Lighting Challenge #6: Candle Light

[jeremybirn]

How did you guys do the lighting ... Have you used point lights and set them into the flame?

Good question, Littleluk! Thanks to padawan for answering, and to the others who've posted some how-to info.

I'd love to hear more people's answers: How did you light your scene? What software and techniques did you use? Did you have any problems or issues? Got a tip or a screenshot showing how you did it? Was there anything you learned while doing this challenge?

This thread is already doing great in terms of high quality renders, I hope more people who've already posted images can post some info!

-jeremy

[JCBug]

Jeremy, thanks for your comments.
You have lynx eyes !
I've corrected the wax color and the transparent vase.

You are right about some missing informations about how we have done
and rendered our scenes. Perhaps that many people believe
that everyone can already do everything in 3D...
Of course it's false, everyone is learning each day, fortunately,
I am a novice and I learn something each challenge. (this time, SSS...)

So, I've lighting this scene with Cinema4D
Flames : 60% transparent + 5% luminescent with UVW color bitmap + 30% solid color bitmap +orange lensflare
+ highlight yellow 200% + point light in the flame 30% yellow.

Candles : Solid texture + SSS
It's difficult to do the good parameters, so if
someone can give me optimal SSS params...

HDRI sphere 30%, GI 20%, AO 50%. Rendered in 2 hours on a Mac G5 dualpro 2x2,5 Ghz.
and postprod in Photoshop (sorry for my english)
This is my update.

http://www.arctique.fr/production/Candles-JCB3B.jpg

[ACamacho]

@ i.dyoel: Really nice work man! The colors are working very well and great mood!

@ JCBug: It's great when people put in more detail to help sell the image better. I love the bumpy ash in the plate and the candle wax on the table. Sames goes for trying to tie in an overall theme (mushroom smoke). Great image :)

I do agree about posting breakdowns of our images. I am sure every one of us has a unique way of how we went about creating these. Now if I could just finish mine. :P

[thunders]

Hi... Here is my first reply. Thanks a lot for this challenge. I like it !
There are many nice works. Bravo to everyone !!

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7081/candlestest01retouche02ya2.jpg

[jeremybirn]

@thunders - Welcome! That's great! Very bland 1950's look. The subtle reflections, the definition of the vase with rim light, the ash at the end of the incense, all those little things add up to a really solid image. I like the composition overall, although the center candle would read better if it didn't form a tangency lining up with the candle behind it, maybe I'd move one of those a little.

@JCBug - Your candles are working well! Regarding the title of the image, Albert Einstein didn't invent (or work on) the atomic bomb, but I guess that's not important to this thread. :) Most of the scene is great, but that background needs work: Maybe a little more diffuse (so it doesn't go all the way black in places), less specular, a more natural and subtle bump texture, and a lot less occlusion on the screen? I can't figure out what the blue things on the plate are: it looks like blue crayon-shavings floating a little bit above the surface? The vase looks good, I'm sorry I didn't model the interior fully but you made it look nice anyway.

@i.dyoel - That's looking good. Most of the flames look nice, except the lower one that looks too much like a solid object. It would be great if you could make the lower part of the back two candles brighter, and get rid of the white reflection on the picture frame.

-jeremy

[JCBug]

@Jeremy - Ohoh, You're right, Albert Einstein didn't invent the A-Bomb,
he instigates the Manhattan project.
The real inventors are Lise Meitner Otto Hahn, and Fritz Strassmann,
(with the E=MC2 Einstein formula), Joliot-Curie, Alban and Kowarsk.
But who knows their face ?
So I decided to put the universally known Einstein photography,
with the mushroom smoke, it's an allegory easy to understand.

[silvia]

@Jeremy - Ohoh, You're right, Albert Einstein didn't invent the A-Bomb,
he instigates the Manhattan project.
The real inventors are Lise Meitner Otto Hahn, and Fritz Strassmann,
(with the E=MC2 Einstein formula), Joliot-Curie, Alban and Kowarsk.
But who knows their face ?
So I decided to put the universally known Einstein photography,
with the mushroom smoke, it's an allegory easy to understand.

