Itoo Software Forum

Forest Pack => Forest Lite => Topic started by: jona on July 25, 2011, 10:14:39 PM

Title: Dark Bands in Forest Lite render
Post by: jona on July 25, 2011, 10:14:39 PM
I am using Mental Ray and I have a forest object in most of the scene. In the middle of the frame I have an unusual dark  vertical band that has pretty straight lines. Towards the rear of the frame it gets lighter but in the foreground it is just a band of darker imagery than the rest of the shot.

I fooled around with the shadow accuracy but that doesn't seem to solve it.

I am using a mesh object as the master.


I am using Mental Ray and Max 2011 .
In the pic.. those dark areas resolve to very straight lines when the field is highly populated. You can see the line is very straight on the right side. There is a sudden change of color.
Title: Re: Dark Bands in Forest Lite render
Post by: iToo on July 25, 2011, 11:42:09 PM

Are you using billboards ? Probably the light is hitting the planes on different angles, since they are rotated to face the camera.

Please, upload a test scene and we will check it.

Title: Re: Dark Bands in Forest Lite render
Post by: jona on July 25, 2011, 11:44:08 PM
Hi Carlos.

I am using a mesh object but I have the scene set to automatic.  Really need help on this one.

The scene is a proprietary shot for my client. Can I upload to you safely?
Title: Re: Dark Bands in Forest Lite render
Post by: daniel on July 26, 2011, 10:01:54 AM
We checked the scene and this don't seems to be a problem of shadow or render settings, instead it is a problem related with the angle of the light and the regular distribution of the leaf bunches. Please try the following changes:


Please tell me your results.
Title: Re: Dark Bands in Forest Lite render
Post by: jona on July 27, 2011, 02:01:55 AM
The problem I am having when I use random rotation is I will see plants inside of areas which they are not supposed to be. I have a set of splines defining the area and without random rotation the plants are not placed inside of splines defining empty areas. When I turn random rotation on they traverse these areas that are supposed to be empty.

UPDATE: D'oh! I found the Boundary check control that uses the size instead of the pivot point! Sweet!

Thank you itoo for your kind support of a free plugin. That is rare.