Supermarket lighting

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Hello all, I am an infrequent user of Sketchup and a brand new user of Twilight render. I have an assignment to show some products on supermarket shelves and needed to achieve the even, fluorescent lighting inside your typical supermarket. See the image below.


You can see that the pixel dimensions are not that big, yet the render took over 42 hours and it still had to finish antialiasing. I would very much like to cut this time down. I had to matrix out some of the products on the shelf due to the non-disclosure agreement I signed, but other than that, you can see what I need to achieve.

Having read some of the posts on this forum, I realized that I had made some bad choices since I used 2 light emitters to light the scene: the first is an invisible emitter placed on the ceiling pointing straight down.


The second emitter is just above the shelves, pointing up at the ceiling to brighten it up.


What would be the preferred way to light this scene so I can get similar results but still cut down on the render time?

My client is the manufacturer of the products I had to matrix out and they want this image for a Powerpoint presentation. They just want to see their products on the shelves next to some generic products.

[Fletch]

This is essentially a product image, so I would treat it as such.

Since you see very little of the ceiling, I would only model that little bit of the ceiling you will see in your image, and only have a bit of floor under/near the product shelves. Eliminate all walls, and extra ceiling. (You can leave the floor it's ok)

I would delete all emitters and lights, then I would light the scene with an HDR spherical sky.
Follow this tutorial, Subject: Pentax Camera - great model in Google 3DWarehouse
only instead of the camera used in the tutorial, you would just use your model instead.
It contains a link to the spherical sky hdr image.
if the image is too dark, increase the Exposure in the rendered image dialog.
Or increase the "Brightness" of the spherical sky hdr image in the Environment Dialog.
For the 2x2 ceiling lights in your model, set them as "Fake" emitters.
Render image with Easy 04 or Easy 05... should render quickly enough. (depends on the computer you have)
If rendering with Easy 09 or other unbiased render method, you decide when the image is ready, you don't wait for it to finish rendering. You stop the rendering whenever you think the image is sufficiently "clean" (not much noise).

Subject: How to use HDR image or HDRI image
for furniture rendering, study this thread thoroughly, it's perfect for studio shots.
Best thread ever about product shots/studio shots on Twilight's forum.
Subject: Render Settings - the Best One

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Thanks, I'll give that a try.

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I am having some trouble following the tutorial author's instructions. Where am I supposed to load the "Apt-Probe.hdr" file. There is no file upload button in the environment window.

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I also suspect that some of the surfaces on the products may have been somehow converted to emitters which would explain the long renders. Is there a way to reset all Twilight Render materials to "none?"

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I was able to fix my render issues but it involved something of a "nuclear" option. I discovered the "Clean-->Clean All" under the Twilight Render Extensions menu.



It seems that when I made my 2 original emitters to light the scene, they had a viral effect and "infected" other surfaces in the scene, turning them into emitters as well. This is what was making my render times ridiculously long. In truth, I am sure it's something I did due to my inexperience.

This worked for me since all my materials were applied with SketchUp's default texturing methods and SketchUV. "Clean All deleted all Twilight Render materials and left SketchUp's textures intact. It may not be an ideal solution for everyone.