Don't forget Oppenheimer!

[Tatter22]

Hey everyone,

This is my first challenge. Please Let me know what you think

Thank you

Matt

[JCBug]

Help ! Arrgh ! Yes Silvia, Oppenheimer too ! (and more people...) Aarrrgh...

Well, It wasn't a good idea to put Einstein in the frame.
So, here is a new picture, without allusion to something... ;-)

http://www.arctique.fr/production/Candles-JCB4.jpg

[silvia]

... yep, there were quite a few people, including my conutrymen Emilio Segre' and Enrico Fermi. And BTW Einstein is one of my heros, why did you take away his picture??? He was the one that recognized nuclear weapons as necessary (because otherwise the Nazis would have got them first) and evil (he was an active pacifist). I think he was an excellent choice on your part.

[LiquidStorm3D]

This thread is already doing great in terms of high quality renders, I hope more people who've already posted images can post some info!



I'll post my info when I submit my next version. I've been doing some rigging for a friend, so I haven't looked at candles in a bit, which is actually good so that I get back on it with fresh eyes.

EDIT*
I've been having a problem and maybe you can help me figure it out. I made a test scene just to check what the problem was and here's the situation. In the test scene, there is a Cube, nothing done to it. Inside the cube, I put a sphere with a blinn. I left the settings at default on the blinn. I created a point light and placed it above the cube, with raytraced shadows on.

So here's the problem... In maya software or mental ray, the render inside of the box comes out black as expected. Once I increase the light intensity above 1.00, the scene renders black again, except for the sphere. It reflects something white from below and I can't seem to figure out how, or why it's doing that.

I moved the light below the cube, and the reflection would switch to the top side of the sphere. If I go higher with the light intensity, the reflection gets stronger, and if I decrease it back to 1, the scene goes full black again. It will also go back to black if I turn off the reflectivity on the blinn. With the light inside the cube, the sphere goes completely white, while the rest of the scene goes grey like it's supposed to.

I think maybe a file was messed up during the crashes I've had lately cuz of this problem. I've tried to open the hypergraph and check the scene nodes, but maya would crash almost every time. The times that I did get into it, there was nothing suspicious that could be causing the reflection. Maybe you've ran into this situation b4, so any type of help would be great :) Thanks to anyone who can help solve this problem.

[kiko77]

This is my first challenge.
Thank you

http://kiko3dmania.locaweb.com.br/minichallenger/estudo.jpg

[ACamacho]

Okay I have been working on another candle image....sort of at the same time as the other image. I still need to render the final for the other one which hopefully will be tomorrow. :) Wanted to do one in both renderers....

This one was rendered in Mental Ray and took about 3 1/2 hours to render on a 1ghz Athlon. Nothing really to breakdown. Traditional lighting....no GI/FG. Just lots of blurry reflections. Although the picture frame is a happy accident...was trying to play with a ramp to get more detail in the bump. :D Well fire away....

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/newCandleTest_A.jpg

[LiquidStorm3D]

Nice, reflections look good with the blurriness on them. The candles have a good contrast to them, it's easy to tell which is further and which is closer, without actually looking at placement. The frame "mistake" also came out nice, fits well with the image too. The "shine" from the candle flames should be higher up. The light mostly comes from the top of the flame, where the yellow is strongest. The other thing is to have the light scatter into the candles a little more. Other than that, it's looking really nice. :thumbsup:

Just wondering, do you have a bump map on the table? The reflection of the middle candle comes down in steps, so it looks a little weird.

