David here from ViaRender. I am a teacher and professional architectural visualization artist. I have been teaching for nearly 10 years, and teaching ArchViz for 5.
I know how difficult it can be to learn new software, or to find tutorials that encompass everything you need. That's why I set up ViaRender; to provide education resources to students and those interested in ArchVis. Everything that I have learned I will share, and every piece of advice comes directly from my own experience.
***EDITED*** Nevermind, nevermind. Sorry about that. I forgot that you spoke of this and that all 6 trees populate when you import the fbx. Thanks again for your awesome video. **************************************** Awesome video as usual. I am still at the beginning stages of learning to import alternate geometry into Twinmotion and trees were next on my list so this was extremely helpful and precise. I have a question I hope you can help with. I grabbed the free pack from Maxtree but when I download the fbx and MAPS files, there is only 1 version of each tree but in the Sketchup or the Unreal Engine zips, there are multiple versions of each tree. For example 'Acer Buergerianum' has 6 different version is the Sketchup download but only 1 version in the fbx and MAPS download. Am I missing something? Thanks.
Thanks for the tutorial, I was wondering this too! I'm afraid it's these details where Lumion absolutely dumps on the competition. Lumion is way more expensive than D5 but the interface, detail and workflow is so much much better. PC user with sketchup here
Thanks for watching. I belive the grass issue is now resolved in D5. Lumion is way more expensive alright, but it is a joy to work with (I'm not counting '23, as I think that was poor). I have a new video coming soon that looks at what you get in each program, and looks at their strengths and weaknesses. Lumion has tons to offer, but man..... that price tag is brutal these days.....
Hmm not sure the grass issue is fixed. Literally just yesterday playing with d5 and the 3d grass did not change the underlay or go to the edge 😤 … i’ll look out for the video. Lumion’s x5 more money than d5. Hard to swallow!
Thanks, I've learned a lot from your videos these past few days. I only have one little question. I keep cutting through objects(furniture) that I placed in my model in SKP when I scroll forward or backwards in D5. What am I doing wrong? I couldn't find the answer...
Thank you, I don't understand the price of text to 3D, which I thought was included in my license and for which I still see the credit breakdown. Besides, it's a bit of a gimmick, and if you do a test with furniture, it's not convincing at all. I prefer sites that create 3D objects from an image, which sometimes work quite well. Could you highlight your mouse when you make videos?
I didnt want to highlight the mouse as it comes off a little like a business powerpoint presentation! However, if I get more feedback about it, I will test it out. I finally got some credits, so I will have to experiment with it later this week. There are some great websites that do image to 3D model; I think ill be exploring them at some point for a video. Thanks for watching and commenting (for over 5 months, thanks!).
D5 render version 2.8 is unsurpassed for character enhancement, it's breathtaking and so fast. But I understand what you're saying about “formatting” images. Light management is excellent, and the rendering quality in D5, even though TM has the path tracer, is also excellent. I've bought my annual license and I'm going to try as hard as I can to do without Twinmotion. The fact remains that some TM functions are not present in D5. For people who don't want to pay for D5, there's still the Krea AI solution for characters, but it's longer and not as good. For section clipping, D5 sucks, unless I'm mistaken. TM is much better and V-ray even better. Sorry for my robot english...
Thanks for watching the videoes, and takiing the time to comment! I havent use the D5 clipping much (just once recently on a home project) but it was ok, kind of functional. One thing that will be interesting going forward is pricing. With TM going free for everyone, it will have an interesting effect on the pricing models for the other Arch Vis rendering software.
What do you think , can I use default v-ray lights in Twinmotion without compromising "realism"? O r should i always go for the presets that are available in Twinmotion ?
Hi there. I do not think Vray lights will transfer to TM. They are different engines and software. My suggestion is send the model over, and do all your lighting in TM. Please be aware that the latest versions of TM have made changes to the lighting system (The use of Lux). This has made TM a little harder to use in my opinion, but the results can be stunning.
