Ambient 100%

Bryan Valencia

I am an old-time POVer, and Ambient 100% in POV means fully lit even if there is a shadow.

So I am using the beach scene, and I want the backdrop thing to be fully lit, I set ambient to 100% and...

It's almost completely black.

What gives?  How do I make it full brightness (like a sky sphere would be)?

fixmypcmike

What is the ambient color set to?  Is there a map in the ambient strength slot?

mjc1016

Also what software/version...and which renderer?

If you are using a recent version of Studio, with Iray rendering, but not applying the Iray Uber shader to the backdrop, the default shader will have Ambient, but it won't do anything. 

sriesch

You probably already checked this isn't it, but just in case it got overlooked:  make sure the Ambient color isn't set to black.

Bryan Valencia

The ambient color is white, there is no texture, and I have no idea what an uber shader is

 

mjc1016

Which renderer are you using?

Bryan Valencia

mjc1016 said:

Which renderer are you using?

Well this is odd, I was using IRay, then I switched to 3Delight, and it started working.  Now I switched back to iRay and it seems to be OK.  Quick question: where does one apply a "shader"?  I hope on the object, because I do want the rest of the scene to be shaded naturally. (Either that or I may have moved the Sun,)

mjc1016

There is a chance that when you flipped from Iray to 3DL back to Iray you triggered the automatic translation of the shader...

A couple of basics first...everything MUST have a shader.  If you don't apply one, one will be applied (usually a default surface shader that has just the basics).  Everything that is sold through the store and most freebie assets have at least one shader set up already assigned (in many cases with store items Iray and 3DL surface shaders are already assigned).  Material presets are the variations to the assigned shaders.

"naturally shaded' would be plain, white, plastic looking or maybe even the item won't show up at all in a render.

To apply a different shader you select the item (Scene tab) and the surface/surfaces (Surface) tab and the click to apply (Shader Presets in the Content Library)...holding down the control key (cmd on a MAC) while clicking  will bring up a dialog box.  If you select 'Ignore" in that box it will leave all existing image maps in place and you won't need to manually add them.  A material preset is similar, except it is item specific and sets the image maps when applying.

Iray will attempt to translate 3DL shaders...but not always optimally or always works.  The best bet is to manually apply the IrayUber shader (using the ctl-click option) and tweak from there.