Lumion Support Center

Support for unlicensed users => Post here if you can't find your License Key => Topic started by: Member2870 on September 12, 2011, 03:03:24 pm

Title: Grass color
Post by: Member2870 on September 12, 2011, 03:03:24 pm
Good morning Lumion people!

I have some question, and a sugestion. I was trying to use for the first time, some grass patches and i´ve noticed that the color of the leaves is tending to white, mostly when they turn towards the sun (i know it is a specular reflection, but for me it is too much).

(http://dc106.4shared.com/img/Wk6Fbx_K/s7/grass_4.bmp)

(http://dc392.4shared.com/img/7cUFoqp4/s7/grass_2.bmp)

I´ve made some tests to show you what i´m talking about...and i´ve downloaded some pics with grass lawns to set as an example.

(http://dc315.4shared.com/img/REXeMKi-/s7/grass.jpg)

(http://dc417.4shared.com/img/SxrUI8c9/s7/sod-buffalo.jpg)

(http://dc145.4shared.com/img/33hEl6Ex/s7/grass__1_.jpg)

In my opinion, the grass patches should be green, like in a lawn, not whitish or dark green (tending to brown) like the others in the library...actually you can do a jungle with a lot of wild grass on the floor, but you are not able to do a nice lawn...remember that 99% of our projects are not in the jungle :-)
I had a great expectation regarding to the grass, and i am feeling a little bit frustrated with that. Please help us Lumion team.
I have the same feeling about the trees...they seem to have a lot more tones of white in the scene, that in the library´s thumbnail...exactly like the grass...it seems nice in the thumbnail, but when you render the scene, it´s a lot more white than the preview.
Maybe you can set a controller for the intensity of the ilumination in the trees and foliage, asides the scene ilumination, so you can tweak them as you like...
Here, in the south of Brazil, the trees are a lot more darker green than we can achieve without compromising all the ilumination of the scene.
Thanks for listening.
Have a good week.
Fábio
Title: Re: Grass color
Post by: Morten on September 12, 2011, 03:06:22 pm
Thanks for taking the time to provide us with your feedback, Fabio.

I'll ask Remko if it is possible to have a look at how the specular amount in the SpeedTree shader is calculated.
Title: Re: Grass color
Post by: Member1739 on September 13, 2011, 02:05:43 am
I have asked for the same thing in a thread about a year ago.

We need a slider to control the brightness (other variables) of the pre-loaded objects inside Lumion.
This includes the trees, the 2D people (especially), everything. 

When rendering out still imagery for example - the scene may be a little darker due to lighting, materials, etc...  When you place some of the pre-loaded objects they don't pick up on the tonal value one might have going on in the scene and frankly look stuck onto the image.  If we could control some variables we could get all these items to better blend into the scenes we are creating.

Thank you Lumion Development Team
Title: Re: Grass color
Post by: Member1276 on September 13, 2011, 09:42:12 am
Please keep in mind some grasspatches are intentionally high-spec right now  ;)
The name of the patches should give a clue to whats what
(on the thick-grass patches, ie, the only patches that look good/not utterly crap)
Use low spec grass mostly and be carefull with sun&sky brightness and whatelse influences higher speculars. You can make them glow or completely dark, it's mostly proper lighting-setup.
Impossible to make 1 type of grass that works for every environment. Just the way Speedtree is working.
As for colors being natural or off, color-grading is your friend. I realize this doesn't help towards dropping in a patch of grass and have it look completely right for everyone at once but that's once again also mostly due to what type of lighting setup you choose/favor.
That said, it would be great if there was a diffuse and specular slider/multiplier for speedtree assets and I'm sure Remko can make those within his 1st morning coffeebreak.