Hi David, thanks a ton for this detailed tutorial. This is so easy to follow. I've a couple of questions regarding surfaces though. When I apply a texture in Sketchup and wanna make it super glossy, jus' cranking up specular to 1 is not really working. Is there any other way to do it? Also, is there any way we can give fur effect to cushions or area rugs? Thanks a ton, again. :)
Hi there. Are you assigning a material in Sketchup, and then going to D5 Render? IF so, shiny materials in a PBR workflow require adjusting the roughness slider in addition to the specular slider (If i'm not mistaken, strictly speaking, Specular is not a part of the PBR workflow, although Specular Reflection, such as a shiny specular color highlight, is). Try bringing the Roughness down to see the material becoming more shiney (less rough). As for fur, its been an on going issue for D5 users. I did a video on it last year, but right now, the options are limited to geometry based solutions using assets from outside D5 and import them in.
Hello, thanks for this video. But I still don't understand how D5 sync lights with sketchup.. I'm leaving Twinmotion for the moment. I prefer to create D5 spots in skp and place it, then change illumination settings in D5 after sync. But when I duplicate my spot component in sketchup, it will be reset in the D5 scene : so I have two copies in skp that have different settings in D5! and I don't know how to fix this. Even previous omni lights are affected by spots settings : if I clic on an omni, all lights are selected... I would prefer to be able to "disinstantiate" the lights. and yet these lights have different names... Very strange behaviour. Sorry for my english...
Hi there. I have not encountered this behavior, but my suggestion is to not synch the lights. Honestly, placing them by hand in the latest version of D5 is really easy, as the lights have better icons, and you can always change the view to Orthographic for accurate placement. Try changing the light color to super strong red, it helps visualise the strength and fallout, then change it back to the color you want. I hope that helps!
Yes, the tip you give me will be helpfull. I found a way for these lights, saving it in a distinct Skp file and resync... But D5 support gave me a link to an article that could match. I will try it back from holidays. But yes you are right the best IS to place lights in the D5 scene. But note so accurate
I understand what you mean, because I do work in the desert I can only use sunny scenes because it’s not often overcast here and it’s what clients want to see. I start to feel like all my exterior renders look the same. So I feel like it just depends where the property is.
@@guillaume8307 I’ll give that a shot next so, thanks. It’s the first time in a while I’ve been excited about a new tool or feature (not just in arch viz, but general 3D stuff too).
It's still in beta, but the results are already incredible. For trees and vegetation, it's already really top-notch. Characters close to the foreground already look great. For textures, to improve detail, micro-shadows, on gravel for example, the result is amazing, or dirt on a wall, etc.... I used AI rendering on my last project and it really improved the overall quality. I use the 3 rendering modes (normal, weak and strong) and mix everything in Photoshop according to my needs.
That's it exactly, I think it will be a great ingredient, for even better results. I really was impressed with it, and I think the Devs are doing AI the right way; making tools that enhance, rather than replace. I like your workflow too!
I am not a revit user, but this happens with SU too. The best option right now is not to use the Datasmith Convertor, and try to make sure your model does not need a back and forth workflow. Sorry to bear bad news!
Sir, you are one of the very few people that I have encountered here who offers detailed and knowledgeable information while explaining key features on your tutorials, it is a short list out there. Thank you very much!!
Hi there, thanks for watching. Right now, what I have my students do is use the Contaro Glass Material, drop the scale of the Normal Map until the ripples are small, and change the color. You can adjust the other material properties to suit. Its not perfect, and the result is vedry dark, but you can get reflections and ripples for still image shots. There may be another fix for this, but this is just the one that I know of! Maybe someone else can suggest something...!
@@viarender Hi, thank you for the response! I do similar, with charcoal glass. I thought maybe it's some bug...would be nice if they fix it, for the caustics etc!
I mostly agree, but I use characters close to camera with great success. You just need to avoid eye contact and to much details, there fore I tend to blur or smudge them. Also on the point of diversity you should always use a set of characters that are appropriate for the setting. Maybe older people don't belong in a preschool building and people in suits usually don't go to the beach.
Totally agree with point that context matters with people! I like the blurring option too. Thanks for watching and commenting, its great to have a dialogue with viewers!
To be honest, my client doesn't give a damn if the plants in their render looks more or less realistic... especially if they are far away and outside..
Did you mean the foliage? I think its less about the foliage looking amazing, and more about 1) keeping up with other software for realistic foliage (D5 mainly, but even Lumion has Ray Traced foliage as of version 2024) and 2) accepting that the old tree and plant models have not aged well, and providing a way to improve the look of imported plants and trees
The new foliage material really does improve the quality of the imported models. I think its a great addition, especially with the wind and seasons effects. It really opens TM up for some higher quality results.
