painting light_ exterior glass - blog - architectural rendering and illustration blog

26/06/13 PAINTING LIGHT: EXTERIOR GLASS - BLOG - architectural rendering and illustration blog

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Not everyone has the capabilities to render huge models with a

ton of lights. I am one of those people where more times than not

I have to manually add light to my illustrations because I don't

have the computing power. At first, this method can seem

tedious. But, when you think about the time that it takes to insert

lights into a model and then the time that it takes to render so

many lights, knowing how to do this in Photoshop can be a great

resource to have as a backup. There is a typical workflow I use

that consistently yields clean, realistic results without much effort.

I am using the urban snow scene that I posted a few months

back as the base case for this tutorial. The model was large, and

there were way too many windows to try to render. The steps I

used to Photoshop the light are outlined below.

1. SAVE THE REFLECTIONS - For scenes like the one above, I

rendered the glass of the surrounding buildings with a strong

reflection. This allows me to copy the reflections to their own layer

and use them later on as an overlay. To copy them to their own

layer, select the "polygonal tool", then select the glass of the

windows you intend to light. Right-click on the selection and

choose "Layer via Copy".

2. PAINT IN THE BASE LIGHT - Next, I created a new layer called

"glass light". Again, I selected the glass part of the window. To

speed things up, you can ctrl+click the reflections layer in the

previous step instead of using the polygonal tool to reselect all of

the glass. With the glass selected, choose the "Brush" tool,

select a soft yellow paint color, select a "Soft Round" brush, and

lower the opacity of the brush to around 15%. Begin painting



color with most of the light at the bottom of the window fading

away as you move towards the top of the window.

3. HIGHLIGHTS - This is one of those steps that is easy to forget

or to treat as not important. In reality, it is the most crucial step in

creating successful lighting. Without it, the light looks flat. Begin

by creating a new layer and setting the blend mode to "Overlay".

Select only the surfaces facing the window that would be hit by

the light coming through the glass. A good way to determine this

is by looking for surfaces that are 90 degrees to the glass. With

the selections made, choose the "Brush" tool, select a soft yellow

paint, select a "Soft Round" brush, and set the opacity to around

35%. Begin painting in the highlights. If the highlights seem

weak, you can amplify the results by duplicating the highlight

layer.



4. SOFT LIGHT GLOW - Another subtle, but important step. Create

a new layer and choose an off white paint color. Choose the

"Paint" tool, select a "Soft Round" brush, and set the opacity really

low to something like 12% to 15%. Begin painting around the

window edges being careful not to overdo it.



5. BRING BACK THE REFLECTIONS - The last step is to retrieve

the reflections layer created in the first step. Bring that layer to the

top of the layers pallet, and set the blend mode to "Screen". This

will amplify the reflections since they were most likely diluted

from the painting in the previous steps.

BEFORE



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READER COMMENTS (17)

been waiting for this a long time, thx very much, also wanna know

if you can give some tips on the street you did on the highrise

partial rendering

February 24, 2013 | wade

nice work! thx for sharing! ;)

February 25, 2013 | msrl

GREAT WORK..THANK FOR SHARING

February 25, 2013 | Dav y

i am one of your follower...very nice tutorial. :)

February 27, 2013 | zernan suarez



Hi Alex, just want to thank you for all your nice post. I have been

following your blog for about 6 months and I just defended my

thesis work last week successfully. It turned out to be good. I

learned a lot from your blog and it is very professional! Thanks

again.

Dan

February 27, 2013 | Dan

Alex,

Thanks for the STEP BY STEP instructions, especially on this last

post with window lighting and reflections. Very useful and easy to

follow!

February 28, 2013 | Julie Barghout

amazing work Alex!!!I've never seen such creative work in my

country!!

i will share the blog with my classmates . and keep following!

March 6, 2013 | Lin

good job

what resolution do you get the renders?

March 7, 2013 | Macarq

Alex, just curious what you used for lights in the tower in

krykethea? they do not seem like omni lights or spot lights?

thanks for the tutorial, always looking for ways to cut down render

time

March 7, 2013 | Nick Van

@ Nick,

I place simple rectangles throughout the building in Sketchup.

Then I paint them a color (doesn't matter which color). Then in

Kerkythea, I tell that color to emit light which is done under the

material editor. I find this route much easier and much faster than

trying to place lights in Kerkythea.

March 10, 2013 | ALEX HOGREFE

Love the simplicity of it all. Really clever way to avoid rendering

meltdown!

Alex, when you render the image do you use all-layers at once, or

do it separatly?

For instance,do you render the reflection layer aside from the

other layers?

March 16, 2013 | Hugo

Hi Alex,

I am one of your silent followers. Your work is excellent, and you

generosity admirable.

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge.



March 17, 2013 | Alfie

@Hugo,

I render everything at the same time typically.

@Alfie,

Thanks for following!

March 17, 2013 | ALEX HOGREFE

Alex, great tutorial! Also nice to see a tutorial which explains why,

and not just how, one makes the changes.

One question. What creates the shadows of people on the

pavement (sidewalk) in the original render?

Cheers.....Scotty

April 7, 2013 | Scott's

Alex

Great work and thank you so much for sharing..........can you

explain how you created the glass curtain-wall on the main

building.....Regards

April 8, 2013 | John J. Pandolfino AIA

These delhaes construction are very difficult to Disciples my

understanding. It is very complex and interesting, but I did not get

this stage of development yet.

April 21, 2013 | Construction Family

Awesome tutorial! Thank you very much!!!

April 29, 2013 | Jonatan

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