What's happening ladies and gentlemen
this is Minh for Architecture Inspirations
today I'm going to show you how to add details to your renders
to make your render ultra realistic
let's get started
most of the time the 3d assets look too perfect
that's why adding details and imperfections to your models and materials
is a great way of making your renders more realistic
in Lumion 12 you can use decals to add details to your scene
such as road markings, artwork, damage, stains etc.
but in version 12.3 you can now create your own custom decals
to use it first open up the decals library
and click here to load a custom decal
which by default has Lumion's logo
after you place the decal on the surface
you can click on the select tool
and in the properties window click here to show more options
here you will see a panel where you can upload different maps to create your custom decal
let's talk about the different ways of using decals to add details to your scene
the first way is artistic
an example of which would be adding a mural to a wall
for this example we just need to load in our custom photo in the color map slot
and there we go now we can move and rotate the decal however we want
if you want to change the size of the decal then we can use the scale tool
these sliders here will let you blend the colors, normals, glossiness
and reflectivity of the decal with the underlying surface
for example you can reduce the color slider
so the colors of the mural aren't too vibrant
and blend in with the wall a bit more
or you can leave it at the maximum value to make it more bright and colorful
as for these normal glossiness and reflectivity maps
they are blank by default but they will be more useful later when we import our own maps
for instance I want the mural to inherit the glossiness and reflectivity of the wall
so I'll reduce the slider to zero
similar to the mural on the interior wall
you can also use decals to create murals or graffiti on exterior walls
note that when loading in decals like this
if you want certain areas to be transparent then make sure the image is a PNG
if it's not a PNG
then you can use tools such as photoshop to remove the background of the image
and then save it as a PNG
so when you reload it in back to Lumion it will show the transparent parts correctly
there are also other uses such as chalk art on the sidewalk like so
here you can see that the decal is overlapping the staircase
so I can use a range slider to reduce it so that it only overlaps the ground
but in other cases you might want to increase the range slider
the next style of use for decals is functional uses such as logos and road markings etc
you can see that by default the custom decal is the Lumion logo
but you can easily load in your own logo like so
this is great for putting your logo on surfaces such as walls floors and objects
another functional way that you can use a decal is for road markings
in Lumion's decal library there are plenty of road markings decals that you can use but you can always add your own
for custom decals there are a couple websites where you can download decals for free
I will leave the links in the description box below
for this example I'll use the painted lines from megascans
after you have downloaded the decal
it will come in as a zip file so you need to extract it
here you will see all of the maps that will come with the decal
we will first load in the albedo map or the color map
you can see that we need to remove the background
with these materials you can do that using the opacity map
to use it first bring in the opacity map
then I will use the marquee tool
and select the whole image then use ctrl c to copy
next I will hide the opacity map
then I'll click here to add a layer mask to the albedo layer
after that I will hold alt and left click the layer mask to isolate it
then use ctrl v to paste the opacity map
there we go now we can save it as a PNG
then reload it
and that looks good
another tip is to hold alt and drag the decal to easily duplicate it like so
pretty cool huh
these sites also have decals such as damage and cracks
which are the next type of decal cause surface imperfections
similar to before I will use the opacity map to remove the unnecessary parts of this albedo map
when you download decals from these sites
sometimes they include maps such as normal and roughness maps
the normal map is great for adding depth to the decal
however Lumion doesn't use their roughness maps
but since roughness and glossiness maps are inverse of each other
you can just open up the roughness map in photoshop
and then invert it and now you have a glossiness map ready to use
just save it and load it in the glossiness slot
now the decal will have a more realistic glossiness
as you can see knowing how to use the normal and glossiness maps
can make the decal super realistic
In other cases such as this Asphalt Patch here, using the Normal map is enough.
That’s because I want the decal to inherit the glossiness and reflectivity from the ground below.
You can also use this method to add surface imperfections on interior surfaces
such as stains on a countertop or scratches on a wood floor
for example here I've got a liquid stain texture that I want to use on this countertop
first I will make this texture have a transparent background
using the method I've shown in the previous example
then I'll load in the PNG image
here I can adjust the blend of the color map
and I can also override it with the color if I like
but if you notice even when I reduce the color blend to zero
you will still see the stains decal affecting the glossiness of the countertop
this is a really awesome way of creating surface imperfections
that can only be seen at certain angle in certain lighting condition
pretty cool huh
another instance of when you want to reduce the color map intensity
is when you're adding scratches to a surface
here I can make the scratches any color I want but that looks okay
but it will look even better if I import the normal map
and then reduce the color map intensity completely
as you can see the wood floor looks like it has real scratches on it
instead of using decals from websites
you can also create your own using photoshop
here I'm using a shape tool to draw some lines
to create a geometric pattern
then I fill those white spots with some solid colors
and now we can import this and make some more adjustment to blend it with the wall
and there we go now we have a cool design for my wall which I created myself
you could also use decals to easily create design options for your projects
first I will need to place a decal in a separate layer
I'll rename this to Design 1
then I'll hide this decal and then add another design
then place it in another layer which I will call Design 2
just repeat this process for as many design options as you need
next in the photo mode
we will need to add a layer visibility effect
then I will use this to turn off design 2 and 3 so I can only see design 1.
next I will copy this photo and paste it here
and I'll use the layer effect again to only show design 2
and finally repeat this process for design 3.
there we go now we have 3 photos for 3 design options ready to render
and you can also apply this method for a video
just copy this photo and paste it in the movie mode
and it will transfer all the effects
now I can edit the movie clip and add another frame to the clip
as well as increasing the length a little
to animate the layer effect I'll add a keyframe at the beginning of the clip
then move the timeline by 2 seconds and add a new keyframe
this is where design 2 is visible
then move another 2 seconds
and add another keyframe where the design 3 is visible
and now we have a clip showing all the design options
you can also move the second camera frame forward a little
so that the animation is more dynamic
sometimes you don't have to find a specific decal to make it work
for example the decal library has lots of decals that you can use
just try adjusting the blend sliders
and overriding the color map with a solid color to achieve a subtle effect
sometimes less is more
If you have imported a decal that you really like and want to save for later,
here's how to do it
currently the only way to save a decal is by turning it into a group
and you have to select two or more objects to group it
for example I can duplicate this decal and then group them like so
After that, I can edit the group and delete one of the decals.
Note that the group’s origin is here, so I will move the origin of the Decal closer to it.
Then I can click here to finish.
Now I can click here to save it.
Here I can create a new folder for the Decals and I can give it a name up here.
Just repeat this process for any decals you want to save.
And when I want to import them to another model,
I can go to groups and open the Decals folder.
And then place the decal in the scene
Now I can leave it as a group, or I can edit it, or even ungroup it to see all the settings for the Decal.
There we go, that saves me a lot of time from importing the maps each time I want to use the same decal.
besides using decals
another way to make your model more realistic
is by applying the weathering effect to your materials
note that you don't have to overdo it
subtlety is key when adding weathering to materials
as you can see with some quick adjustments our scenes look even more realistic
another cool feature is custom license plates
even though Lumion already has a library of license plates that you can use
you can upload your own license plate using the custom license plate object
to create my own design I can do that in photoshop and then load it in here
if it looks odd then I can adjust the dimensions here
there are also fonts for license plate that you can download online
to create a more realistic license plate
it can be anything you want and you can even add a background to it
or you can just keep it simple
and those are the tips to increase ultra realism in your renders
there are also other new features in Lumion 12.3 that you should try such as volumetric omni light
anyway that's all for today guys
leave a like if you enjoyed the video
comment below if you have any questions
stay inspired guys
and I'll see you
next time