[ACamacho]

Nice, reflections look good with the blurriness on them. The candles have a good contrast to them, it's easy to tell which is further and which is closer, without actually looking at placement. The frame "mistake" also came out nice, fits well with the image too. The "shine" from the candle flames should be higher up. The light mostly comes from the top of the flame, where the yellow is strongest. The other thing is to have the light scatter into the candles a little more. Other than that, it's looking really nice. :thumbsup:

Just wondering, do you have a bump map on the table? The reflection of the middle candle comes down in steps, so it looks a little weird.

Yeah I might have to punch up the candle scatter a bit more. I have some candles here at home that have more of a "leather" feel to them....even when lit. So that was my reference for these. About the shine, it's a macro I made that just isolates the highlights and blurs in every direction. So that's why it affects the whole flame and not just the middle. But that can be fixed by rendering just the flames themselves and moving the effect up.

There is a bump on the table though. Making the rings "flatter" might help the reflection effect more. Thanks for your input!

[HowieFarkes]

Here's my final version with alterations as suggested by Jeremy. I also worked some more on the wood surface of the table and made the smoke a little more prominent.

I'm currently putting together a post which shows how I set up the lighting.

http://homepage.mac.com/jormstrom/cgtalk/lc6_03.jpg

[vrexplorer]

Great challenge and i`m watching great works here..congrats friends..but a question please...how much tweaking and manipolating is being allowed?:scream:

thanks

[wilhelm]

ok, here is another revison.
for the first revision I have already worked on the smoke and the heat ripples.
Now I have added some light to the picture and the little mirror.
I also changed the backround, some textures and the adjusted the material for the candle holders. I hope you like it!

[Tatter22]

Ok hee is my second pass, I made a few changes

[ACamacho]

Wanted to post my final for the previous entry. Hopefully I can post a breakdown of it soon....

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/candle_mayaSW_final.jpg

[JCBug]

ACamacho - Good work ! I prefered the precedent picture, it was very nice,
but this one is great. The candles are better, but there is a strange shadow
of a flame candle on the frame. So if you keep the precedent picture
and its textures (wood, tree on picture frame...)
with the candles light of this one, it will be excellent.

JCB

[jeremybirn]

The candles are better, but there is a strange shadow
of a flame candle on the frame.

After much discussion of this issue, I took some pictures. I'm sorry that I couldn't rig a light as hard-edged as the lights used in many of these scenes (I used the smallest bulb I had at home as the light source, but it isn't infinitely small) but here are some shots:

http://www.3drender.com/challenges/candles/photos/Shadows2.jpg

http://www.3drender.com/challenges/candles/photos/Shadows1.jpg

-jeremy

[HowieFarkes]

Here's my promised explaination.

http://homepage.mac.com/jormstrom/cgtalk/demo_full.jpg

My tool of choice is Carrara 5.1. I'm basically a hobbyist with no allusions to working in the industry so this package suits me fine (especially the price). Below you can see some of the stages in the process of attaining a somewhat convincing candle.

http://homepage.mac.com/jormstrom/cgtalk/demo.jpg

1. I set the flame objects as area light emitters and turned on soft shadows - I basically set the soft-shadow light diameter to about half the height of the flame. The light fall-off was set to "Logarithmic". The flame's shader is a gradient starting at the bottom blue/red/yellow with glow and some alpha transparency too.

2. Then added some SSS, using a tan colour to the candle sticks - looked a bit better but there wasn't any obvious "hot" spot near the flame so...

3. I added a very bright point light (that didn't cast shadows) inside each flame and restricted its illumination diameter to only 2-3 times the height of the flame so it didn't illuminate anything besides its own candle stick. The flames became a bit too bright but the wax looks better.

4. Turned on the Ambient Occlusion option in Carrara's GI render room. This also globally brightened all the SSS in the scene. The small candle holders had a little SSS too as they were meant to be porcelain or marble look.

Cheers,

Martin.