Hi there. Twinmotion is primarily an architectural rendering program, that has now expaned to product rendering, automotive as well as interiors and exteriors. There are three rendering methods in Twinmotion now.
Thanks for posting this! Even when I’m not rendering regularly, watching your twinmotion tutorials always help me to understand what contributes to a high quality render.
This answer refers to your multiple videos about TM, not necessarily to this one. You mentioned multiple times that you don't understand why TM changed the sun intensity spectrum and that you prefer the old one. The truth is the 100 000 value is measured in Lux. These are physical units used to measure sun brightness in SI system (metric system). Typical brightness of real sun is 80 - 100 K lux. So this is part of the "physlight" concept in PT, to create an environment with physically accurate parameters (the rest of the parameters are also measured using real-world units (lumens, nits). This create realistic behavior of artificial lights (they are invisible in the scene exposed for the sun. The default brightness of artificial lights is set to 300 lumens. The use of this system for now is bit limited for now - note that if you switch to HDRI skydome / backdrop the intensity of the sun drops by default to 0 under PT and to 25 under Lumen and skydome brightness varies between 1 and 4. This destroys the balance between sun and artificial lights. (BTW In lumen you shouldn't disable the sun, HDRI as the only light source will create splotchy shadows.) In theory you may increase the skydome brightness to 100 000 and regain the physically correct balance but you may notice artifacts in the rendering (as bluish tones, lots of fireflies etc.). Also there is no "universally accurate" HDRI standard. Each image has it's own range, peak brightness, shadows representation etc. So you have to adjust it's brightness manually and adjust artificial light intensity to match the overall feel, "guessing" proper values. In movie / CGI industry this is avoided by creating HDRI on set and by carefully measuring the brightness using light meters. In archviz we cannot do that. BTW When you use dynamic sun under raster renderer, TM tries also to simulate the skydome brightness using ambient value. This is workaround to limit the number of calculations. It just adds some brightness to pixels in shadows. Since this should emulate the light that comes from the sky - increasing this value also makes scene more bluish. This parameter has very limited effect under PT (except if set to 0). Reducing its value will make shadows darker. setting it to 0 will make them black. Regarding number of samples and bounces in PT. Sample is a light ray that comes from the camera and goes through each pixel of the image and at the end hits a light source (in physical world the light rays go in opposite direction). PT solution limits the amount of calculations by reversing this direction = light rays which does not end in camera can be skipped. When a ray hits an object it bounces. The bounce direction is forced by the direction of the surface it hits and its material properties, the bounce direction is more random on opaque materials and less random on shiny materials. Then the ray will "fly" until it hits another surface, and this process repeats itself. The "max bounces" parameter decide how many times the ray will bounce. Note this is maximum value - TM may decide that it should calculate less bounces. The typical cases for this are: the ray hits the sky and "escapes" from the scene, the ray hits the camera, the ray hits very dark material. At the end of the calculation process, when colors and brightness of each pixel is known, the denoiser starts its job. Denoiser works on pixels, it does not understand the image structure. Thus the number of samples and the number of bounces and the denoiser will decide of the quality of the image. If you reduce the number of samples in your image you will have splotchy shadows. If you reduce the number of bounces you will loose details in shadows. You will also make scene darker. Increasing the number of bounces will make scene bluish cause the ambient light will be more important. What if even if you rise the number of samples and bounces to high numbers (like 1024/24) you still have blurry materials or grass? The answer is: you have to reduce the number of samples and bounces and >increase image resolution<. This blur is caused by denoiser, which "thinks" that the slight color variances in your material or grass is a noise and tries to fix it. When you increase resolution it will stop see noise in those pixels. I will mention one more thing related this time to raster rendering (Standard and Lumen) and those are light leaks. There are multiple reasons for light leaks in rendering engines. In UE / TM light leaks are caused by limited resolution of the sun shadow texture. TM/UE uses technique called Cascaded Shadow Map to create sun shadows (similar technique is used for artificial lights but it has less limitations). Back to the sun. Imagine that all the shadows casted by sun on all objects and the ground are in fact single gray texture projected onto whole scene (this is bit simplified). Even if the texture resolution is big, the texture is stretched over very large area. To avoid jagged shadows this texture uses blur to hide the pixels. If you stretch this texture over (let's say 100x100m area you will get sharp shadows, but if you stretch it over 5000x5000m it will be significantly blurred). The shadow distance parameter is in fact the distance on which this texture will be stretched. If you set it to 500m you will for sure see the texture blur - and this is your light leak. So if you are creating interior rendering, set the shadow distance to 20m to have crisp sharp shadows without light leaks. Increasing the thickness of the walls will also help (cause shadow on the texture will be larger). Note that CSM stretching is also responsible for lack of shadows from small objects (like furniture or tableware). If you reduce shadow distance you will see these small shadows. BTW if you see some stripes on your objects in certain light conditions (low sun typically) this is also caused by the shadow map (how it is applied to objects). To mitigate this increase the shadow bias but remember - this slider makes this texture more blurry, so it will increase light leaks. If you want to avoid light leaks completely - use PT. Eventually the CSM under Lumen will be replaced by VSM (Virtual Shadow Maps) that offer much more precision and will make most of those problems gone. So these are some technical explanations of TM light settings (not all of course).
