Twilight Render User Forum

Have been kicking this idea around for quite some time. Made some false starts that went in the trash. Finally have something that suits me. Montage of places Ive been and seen over the years. Posting a raw SU image of were the models at now and posting a test render from several days ago. Still adding bits and bobs to the model and tweaking on textures like a crazy person. Hope to turn out a cool night render when all is said and done......

Interesting “evening” render. I like it. I also like the black and white render you posted on the SketchUcation site.

Thanks ntxdave. Just to clarify the test render was set up as a daytime render, late morning if I remember right. Was just a quick test to check how texture set ups are going to look, To satisfy anyones curiosity I did do some minor post pro in Gimp to the render

This is really turning into a long work in progress. Much experimenting going on . Ran a larger test last night. Rendered at 2200 x 1258 px. Easy 10. Used a sunrise hdri that I haven't used before. Not sure about the "speckles" on the street , more passes and they'll even out or not ? Finding it very interesting how different the street is rendering depending on the environment set up. Did do some minor post pro in Gimp even though it was just a test shot. I can use all the practice I can get !

Looking pretty nice!
I would use Easy 09, results will be very similar, my guess.

For the asphalt, try Template>Avanced Reflection>Concrete Mapped and use a specular map to vary the reflectivity of the asphalt. Either with a procedural material in that channel, or a good texture.

Or try this wet asphalt material could look very cool.
Subject: V2 Tutorials Animated Snippets #DeepMaterial #Shatteredglass

Fletch wrote: ↑Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:10 pm From this discussion - Subject: rainy road - wet concrete - wet asphalt #wetasphalt #wetroad #wetconcrete
Here is a Wet Asphalt or Wet Concrete material that you can modify the wetness by changing the scale of the procedural "weight" as shown below. You can of course change the procedural texture in the "weight" to be anything you like, you simply must copy that procedural to be in the weight slot for both material layers, and then "invert" the second weight.

To use this material:
Download and unzip the "asphalt-Wet-SUTexture.zip" file anywhere on your computer.
Paint any surface in your model with SU basic material in the "Asphalt and Concrete" section - "Concrete_Aggregate_Smoke"
Then choose to edit this "Concrete_Aggregate_Smoke" material with Twilight Material Tool eyedropper.
Import the material Material>Tools>Import and find the "Asphalt-Wet-SUTexture.xml" file where you saved it on your computer.

Those with Twilight V2 Pro can edit the material's look/behavior with the Deep Material editor - see example in animated .gif below.
Those without V2 Pro can use the free Kerkythea material editor - open the attached material library below inside of KT, edit, save the material, then load that new material into Twilight.

Thanks for your input Fletch. The experiments will continue. I'll try your suggestions with the asphalt and see how it goes. I do have an "asphalt pack" that I downloaded on the site a long time back. It just seems when when I go to the night render ( sun-sky powered down to 0.1 brightness and 0.1 power ) not getting a result that suits me.. I'll keep thrashing about in the deep editor and try your suggestions , Im sure at some point I'll hit on a combo that pleases me. As for using Easy 10 instead of Easy 9.... In early experiments I don't seem to be getting the light I should from the streetlights when rendering with Easy9. Hardly any "brightness" to the lamp globe and little reflection showing on the street. Switch to Easy10 and they look as expected. A caustics thing maybe? The globe is modeled with real life thickness to the glass and using one of the matte lamp glass materials out of the Twilight "37 variety lamp glass" pack. Have a point light in the lamp with an i.e.s. file loaded. Got the file from a manufacturer of street lamps website. Just wished I'd paid better attention in physics class fifty years ago. The Deep Material Editor can get a little daunting at times

Fletch , I'm getting senile...... . Forgot I ran these two quick test to show the difference in the street lights and the porch light. Everything"s the same except the render setting. Hmmm..... sure I did something wrong. F.Y.I. I had run an earlier render of this on Easy9 and let it cook 100 passes and the "output" from those lights wasn't much better than the example I'm posting hence changing to Easy10.....

Easy 10 is looking better, here, agreed.

The IES file should go in a spot light that is outside and perhaps a few cm below the lamp glass, so it is not obstructed by the glass. Inside, a point light is fine.

From there, after applying your lamp glass material, it becomes a matter of tweaking the position of the point light inside the housing of the fixture - near or further away from the glass surface, the brightness/strength of the light, color of the light, and radius of the light. All of these can have a surprising effect on the lamp and of course the material of the lamp glass, thickness of the model of the glass, etc. All have a critical effect on the look.

I find myself favoring these glass lampshade materials from this library rather than the Template Glass Lampshade material.
I'm not sure why.
Subject: Glass Lampshade Material Library (37 colors)

Well Fletch paint me a dummy I've been putting point lights inside fixtures like this for ages and always seemed to get good results . I guess Ive just been lucky up to now. I'll give the suggestion you made a try. And to clarify a small point I did use a lampshade material on the globes out of the Glass Lampshade Material Library. I think it was the beige color if memory serves me. Also the globes are modeled with real world thickness. As always many thanks .

So, the lampshade will effect the way the light is cast by the light object.
If you use an IES light, then it will be set to cast the simulated light from the fixture. If you put it behind the lampshade material that effect will be warped/modified by passing through the lampshade.