Combine global illumination with final gather

Combine global illumination with Final Gather to achieve the most physically accurate illumination results, which are particularly good for interior architectural shots that require the effect of the light contribution from exterior and interior light sources.

Note:

To seamlessly turn final gather on and off with global illumination, your scene must be modelled in a physically plausible way for both of these lighting effects. For example, lights should have roughly identical values for Color (direct light) and Energy (photons) attributes.

To combine global illumination with final gather (guidelines)

1. Set up any exterior lights, then set up interior lights.

   See Create a Maya light source for more information.

2. Set the Decay Rate to Quadratic.

   See Turn on photon emission for a light source.

3. Do one of the following:
   • Set up basic global illumination (see Render with global illumination), then turn on Final Gather and custom set its attributes. Make sure the Precompute Photon Lookup attribute is set for final gather.
   • Set up basic final gather (see Render with final gather), then turn on Global Illumination custom set its attributes. Make sure the Precompute Photon Lookup attribute is set for final gather.
4. Render with mental ray for Maya.

Related topics

• Final gather
• Store and reuse Final Gather results