Dear user, The best way I can respond is to go point by point with your issues and comments and hopefully provide some clarity. Please note that some of these points are from comments you have made under other videos from this channel. *“Seems you mentioned on one of your videos that you use UE but I really don't see the typical knowledge that comes from it which can explain limitations and workflows of TM and D5”* Regarding the Unreal Engine, I have opened it, watched a lot about it (I like William Faucher’s channel a lot), but never used it in any professional capacity. I have no real knowledge of its programming architecture, or how to use it for Architectural Rendering. I do not believe I have ever claimed otherwise. Please correct me if I am wrong about this.... I am aware that D5 and Twin are built on the Unreal Architecture, but as an end user, I do not have to know all the details of how the software works. I shouldn't have too either. My job is to make renders and images, and teach others how to do the same. That's all architectural renderings are, at the end of the day. *“V-RAM ISN'T VIRTUAL RAM! it is VIDEO RAM “* Um, I misspoke here. It happens. Making videos for RU-vid is hard work. Try it, and share the results with me. *“You mentioned multiple times that you don't understand why TM changed the sun intensity spectrum and that you prefer the old one”* I understand why the change was made (the documentation talks about it), and the shift to Lux, but as an end user, the shift has made the lighting harder to work with. This is my opinion, and stated as such. Your comments on the Path Tracer and Light are very interesting, thanks for the detail you go into. Do you have sources that I can look at, or images that can show what you are saying? I would love to learn more. I’d love to see visuals that show what you are describing. Your comments on the light leaks are interesting, but as a user, it doesn't really matter to me why they are happening, I need to know how to stop them from happening. Understanding how Twinmotion handles a Cascaded Shadow Map doesn't really help me, or anyone that I am instructing; we just need to know how to stop them. Again, I found your insight enlightening though. I am not, and never have claimed to be a programmer. That's pretty obvious in my videos, I even have a few videos where subtitles literally flash up and point out that I am not a programmer! I’m genuinely curious, do you work on the engineering side of computer science, or in a similar field? Or are you an architect or architectural rendering artist or designer? *“BTW In lumen you shouldn't disable the sun, HDRI as the only light source will create splotchy shadows”* Good to know. *“To the author: Sorry to say but I seen enough of your videos lately to say that you barely understand what you are talking about. There is no deeper understanding how all the software you present works, what is going on under the hood. This is surprising for a teacher (I can say it - I'm a teacher too)".* So….as a teacher, you should know that rudeness is just that; rude. If you have knowledge that helps the conversation, share it with others, do not just say * “Sorry to say but from this video it doesn't seem you understand it well”* . This is not constructive or educational and a teacher should know better. *"To the audience: I recommend finding better sources of information about these programs and workflows. If you follow these presented here you will have incorrect workflows and lack of real understanding of the software parameters”* You are not, as I mentioned to you before, under any obligation to watch, like, comment or interact with the channel. The workflows that I demonstrate are mine, and I share them out of a love of making rendered images. I hope they help others, because they work for me. That's it. Everything here is my opinion, and I have never claimed to be an expert in all things rendering, programming or workflows. Thanks for all the insights into the Path Tracer and TM light, it's very interesting to me. Kind regards, David ViaRender
@@viarender first I'm sorry for being rude. I won't defend it. You are right. regarding meritum: I read your answer with interest. To say bit more about me (for the context): I'm an architect with quite long experience with visualization software (I started with 3DStudio under DOS) then I explored game engines as vis tool (I started with Steam engine powering Half-life 2) this was way before Lumion, TM existed. I don't have my own YT channel (I never needed it). Regarding your answer. I noted there is probably one important difference in attitude between us. You wrote "as a user, it doesn't really matter to me why they (light leaks) are happening". This does matter to me. Understanding why something happens may help you not only fight the results but may