Oh and Remko, while you're at it, please throw in a alpha-test slider as well ok?  :P


Title: Re: Grass color
Post by: Member1276 on September 13, 2011, 12:42:20 pm
Hi Dazomatic,

Lumion only. Its the same high_spec thickgrass patch(times 10 or so) rendered with different lighting setups to get the point across that high speedtree speculars do not necessarily translate into high speculars all the time. Renders were done with full soft-edges effect and subpixels at max for a bit ehm 'softer' look (doh, go figure! :D).
Title: Re: Grass color
Post by: Member1276 on September 13, 2011, 01:07:26 pm
Pic of the settings used.
This rig is very flexible for foliage renderings as it allows you to switch lighting dramatically via changes to just a couple of sliders (sun&shadow brightness being the most vital ones).
(and most other stuff too, like, for instance, arch-viz thingies)
Hope it's useful, somehow, somewhat...kinda...bla, stuff  8)

Title: Re: Grass color
Post by: Member2870 on September 13, 2011, 01:58:55 pm
Hi Aaron

Thanks for the help...i´ve tried a few of your tricks here, and they worked just fine on the grass...unfortunatly the adjustments are for the entire scene, and when you achieve the grass color, like you showed in your pictures, the rest of the scene (buildings, sidewalks, etc...) gets really bad.
In my opinion the assets in the scene (trees, grass, cars, people, etc...) must have separate controls...

Hey Morten, thanks for the reply...i was thinking, it is possible to assign the same controls that my friend Aaron used to tweak his scene, that will affect just one layer?
For example, we could set precisely the ilumination, color correction, etc... for each and single  layer...you apply the color correction, and mark the layer that you would like to affect...
We could make one layer for the trees and tweak them...make one for the buildings, and so for...this would give us more freedom to balance our scenes...
That would be a great improvement at my point of view...it is possible to do that?

Thank you

Fábio
Title: Re: Grass color
Post by: Remko on September 14, 2011, 01:52:18 pm
Hi Aaron

Thanks for the help...i´ve tried a few of your tricks here, and they worked just fine on the grass...unfortunatly the adjustments are for the entire scene, and when you achieve the grass color, like you showed in your pictures, the rest of the scene (buildings, sidewalks, etc...) gets really bad.
In my opinion the assets in the scene (trees, grass, cars, people, etc...) must have separate controls...

Hey Morten, thanks for the reply...i was thinking, it is possible to assign the same controls that my friend Aaron used to tweak his scene, that will affect just one layer?
For example, we could set precisely the ilumination, color correction, etc... for each and single  layer...you apply the color correction, and mark the layer that you would like to affect...
We could make one layer for the trees and tweak them...make one for the buildings, and so for...this would give us more freedom to balance our scenes...
That would be a great improvement at my point of view...it is possible to do that?

Thank you

Fábio

Color correction per layer would be great feature. Transparency per layer would also be awesome!
Title: Re: Grass color
Post by: Member1253 on September 14, 2011, 04:35:33 pm
Color correction per layer would be great feature. Transparency per layer would also be awesome!

Keyframe transparency for a fade in/out effect is what I think you meant to say!  ;)
Title: Re: Grass color
Post by: Remko on September 14, 2011, 04:52:24 pm
Keyframe transparency for a fade in/out effect is what I think you meant to say!  ;)

Yes! something like that! It's like a color correction effect, per layer and you have a opacity setting. This would allow for some awesome effects. Render the environment black and white for example or make parts of the scene fade in. It's all possible but it's quite hard to make :D
Title: Re: Grass color
Post by: Member1253 on September 14, 2011, 05:56:40 pm
Yes! something like that! It's like a color correction effect, per layer and you have a opacity setting. This would allow for some awesome effects. Render the environment black and white for example or make parts of the scene fade in. It's all possible but it's quite hard to make :D

I'm sure you wouldn't have mentioned it if you weren't up to the challenge :-P
Title: Re: Grass color
Post by: Member1739 on September 15, 2011, 09:32:06 am
 :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9     :-9    :-9

Yes! something like that! It's like a color correction effect, per layer and you have a opacity setting. This would allow for some awesome effects. Render the environment black and white for example or make parts of the scene fade in. It's all possible but it's quite hard to make :D

 :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9    :-9     :-9    :-9
Title: Re: Grass color
Post by: Member2870 on September 16, 2011, 01:57:46 pm
Hi Remko

Sounds very promising!   :)

Any chances of color correction per layer occur in the next builds?

I´m working in a project wich that would be very usefull...i have this industrial buildings that have to appear in a certain order, and the "vanishing control" would solve that in seconds...

I´ve tried to animate them coming from below, but the result sounds like "The return of the deads"...my buildings seems like zumbies, growing from their graves :D

Thanks a lot for your interest in this particular matter.

Have a nice one...

Fábio