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Light Baked in the bathroom sink
OK, we have been here before - http://www.bryce5.com/details.php?image_id=2580&mode=search - but as a further experiment with indirect lighting I've added four baked lights. One rendered from the point of view of the camera with a weak light source (render time 10minutes) and one from a hyperthetical light over the sink - bath area (again 10minutes) this second light I shared over two more lights very close together to soften the main shadows. Baked lighting accounts for about 50% of the scenes light, the rest is IBL Q256 Horo's BBB hdr. Render time for final scene 1 hour 17 minutes, total being 1 hour 37 altogether. Took about an hour to modify the scene to accept the indirect lighting. I built a crude room around the previous scene to accept the light bounces, but made any surfaces not in the FOV non shadow casting to let in the IBL light to simulate ambient shadows. Original colour and materials were maintined in the final render instead of using grey since it wasn't entirely lit with filters. I'm not sure indirect lighting is particularly noticable here, but I leave that for others to judge.
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I try and write up a method - a version one at least - don't worry you will soon be up to speed.
I've got to make some experiments with this light baking method of yours. It's still a bit academic to me. You are all pressing forward in a pace that leaves poor old slow Horo more and more behind.
No it does make sense. To increase map resolution I could do with figuring out how to create a filter onto a spot - although the 360 x 180 deg solution is good because it means after the lights have been baked you are free to move the camera (just not the lights!). The low rez of the panoramic maps does create some interesting effects but they are somewhat random, like for instance, there is a bit of bloom effect on the edge of the tooth mug due to the low rez of the map in comparison with the narrow FOV of the pic.
Yes, I too was thinking that evil ambient might be an option here. The only problem comes with the fact that ambient at least for me has a way of always drawing attention to itself. But a careful assignment of ambient glow might be what the doctor ordered. In fact, these maps you are creating should make very useful ambient maps to apply to materials and complete the baking process by getting the materials involved in the light simulation. Just an idea that occurred to me now. It might not make any sense. I will need to study the baking process a bit more.
Every time I turn on soft shadows my machine grinds to a halt! Most of the render time I believe can be credited to the IBL. You are right about the black edge. For the plastic I may need to invest in a bit of evil ambient. Same for the grout. Thanks for your input. I will have another go. I will bear the spotlight in mind... I might give a go at baking that too if I figure the right mapping method.
Indirect light would be very noticeable in a white environment like this one. I think that for the time invested your result is more than satisfactory. I like the light levels in the drain and in the hole in the sink and along the wall to the left. The only place where you need light is around the toothbrush holder/cup. That left side has a jet black edge, an impossibility in reality perhaps. I think you need to place a weak spot or something over there to lift that up just a touch. Shadows seem hard also, I wonder what softeneing the shadows would do to the overall render time of the baking process. Overall I would say it is a sucessful simulation of indirect lighting. I think spotlights would do a better job but it would also take longer to render, though probably not much longer than this baking method took. It would depend on the number of lights you employed.