Sketchup-Vray Exterior Night Scene

For me, creating the night scene far more challenging than creating day scene. For day scene, all I have to do is create the modelling, then set the sunlight, set the vray parameter, et voila, the image is ready.

Whereas a night scene needs more effort. On one hand, I want to have a dark enough scene so I can show all of the additional lights, but on the other hand, it can't be too dark since we still want to see the buildings details. To solve this, I usually created the scene using Afternoon or dawn image background. So there's still enough light for the sky.

And we also have to design the lighting placement so those additional lighting will make our building looks more beautiful. But generally I use :

1. Rectangle Vray Light with Invinsible=on, this will be the main source of light from inside of the building. The size usually big, from the ceiling towards the floor. Or you also can place it from the windows towards inside of the building. For this kind of light, you probably need to raise the subdivision about 15-25, depends on how big is your image output will be, so there won't be any noise.
2. Rectangle Vray Light with invinsible=off. I will attach this kind of lamp right to the ceiling, or some lamps on my scene. I also use omni lights for round lamps. For this kind of lamps, I will raise the intensity value about 10-20 units higher than the invinsible lights around it. This so the light won't washed out by other lights.
3. IES light, for uplight and downlight. You will need IES light file for this, you can find it from the internet either for free or buy it on the application stores. Personally I got mine from a friend, so, I wouldn't know exactly where to find them. But, for IES light, you need to try out some files to find the one that most suitable for your scene.

So in conclusion, if you don't have enough time, don't create a night scene ^_^

This image created without any Photoshop touch up

This is the Environment (Sunlight) setting for Vray Night Scene

Good Luck!

Sketchup-Daytime Vray exterior Setting

For me, creating a modern minimalist buildings using sketchup is fun and very fast, and it also helps me to develop the concept that I have in my head. But there is one thing that I still don't like from sketchup is the trees. I still haven't found any tree model that is realistic enough for my scene. And when I found some that a little bit realistic, the tree file would be so big that it actually scares my computer :P

Therefore, I'd rather use photoshop to add tree elements to my presentation. But maybe you have found a good sketchup vray tree model? Please, let me know, it would be really helpful.

For this tutorial, the rendering result is still raw, without any photoshop touch up. And the street lamp is still horribly fake. But for your own scene you can find a better one.

In the video, I'm also going to explain a little bit about vray displacement to help me created a more realistic grass and water. You can also use this displacement for creating a rug, cushion, etc. But one thing you have to remember, if you use a lot of displacement, your rendering time will be a lot longer.

Here is the tutorial as you can see on YouTube

And these are the Vray parameter that I'm going to use :

Have a nice time learning!