Basic IES Light Tutorial using V-Ray for SketchUp

Basic IES Light Tutorial using V-Ray for SketchUp

By Nomer Adona

I am writing another IES lighting tutorial again showing the basic steps in using V-Ray for SketchUp 1.48.90 and future releases. Previously I had used 1.48.66 in my first IES tutorial, IES Light Tutorial using V-Ray for SketchUp but there seemed to be a few little bugs with that particular updated version. ASGVIS (now owned by Chaos Group) made a tremendous leap, and I can really conclude that their newest build is  much more stable and easier to use. I planned to use the same file that I used with the first tutorial, but I have decided to just model a quick one for this new tutorial. I am using here also a photometric data name 6B3_(100A19).ies that I have downloaded for free fromLithonia, or SketchUpArtists Download Section and found under Tutorial Files.

In this tutorial, a special thanks to my friend Trang An. I am using some of his excellent components here for the purpose of seeing the overall effects of the IES lighting, instead of just using a simple room. In this tutorial, my materials have no reflections, bump etc (except for the receptacles) for quick rendering but later I will supply you hopefully with another tutorial on how to play with materials. Anyhow lets get started this tutorial.

1. SketchUp set up. Basic model and components.

Step 1

2. I have created a simple recessed light and made it into component. Then, I copied this component into 4 more instances. This is a good tip, so that when you place the V-Ray lighting; automatically you will have an instance of this lighting. This is the same when editing your V-Ray light, you will only edit one light inside this component, and the other lightings will be edited automatically. In the following image, I created V-Ray IES lighting, scaled it a bit and placed it below the receptacle.

Step 2

3. Then I clicked the IES light icon. Another menu box appeared (see below). Then under sampling (File) I clicked the box and browsed the IES photometric data (6B3_(100A19).ies. By default the power is set to 0. Even with this, V-Ray SketchUp will read the photometric data.

Step 3

In my opinion, using V-Ray sun and V-Ray physical camera is not necessary when rendering  an enclosed space. This is advisable especially for beginners. The reason is, you don’t have to spend a huge amount of time in balancing the sun and the physical camera. V-Ray physical camera works together with the V-Ray sun, which is really a very strong light. The V-Ray physical camera acts like a counter balance in correcting the exposure of the image, much like an actual photo camera – where ISO, aperture size and shutter speed enable to control the exposure. Again in this tutorial, the V-Ray physical camera and the V-Ray sun were both turned off.

Here is the render.

Step 4 - Render

The above render is already showing the effect of the photometric lighting. On the other hand, I would want to see two things – the light source showing some lights and secondly I would like to increase the power of the IES lighting.

5. To achieve the first one, I am putting another rectangular light inside the receptacle to simulate the light source. The intensity of this rectangular light is small. I enabled the light, turned off the shadow, made it invisible and double sided. Below is the screen grab of my rectangular light settings.

Step 5

Here is the render. Now the light source is showing on the receptacles.

Step 5 - Render 1

To solve the second problem, I simply increased the multiplier of the IES light. Here I used power = 7000. Below is the render.

Step 5 - Render 2

6. If you want to change the color of the IES light, you can do it by putting color to the filter

color. Below I used warm yellow.

Step 6 Final Render

Now it’s up to you how you will do the next step. I hope this small tutorial did manage to clear up some of the confusion in the first IES tutorial.