actually help you to avoid the problem. I do not mean coding but I mean the methods (like how raster rendering, ray tracing works). This speeds up the work significantly. In ideal world you will be right - you shouldn't worry about software limitations. But we are living in non-ideal world. Software has limitations. Especially game engines. They affect the workflows significantly. Game engines use multiple shortcuts to calculate results in realtime. Without understanding their methods you will always fighting the software. Without this knowledge you will have incorrect workflow with a lot of guessing. Understanding what's under the hood will then help your students - just tell them about stretched and thus blurry texture and they will understand what to do when light leaks happen. They will be able to prevent it. To show another example (this time about path/ray-tracing) - show your students two mirrors facing each other, reduce the bounces to 1 and run PT, look at the reflection, then increase bounces to 2, 3 ... 40. your students will instantly understand what bounces do, it won't be an abstract value anymore. I hope it will also make your channel better. Regarding sources: William Faucher’s channel is a good source of information. He also shares my attitude - he explains not only how but also why, shows the causes of the limitations of UE. Regarding the Twinmotion, Lumion and the rest of the pack - I won't surprise you - they have good official YT channels with multiple videos. You probably know them.
You can, but I would not do that. The end result is really noisy due to the denoiser giving different results each fraom that it renders, and the time it takes would be very substantial.
Interesting. Every options i thinker with seems like a short blanket, it might fix a distant object shadow but then create artifacts near camera, or viceversa. I'm on the latest 2023.2.4 and i'm getting grainy and striped reflexes of lights and shadows trough glass objects. In my case i have those big windows in a night scene, and the ceiling lights have this dithered reflex on the glass, and some shadows are striped, if looked directly the shadows, even from far, are ok. I'm fiddling with all the possible options and either have the dither but nice overall shadows and reflex, or completely no light reflexes and some blotches around. I try to post the images for references.
@@viarender pity no, i'll have to live with that. Sometimes render turn out all blotchy, moving a bit the camera or restart it fix it most of the time. Overall the new version it's miles away better the previous, and lumen it's a great addon. Pathtracing it's great, but i use twinmotion for fast iterations or else i'll keep using Corona that take less time overall 😁
Hello everyone. In Lumen mode, I recommend experimenting with the local exposure sliders by manually entering the value beyond 1.00. For example 1.20 or 1.50. Both in highlights and shadows. The effect can be very useful in interior scenes where we see the outside through a large glass and the light is excessively high.
Thanks for sharing! I'm still a bit mixed about Lumen, and the fast pace of TM development seems to be adding more and more into the mix, but I wish they would slow down a bit!
Definitely would love more mid day and clear sky HDRIs in D5 . It’s the one thing I miss from Lumion since it was nice having the blue sky light reflecting more on surfaces . Overall, D5 is a game changing software
Thanks for sharing these lighting tips! I'm wondering if these would work in an outdoor "night" setup? Imagine its a big place outdoors at night with no artificial light..I'm having a tough time to render it nicely. But I will try these tips! :) Thanks again.
Hi there. I have not done a scene like this, but I have some thoughts: Night is never really pitch black, there is usually some ambient light, or a major light source (eg the moon, or reflected light from clouds, or even a clear night still has starlight etc). Also, you can approach it like a film maker/ director or cinematography; add fake light off screen to light the shot. Lastly, even night shots are still a ‘render’, not a photograph, so use your artist eye to fake the look! Basically, light it artistically and using fake light. I hope this helps!
In the 2nd issue, - Ambient light - how to solve that sunlight that filters in the upper corner, at the back of the room?.. Isn't there a solution to that?
Thats so weird to me that everyone prefers the d5 ui. I like the latest TM ui much more. The path tracer os way better. D5 wins in vegetation and grass. Thats it.
Another GREAT video an content Dave! It's always a pleasure to watch a new video from you. My platform of choice for my Archviz was SketchUp and D5 Render. Still waiting for your tutorial about photo match. All the best for you and your channel!