[ACamacho]

Breakdown for the first image:

Renderer: Maya Software (7.0)

Lambert Test:

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/challenge/candle_mayaSW_lambert.jpg

There are about 15-20 lights in the scene so it would be overkill to post all the lights seperately. :)

Beauty Pass:

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/challenge/candle_mayaSW_base.jpg

Tried as much as I could to do everything in Lighting. Although I do like to color-correct in post anyway to play around with different ideas. Sometimes I do go back and do the changes back in Maya.....depends on time.

Occlusion Pass:

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/challenge/candle_mayaSW_occlusion.jpg

RGB pass:

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/challenge/candle_mayaSW_rgb.jpg


Simple pass I used for color correcting.


Wanted to show the rim light pass because I have gotten some requests on how I achieved the "painterly" look in my fruit bowl entry (and it's also here albeit more subtle) and the rim lights in general. It's actually very simple to create:

Rim Light:

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/challenge/candle_mayaSW_rim.jpg

Shader setup:

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/challenge/shader_screen.jpg

This is the basic setup and by no means do I take credit for both of these (good friend of mine had shown me the rim technique although his is a bit more complex). I add a multiply node before I plug the rim into the surfaceShader to kind of act like an intensity value. I try not to use the light gradient by itself but combining it with my file/2d/3d texture through a layered texture node.

About the transluscency (sp?) on the candles, it's pretty much the default settings in the blinn shader. Minor tweaks to the depth and focus.

Final Image:

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/challenge/candle_mayaSW_final.jpg

Total Rendertime: give or take 7-8 minutes on a 1ghz Athlon with 1gb ram. Pretty light scene even with reflections.

Post work: glows, some color correction, sharpness.

Will post final for mental ray render soon and breakdown sometime after. :) Hope it helps...

[JCBug]

Jeremy - Well, you've shooted interesting pictures. As our brain was expecting,
the flame is a ghost, and don't create shadow on your photographs.
It strange to see it in close-up, there is a lot of things we don't really see
with attention on our physical earth.
But if I remember well, I've seen flames of fire casting shadows on a wall.

JCB

[jucaduarte]

hi everyone again :D, I'm late... 'cause here in Brazil it's independency week.. and I don't go to work.. but Jeremy I do all changes, take a look. I feel the image better.

Acamacho, your image it's very very good. congratulations! :D

here the image

http://www.jucaduarte.com/galeria/render3_noDOF.jpg

I use, maya, render mentalRay, in this image I remove the DOF, and I had one problem with the shadow of man in spot light, the shadow was like pattern :scream: , I solve this problem when I turn off the scanline on render options. :thumbsup:

I see in the others works the smoke it's make on edit program, I try to use only the maya, if anyone have a suggest to I improve my scene, are to much welcome. XD

hug for all :D

jD

[LiquidStorm3D]

Nice breakdown ACamacho, your render time is really good considering there are 15-20 lights. Thanks for the explanation on the painterly shader setup, it works well on your scene. I hadn't used render passes on any of my shots, but I was planning to do it on this last one, so it's helpful to see how it's done. Can't wait to see the Mental Ray version :D

Oh yea, and Translucency was spelt correctly :thumbsup:

[JCBug]

Okay I have been working on another candle image....sort of at the same time as the other image. I still need to render the final for the other one which hopefully will be tomorrow. :) Wanted to do one in both renderers....

This one was rendered in Mental Ray and took about 3 1/2 hours to render on a 1ghz Athlon. Nothing really to breakdown. Traditional lighting....no GI/FG. Just lots of blurry reflections. Although the picture frame is a happy accident...was trying to play with a ramp to get more detail in the bump. :D Well fire away....


Acamacho - I definitely prefer this version. It's a great picture, with a realistic
ambiance, lights and textures.

JCB

[GaazMaster]

My first lighting challenge entry ... and my first post ...

