Some IES Render Exploration

The first image have a bit of post process. The rest are raw render. I have done all the IES lights and I am testing them.

This is a simple tip about IES lights

I want to share some of my two cents when it comes to IES lighting.

1. Unit Matters:

Alot of people asked this. Why I can't make my IES light to appear, then they do all sorts of tweaking. Some they even put multi-miilion intensity values. Unit in VRAY SketchUp matters and VRAY uses with its DOF value in Inches. This is the same with IES lightings. Therefore the first thing that you will do is to put your unit in inches. So go to your model info, before you render, be sure your length unit is in INCHES.

Since inches and centimeters have little variance, you can also put it in Centimeter length unit.

2. IES Generator

You can create your own IES using Karba's IES generator. It's free and you can download HERE.

Below shows a sample IES light I created. 0 parameters signifies the mid of the light effect. the bigger the angle the bigger the distance of the effect from the center. Once satisfied, you can save your IES light to any folder.

Load the IES file under. Notice that I DID NOT even put value with intensity. VRAY will read the value of the file. 

Below is the render using the IES light I created using the IES generator.

3. Physical Camera Settings

Control the exposure using your camera. I have a very simple VRAY Physical camera setting. I normally start with F number 1.0, Shutter speed 200, and ISO 400. This is a personal preference. Normally with all the IES file that I used, this work as always. Then I adjust the F number if its too bright, if its dark, I normally adjust my ISO with hundred increments.. I guess I am use too on this.. You can opt not to follow me on this.

Below is another render using the above Camera settings but using different IES file.

Gradient Glass tests

Gradient Glass tests

Milky effect

Milky but 100% transparent on top

With Green tint 40%-0% opacity

More Thea render

Thea Render Contest

I won third prize in this contest. I am glad considering I am still exploring this software..

Original Post HERE

The "Seasons" contest has finished and we are happy to announce the winners. We would like to thank all the artists who participated with their renders - they gave life to this contest. We would also like to thank our sponsors for the prizes they offered to the winners.

It is worth mentioning that the final decision for the winners came by considering the concept, originality of the idea, the technical details (quality of materials and textures) and the overall render quality. Choosing the winners was not easy, since there were a lot of very nice renders. At the end, such decisions are taken based on personal criteria as well.

Finally, we have also decided to give a smaller prize for a 3^rd winner. In addition to these prizes, we will also give a single Thea Render license to two participants of the contest that were not licensed users but contributed with noticeable renders.

Congratulations to the winners and to all participants! You can see below the results.  

1st winner: "Recipe for Seasons" by Rafael Sanchez (aka Rosco)
2nd winner: "The Unusual Suspects" by Sandro Sorce (aka SandroS)
3rd winner: "Living in Hanoi" by Adona Nomer (aka nomeradona)

Art Studio

NPR and PR

To do NPR or not NPR. PR or not PR that is the question! No question in the end cause I can do both.