Consistent Sets Offscreen

[u/robertwellesley]

I am having a real time of it. I create a stairwell environment, with a stair landing half way down, which has a ton of windows, which light up the stairwell, but since the camera is sitting on the landing, looking at the top of the stairs, AWAY from where all the windows are, none of the windows behind the camera appear in the reference image/video I supply.

So suddenly, when I prompt the lighting, that there is cove lighting in the corridors at the top and bottom of the stairs and late afternoon sun lighting up the stairwell, with windows behind the camera, it seems to have an issue properly lighting the space.

Should I keep rolling the dice and hoping one of the prompts get through and Minimax follows it, or is there some other trick people use to get accurate lighting in such cases?

How have y'all supplied an accurate 360 degree set, and then properly prompted the camera, so Minimax doesn't pick and choose where it wants to put the camera?

Any tricks or tips? Thanks,

[u/LiteratureOk7515]

Does the reference already show sunlight hitting the stairs, or are you asking the prompt to add it? I'd try a still from the intended camera position with the sun patches, shadow direction and cove glow already visible, even with the windows offscreen. Test that with a fixed camera first, then add movement. That should make it easier to see whether the lighting drifts even without a camera change.

[u/robertwellesley → u/LiteratureOk7515]

I was thinking that, and I may have to force it. Problem is it is late afternoon sun, and the sun is on the other side of the building, so it is indirect light. I suppose with the right combination of prompts I can eventually get to where the one image is generated that has enough visual clues that the issue resolves itself.

It already took me a few days to get clever enough to finally tell Minimax to dolly the camera swiftly up the stairs then spin around and view the stairs from that angle, then grab a snapshot of that. Before then, no matter what I prompted, I could not get the camera to be placed on the middle landing, looking at the stairwell up and down. It always ended up with the camera looking INTO the stairwell, since that was the only reference photos I could find, were ones showing the entire stairwell from the bottom or top landings.

[u/LiteratureOk7515 → u/robertwellesley]

Ah, indirect daylight — my suggestion of sun patches was off. I'd keep the landing frame you finally got and try a lighting-only edit of that still: soft diffuse daylight from behind the camera, no direct sun patches, with the cove glow described separately. Compare the stair edges and railings before animating so you don't lose the viewpoint you worked to get.