This one was rendered in cinema4d and a bit of post work in photoshop. Thank you so much jeremy, it's a very interesting exercise.

http://membres.lycos.fr/gaazfactory/cg/light%236/002.jpg

[ACamacho]

My final (for now) of the mental ray scene. Nothing much has changed other than adding materials and moving the candle light effect up a little. Upped the reflection samples to reduce noise on the table. Will post breakdown sometime in the morning. :)

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/challenge/MR_candle_Final.jpg

Fire away...

[silvia]

Here is my image, I hope you like it. Please let me know what I can improve.

[LiquidStorm3D]

Ok umm, here is version 5 and the breakdown. I changed the angle to give more depth thru perspective and some other adjustments. I like the colors and overall look of v5 better, but I'm not sure if I like it better than v4 :sad: Few weeks ago I had lost a lot of my project files when my main hard drive died, so I'm working on these to make a new portfolio. Didn't really work on this one that much this past week cuz i was working on this one (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=403481).

First the full image.

http://liquidstorm.onestop.net/LiquidStorm-CGTalk.LC6-5.jpg

Composite. I worked on this one differently than I usually would. Instead of working it up by pieces, I rendered the full thing and then used some passes to make adjustments. The smoke image I found online over here (http://www.massignani.com/portfolio2.htm). The changes are very subtle, but they enhance the image a bit.

http://liquidstorm.onestop.net/LiquidStorm-CGTalk.LC6-BD1.jpg

Since this is about candles, I'm only posting how I set up the shaders for the candles and the flames. First up is the candles. The parts that are mainly contributing to the look of the candles are.... the transparency, which I used to allow more light to pass towards the opposite side. The specular color helps to balance out the warmness of the candle towards the more pale look that they have on the backside, this was important because the transparency was allowing the back end to turn more orange. And of course, the translucence. It's set to a fairly high level so that the light can scatter deeper into the candles. I also increased the focus on it so that it didn't flow down too much from the top.

http://liquidstorm.onestop.net/LiquidStorm-CGTalk.LC6-BD2.jpg

Finally, here are the flames. They're a little more complex, nothing big tho, easy stuff. ramp2 is connected to the Color. ramp12 is connected to the Transparency. ramp5 is connected to the Incandescence. ramp3 is connected to the Glow. I used the sampler info node to make the inner part of the flames more transparent, therefore giving the wavy look on the inside.

http://liquidstorm.onestop.net/LiquidStorm-CGTalk.LC6-BD3.jpg

Edit* The more I look at it, the more I like it. I redid the bloom effect and added 3% noise to the image. Overall it's looking better. Hope my shader info can be of use to those that are starting out on this challenge :)

Edit2* Made another small adjustment to add depth of field to the image. I figured out how to simulate DoF with Photoshop CS2. Copy the ZDepth image and make it your Alpha map. Then go to filters and use the Lens Blur on your image using the Alpha1 as your source. From there, you can adjust the focal distance and add noise to it as well. There are a couple of options for the algorithm, but I chose to go with Square. I recommend you Auto Adjust Levels on your ZDepth map to white balance the image.

I wanna work on the kitchen scene next, where do we post that one? I saw no thread for it, so I don't wanna post into where I'm not supposed to.

[Malene]

Hey Jeremy,

This is my version of the Candle Light Challenge. I am currently working on improving the look of the candle flames. Overall I think I will have to make the image a little bit darker. I'm still working on it. What else do you think needs to done to improve this image?
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k37/babysanga/Malene_Allen_Candle2-1.jpg

[pranish]

Hi guys i've done this using Maya 7.0 and default render mode and my render time is 10 sec.PLzz gimme some coments on how to improve this.




http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2815/candlelightry0.jpg

[ACamacho]

Breakdown for the second entry:

Renderer: mental ray

Total Rendertime: 4 1/2 hours on a 1ghz athlon with 1gb ram. Could be optimized ALOT. Main killer was blurry srufaces reflecting other blurry surfaces. I know I could have used the ctrl_rays or something similar.....just time wasn't on my side. :)

Beauty Pass:

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/challenge/MR_candle_base.jpg

The panels are green because originally I wanted to play more with the combination of colors. Again also wanted to get as much as I could in render with lighting.

