3D Model by Buildingdesign.
Do you find yourself having trouble when it comes to rendering interiors? Perhaps you struggle with the camera angles or just can't get the Scene's lightning right?
This 2-part guide will explain how you can make the most out of Lumion's available Effects and tools to craft beautiful interiors without breaking a sweat.
Once you have your Imported Model ready, achieving a photorealistic-looking interior render consists of creating a visually balanced composition with proper lighting conditions, accurate Material settings, and a perspective that gives depth and dimensionality to architectural elements. Setting the mood, tone, and ambiance is just as important as well.
So how do you do that?
It's all in the Effects.
Effects On vs Off.
Here are the key Effects you need to bring your interior renderings to life (and how to best use them):1. Hyperlight
Interiors, more than exteriors, are subject to many light bounces. Their amount and strength significantly impact the lighting and visual aspects of focus, depth, and natural expectation of the rendered image.
The HyperLight Effect simulates the light bounce from surface to surface and adds to the overall brightness of a Scene. It does so by looking for bright pixels in your base Scene and producing light from them onto other surfaces.
Hyperlight On vs Off.
This Effect is a must for indoor Scenes because you need as much light bouncing off the interior as possible to get realistic shading.You'll need to adjust the Hyperlight Amount slider depending on the amount of sunlight and artificial light in your Photo. If the render is coming out too dark, move the slider up to the maximum. If there's too much light, you might want to tone it down a bit to avoid overbright and pixelated results.
Make sure to toggle the Enable on Preview button so that you can see a more accurate estimate of how the Effect will impact the final result before rendering. This will impact performance and Hight-Quality Preview render times, but it will at least give you a more precise idea of how your render is going to come out.
2. Skylight
Similar to Hyperlight, this Effect stimulates the lighting in the Scene but uses the Sky texture and Sun Position to calculate how the shadows and ambient lighting should behave in indoor and outdoor scenes. The higher the visibility of the light source (sunlight) the higher the number of samples that can be translated and will influence the ambient lighting of the render, resulting in a more naturally lit Scene.
So this means that you will get a better result if, for example, there are larger windows or openings for the Skylight to enter the interior and communicate the light bounces.
Skylight On vs Off.
See how covering some of the windows affects the interior lighting in this example comparison:
The settings of the Effect also have a significant impact on the final result. For interior renders, you'll want to turn the Brightness up and reduce the Saturation slider. This will result in a warmer lit-up scene ideal for indoor Scenes, as bluish darker tones provided by higher Saturation values are more suitable for exterior renderings.
Low Saturation vs High Saturation.
The Quality settings affect the intensity and detail of the Effect. Higher settings will increase brightness but will also increase render times due to the higher fidelity provided. For exteriors, the Normal setting is the top choice, but for interiors, you'll want to select High or Ultra for higher ambient light quality and brightness.
Normal vs Ultra.
It's important to note that the overall brightness of the light bounces provided by this Effect is highly affected by the Sky Brightness setting in the RealSkies and Sky and Clouds Effects. Clouds also have an impact on the Skylight Effect's level of lighting and brightness.
Consider combining Skylight and Hyperlight with artificial lighting to light up the scene even more:
Artificial Lighting On vs Off.
Another example of how sunlight and artificial light can be effectively combined.
3. Shadow
The Shadow Effect is also an essential tool for tailoring a Scene's lighting conditions. Low Shadow Brightness and High OmniShadow values will darken shadows, allowing lighting from Effects such as Hyperlight and Skylight to be more visible, resulting in higher contrast and possibly more realistic shading, useful for interior renders.
Low Shadow Brightness and high OmniShadow vs high Shadow Brightness and Low OmniShadows.
Getting the perfect shadow settings will require some fine-tuning as the ideal balance between shadow and lighting varies greatly from Scene to Scene and also depends on the results you are looking for.
For an overall brighter, more evenly-lit shot, you'll want to increase the Shadow Brightness and reduce OmniShadows:
Low Shadow Brightness and high OmniShadow vs high Shadow Brightness and Low OmniShadows.
4. Reflection
Perhaps it's an obvious one but still worth mentioning: it's an essential Effect and not just for interior renders.
Simply turning on Speedray will elevate your reflective Materials by increasing their reflection's accuracy and will greatly improve the quality of your render. SpeedRay adds local reflections using the reflective properties of your Materials and does it at a high level of performance.
Reflective Materials and Speedray On vs Off.
To get the best out of this Effect it's crucial to adjust the Gloss and Reflectivity settings of your Materials, otherwise, surfaces can look dull and paperlike. In Build Mode, the quality of reflections is lowered (for performance reasons), so consider tweaking your reflective Materials while in Build with Effects Mode with this Effect turned on so that you can get a more accurate real-time preview of the final result:
Lumion's performance is affected for each plane you add, so make sure to increase the Plane Margins slider to cover close parallel surfaces with a single plane and save valuable hardware resources:
Check these articles for more information on how reflections in Lumion work:
- Knowledge Base: How do SpeedRay Reflections work?
- Knowledge Base: How do Planar Reflections work?
5. Exposure and Color Correction
Sometimes interior Scenes can turn out a bit too dim due to the lack of direct sunlight, even with Skylight and Hyperlight on. In those cases, these Effects can provide an effective boost in brightness:
Exposure and Color Correction On vs Off.
Avoid increasing the sliders too much to avoid overexposing highlights, though. An Exposure value of 0.6 and a Limit Low slider of 0.8 in the Color Correction Effect usually does the trick.
6. Perspective
Trying to get the perfect shot of your interior Scene but there's simply not enough room to fit the camera in the ideal angle?
Try using the Near Clip Plane Effect to cut through walls and other obstacles and position the camera in tight places.
That way, you don't need to decrease the Focal Length of the camera so much to cover the desired area in the shot (which can cause distortions). And speaking of avoiding distortions, try to keep a horizontal eye level in your interior renderings and use the Two-Point Perspective Effect to straighten your Photos and Clips.
Another way of giving different perspectives to your indoor Scenes is to use the Depth of Field Effect. It can be effectively used to highlight specific interior elements in the foreground for a photographic look.
Similarly, it can also be used to blur out the exterior and keep the viewer focused on the interior elements.
What about Movies and Panoramas?
Since Hyperlight is toned down in Movie Mode and unavailable in Panorama Mode, you'll need to rely mostly on Skylight and the Global Illumination Effect for light bounces and realistic shading. Global Illumination analyses the areas that interact with a light source and then places an invisible probe light, giving the impression of light bouncing from a surface and adding to the general lighting of the scene. It might be an old feature but still useful for indoor Scenes.
You can download the Lumion 12 Project file (for Lumion 12.3.1.1 and newer) used in this guide by clicking the link below:
Download Free L12 Demo Interior Scene
To download the Effect stack used in some of the Photos click here.
Hare are other very useful interior rendering tutorials by other Lumion users:
And a handful of Lumion Blog posts that cover interior renderings:
- Lumion Blog: How to Bring Beauty to Your 3D Interior Renders - Lumion
- Lumion Blog: Express the personality of interior designs with Lumion
- Lumion Blog: Step-by-step to quickly create this custom interior style | Lumion
- Lumion Blog: How to Render a Beautiful Scene: Part 1 - Interior Living Room
- Lumion Blog: Tutorial tips: Better Interior Renders with Lumion
- Lumion Blog: Rendering Beautiful Interiors - Lumion
Do you have any other interior rendering tips you can share? Discuss!
Got Feedback on the forum post? Tell us what you think.
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