3D Post No. 29 - Workstation Cheats

The task was to create a visual of a workstation area ASAP. By our office standards ASAP means NOW. (Like I was some 3D ATM machine..)

So the best I could do was to try and cut down editing and rendering time.

The good thing about workstation areas is that 3d models of furniture are simply merged from existing libraries. You only need to spend time building the perimeter walls, flooring, and ceiling.

As for the lighting - here's my tip: don't waste your time trying to put IES flourescent lights on each and every fixture in the scene. Flourescent-lit interiors are so evenly lit - coves are hardly noticeable. Plus there are very minimal highlights. My approach then is to just place 1 vray light on the ceiling. And the usual blue vray lights on the windows. If you want to add those cove effects then simply put IES cove lights where they are visible.

Next, render in low settings to speed the rendering process up, but use hires (approx. 1800x1200). Then in PS, apply a blurred effect on the ceiling (a new layer) and change that layer's blending mode to screen. It should cover most of those artifacts as a result of the low render settings.

Approximate time to complete this scene was around 1 hour, from start to finish. I reckon no faking-radiosity-scanline render (including editing and lighting setup) can beat that. Not at that lighting quality at least. Unless of course you are Montree.