bonestructure
02-13-2012, 03:33 PM
My current project, which snuck up on in between doing book covers and editing my daughter's books has become quite complex. But the lighting is the worst. Modeling and texturing, no sweat. Lighting, even after all these years I'm still struggling with it. I'm in Max 9 and Vray, FYI.
My lighting is coming from bio luminescence. Basically, it's an alien world, inside a building. But I have no clue, really, how to make light look bioluminescent. I know it will have some color. I also know I'll have to add some projection lights to give the lights patterns. But how do I make it look bioluminescent. Does it cast shadows? And what should the plant pods that cast the light look like?
See, the challenging part is this. The human mind has a tendency to see patterns in random noise and shapes and such. It's why we see cloud shapes and faces in the texture of walls and so forth. Our minds crave patterns. On this world, that recognition is so profound that there are literally patterns in everything. Nothing is random. It's also a very organic world. No metals, everything is organically based. This will be a series, which is what I've been doing a lot lately, like my last Lost Souls series. I have to show various alien objects well enough to see them clearly.
So I can really use a few wise suggestions as to how to play with the lights to do what I want. Lighting is really my weakness.
My lighting is coming from bio luminescence. Basically, it's an alien world, inside a building. But I have no clue, really, how to make light look bioluminescent. I know it will have some color. I also know I'll have to add some projection lights to give the lights patterns. But how do I make it look bioluminescent. Does it cast shadows? And what should the plant pods that cast the light look like?
See, the challenging part is this. The human mind has a tendency to see patterns in random noise and shapes and such. It's why we see cloud shapes and faces in the texture of walls and so forth. Our minds crave patterns. On this world, that recognition is so profound that there are literally patterns in everything. Nothing is random. It's also a very organic world. No metals, everything is organically based. This will be a series, which is what I've been doing a lot lately, like my last Lost Souls series. I have to show various alien objects well enough to see them clearly.
So I can really use a few wise suggestions as to how to play with the lights to do what I want. Lighting is really my weakness.