Well, I've been working with the bathroom by SAMS3D in Vue 4 and its not too bad except for the door which looks very dark. I turned off the atmosphere settings, have two point lights, one spot light. I don't exactly know what I'm doing but I'm to create something realistic. It also seems like I'm at a disadvatage with because there are no windows. Has anyone ever tried using this model or have any suggestions about indoor lighting ?

Seems to me a bit too flat and evenly lighted. Without enough "form lighting" forms tend to look flat (unrealistic). I'd recommend:

1. Re-arrange your light to provide shadows - you can keep them light (as they would be in such a reflective environment).

2. Notice the reflections on the metal surfaces? You could increase the reflectivity of the ceramic and painted surfaces (ceramic more so) to get similar reflections to help express the 3D of the forms. Look at any good auto body render to see what i mean (but be more subtle than that).

3. Add glow effect to the visible light sources.

4. I'm suprised the ceiling is not lighter. People paint those white so as to aid the room lighting. You could go into that material and boost its light sensitivity.

5. For max realism you may need the very slow rendering Radiosity render. It's the only method that simulates light bouncing from one surface to others.

Oh, that door. Is it white or light colored? If not, make it so. You can also set the material to be brighter.

HTH
_jc
Art Head Start.com
Art training e-book for digital artists and students

Message edited on: 12/26/2005 17:10

Chipp Walters has put up a nice tutorial on indoor Radiosity lighting at:
http://www.altuit.com/webs/altuit2/vuelab/IndoorRadiosity.htm

_jc
Art Head Start.com
Art training e-book for digital artists and students

Yeah, but dstephany has Vue4, no radiosity. You should check the backroom, I think there is a tut on how to fake radiosity, and there is a link to Rodluc's radiosity renderer for Vue.

Yeah, sorry, not useful to dstephany. Good info for some others though.

Something like this is on my todo list. I'm trying to max out Vue's rendering realism here. What I'll eventually do is take an excellent 3d room done in Max and try to recreate the effects in a WIP on this forum. Then I'll put it all on PDF and use it as a tutorial for interior lighting...very comprehensive. First though, I'm working on a backyard with a pool, trying to achieve a great lawn and foliage. It may be a WIP here as well.