I am using V14.0 and when completing a 3D render of a floor plan I am getting black interior walls. I have tried all settings including clear sky, overcast and cloudy but still having problems as most of the walls are coming out black. I have tried some simple interior lighting but they have very little impact on the interior colour on the walls. I am looking for a solution to try and blend some evening shadows on the exterior of the property while having an even lighting coverage in the interior of the floor plan.
Hi David,
Welcome to the forum!
From your description I gather you are trying to render external views but the interior walls, seen through windows, are rendering black.
You do not say which type of rendering you are using Basic or Advanced. For exterior work Basic is usually best and will give lighter interior rendering. Advanced uses Radiosity which involve light bouncing off the various surfaces. Externally this does not really happen but internally works well.
The difficulty trying to get both exterior and interior to render well, is that the program works like a camera does to set the exposure. Externally the sun is so bright that the light inside the house is so slight by comparison that it renders almost black. This in fact is how it is usually in real life. Unless the house has very large windows, when you take a photo of the outside, the interior of your house is nearly always black. TFP works exactly the same. Basic render overcomes this by rendering the interior unnaturally light.
It can be done in Advanced but it takes a bit of experimenting to get it right. Using overcast helps along with the addition of some VERY bright interior lights. If you use the forum Search there are a number of posts on the subject that may help eg: http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,584.msg2849.html#msg2849 (http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,584.msg2849.html#msg2849) and http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,911.0.html (http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,911.0.html).
To be able to diagnose your specific problem, why not post an image that demonstrates the problem you are having? It may then be easier to suggest things that may improve the situation.
Allan
Hi Allan,
Thank you for your prompt response. I have attached an image so you can see the black walls. The attached is an advance render on level 5 on an overcast day, at mid-day. I have tried continuos render variations to allievate the black walls, ie. wall light, ceiling lights, changing levels on number of steps, image brightness and antialiasing. I have also gone from saving to a jpg to a bitmap based on some of the forum recommendations.
The attached image will be used for realestate purposes, and want to concentrate on the interior floor plan not any external rendering view of the house.
One possible solution we have tried is inserting alot of ceiling lights, which seems to work and fix the black wall problem, but after rendering looks unattractive as they look like flying sauces on the roof. I have even tried under properties to have the lights as clear glass but they still show up as white dots after rendering.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks David.
Hi David,
You know what they say about a picture being worth a thousand words! The solution is obvious now that I know you are doing an overhead view. I was assuming a eye level view of a garden with the house and dark walls through windows.
What you have come across is a bug in TFP. Walls will render black unless intense 'artificial light' is thrown on them from inside the room or the camera itself is in the room or below the ceiling height. Although you have the roof off, the sunlight will not go through the roof / ceiling onto the walls although it will light up everything else. You will get the same effect if you have free standing wall outside the building perimeter - it will be totally black except for the baseboard, cornice, chairrail etc, even though it has full sunlight on it.
The simple work-around is to use the Trim "Wainscott" setting on Custom, to extend what would be a half wall 'dado' below a chairrail, so that it is full height. Set it to the wall texture that you want and it will render connectly. Easiest way to do this is to take the standard wall you are using and Add an new copy and add the Wainscott to it. Now select one of your walls, right click and 'Select all Similar', then right click again and select Replace. This will replace your existing walls with the new full height Wainscott one. You may have to repeat this if you have any slightly different walls that have been individually adjusted. If you are not sure how to set the Wainscott see this post: http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,311.0.html (http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,311.0.html) which has a mini tutorial.
The images attached show the issues and as you can see by the second one the Wainscott and other wall features render OK it is only the wall surface that is a problem. Hopefully this will be fixed in a future release.
I see by your email address that you are in Australia. Whereabouts? I am at Mt Helena, in the hills just inland from Perth.
Allan
Hi Allan
You seen to be a bit of a legend when it comes to TFP. I tried doing your suggestion of wainscott but wasnt able to achieve what you were describing. I then looked into the forum posts, and saw someone else tried using tiling walls, but this didnt work for me. In the end I ended up using 'steel 2' walls and I now have achieved white walls.
Thank you again for your suggestion. We are based in Melbourne, Eastern Suburbs roughly 20 minutes from the city.
Regards Helen (David's wife)