look, the main issue is Tonemapping.
Looking forward to hearing from you.

[RichardDobell]

So, following from Romullus' comments - I've made a few adjustments - which do look vastly better - so thank you for that guidance!

I've attached a new series of screen shots for the settings I'm now using - As previously suggested, I've reset the Sun and Sky's strength back to 1 - but kept the size of the sun at 5.

Tone mapping setting are as screen shots

The clouds from the sky are the Sky's default clouds

As I say, it's much much better, but still not quite there, for my liking! Any further assistance would be greatfully received!!

[Beanzvision]

I think also the materials and some models (trees) could use a little lovin'. They also look rather flat which is no doubt adding to this. :)

[jojorender]

What is the point of your ACES OT’s and negative highlight compression?
The bridge etc still has massive blown out “highlights”.
Why saturation 0.1? - Pink clouds.
Turn off bloom and glare - find your tone map/ exposure values first and only then add subtle B&G.

As beanz said, the problem starts with your materials…
Are you using corona materials? The materials look like they are just simple colors… no textures - lifeless/ flat. Most windows no reflections???
Flat noon lighting = flat image.

You need to spend the time and apply “realistic” materials to all elements…all buildings, roads,
etc. Avoid repeating textures. Check tex sampling for “far away” materials.
Delete all trees or replace with cosmos trees. Once you see something “fake” all looks fake.

Sun size “5” means it’s hazy/ soft shadow light. Something is not right…
Is your scene to real world scale? If not, scale up to a real life value.

What’s across the river, off camera? Once you use real glass material, these windows want to reflect something interesting, not just endless sky…

Hey, the water looks great!

[johnnyswedish]

Hi All,

Been following this thread as well as it is quite tricky to get outdoor scene's right. I agree, the materials look really flat. I have bought all the collections from CGAxis which are fantastic for outdoor renders (i have churned them through Texture Manager 2 to create material specific for Corona). I have a scene I can share with you as I have not got to the point of adding specific client bits to give you a sample. I totally agree, the water looks fab! Did you download this or create it yourself? Would love to know the set up on the water, this in my opinion is harder to get right than outdoor renders :-)

[RichardDobell]

Apologies everyone, I've neglected this thread, has a couple of large projects come in...

Thanks for the comments made above. I appreciate the suggestions and have taken them all on, gotta say, I'm much happier with the results I'm now getting.

I've never really taken any notice of the Tone Mapping setting until now. I'd normally save my renders as a .PSD file and then adjust further in Photoshop.

I realise the model i chose was, probably, not the best example, but it was mainly for trying to get an idea of how the sky was interacting with the rest of the model. I should say, it's not my model but it's available from the Dublin Concference Centre's website. I'mworking on a project there at the mo... All the textures in there were crudely converted to corona textures, thus, they're not going to be the best materials to use.

Anyway, I'm rambling, again... thanks for your help...

@johnnyswedish - you do do the annual subscription for CGaxis? I've done this for a few years now, give you full access to everything in their catalogue. The only draw back is that if you want an whole collection, you have to download the materials, one by one. Can be quite tedious

[Beanzvision]

it's not my model but it's available from the Dublin Concference Centre's website.

I had a look but couldn't find it. Do you have a link at all? :) I found it ;)

[Beanzvision]

Here's a quick render. I didn't do anything other than adding a camera, sun and sky. All mats are default expect the water which has caustics enabled. Pretty cool model actually. ;)

[RichardDobell]

So, this is much better - playing with various thing on the tone mapping, adjusting nothing else other than the water texture

sun size 1 intensity 1
physical sky 1 - PRG Clear sky - with internal cloud generator turned on

and then adjusted everything within the tone mapping settings - sooooo much better!!!

[maru]

You can check out the training from Common Point: https://www.youtube.com/@CommonPoint/videos
They share in-depth lighting, tone mapping, and post-processing knowledge in their videos. There are free lessons and a paid course.
It's for 3ds Max, but the settings such as VFB tone mapping are the same.