-I placed a reflection card just in front/side of the camera for the candle holders.

-The picture frame is just a ramp set to "box" and placed in the bump. Happy with the way it turned out.

-The candle holder shader is just a mib_reflect_glossy shader with a couple of fractal maps in the reflected color and U_V spread.

-The wood is a JS_Wood procedural texture combined with a mib_reflect_glossy shader. The same wood texture was used as a bump (which also multiplied the rendertime :)).

-The vase is just a simple fractal with bump.

Lighting Setup:

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/challenge/MR_candle_lighting.jpg

10 lights total. 5 candle Lights with raytraced shadows, 4 fill Lights and one accent light for the frame.

Occlusion Pass:

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/challenge/MR_candle_occlusion.jpg

RGB Pass:

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/challenge/MR_candle_RGB.jpg

Used it to color-correct certain parts of the image I thought would benefit. But I used it mainly for the back panels. I ended up going with more of a cream color because it seemed more natural.

Z-Depth Pass:

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/challenge/MR_candle_Z.jpg

Used for Depth of Field in Shake. Also for desaturation.

-The smoke is just paint strokes in Shake.....altered a whole lot with filters. :)

-The candle flame "glow" is a macro I made that just blurs the candle alpha (or highlights) in all directions kinda resembling rays.

Final Render:

http://www.angelcamacho-torres.com/files/challenge/MR_candle_Final.jpg

Hope this helps....

[LiquidStorm3D]

Hey Jeremy,

This is my version of the Candle Light Challenge. I am currently working on improving the look of the candle flames. Overall I think I will have to make the image a little bit darker. I'm still working on it. What else do you think needs to done to improve this image?
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k37/babysanga/Malene_Allen_Candle2-1.jpg

Hey Malene,

You've got a good start on the scene and I really like that you chose MLK Jr. as your picutre, it gives the scene a monumental feel. :)

You scene looks like it has a "solarize" effect on it, the orange tint on the scene makes it all flush away from the real colors. It also has sharps edges, so it breaks the roundness of some objects. You smoke right now looks something like steam, incense smoke is very unique, so try searching online for some reference. You can use the link I have on my post... I just desaturated the image and put the layer on screen to get rid of the black. Lastly, the candle flames need some work. Take a look at the photos that Jeremy posted on here, that'll give you an idea of the flames and also the candles themselves.

[kiko77]

Render defalt scanline 3ds max8

Total Rendertime: 4 minutes 38 seconds
http://kiko3dmania.locaweb.com.br/minichallenger/vela_final.jpg

[JCBug]

Here is a new version with others textures and flames...

http://www.arctique.fr/production/Candles-Jap-09.jpg

[jeremybirn]

JCBug - Nice! I'm sorry if my little historical comment forced you to change images in your picture, but I guess the new image fits perfectly with the scene. Is there any way you could shift the face up and to the left in the frame? Right now the look direction sortof shifts your focus in the image away from the whole left side. Minor crits: the screen still seems to have too much occlusion, the shadows could still be softer, and the smoke lines up too perfectly with the candle behind it.

kiko77 - Nice scene! I think there are trace-depth problems (shadows not appearing in reflections) and that's why the base of the left candle holder seems to reflect a brighter table without shadows. Maybe what's going on behind the screen could be made softer, with softer shadows and blending the warm light onto more panels?[/url]

ACamacho - Thanks for those great break-downs! Nice looking scenes followed-up by some really useful information there. I especially love the one with the tree.

Pranish - Good start. Maybe you could get some variety in color, or at least in saturation? Right now many parts of the scene are that same yellow color, even half the candle wax looks just the same as the flames. Also, try to get some light sources radiating out from the candles, right now that light coming from the left seems to dominate the scene.

Malene - Great scene! The composition would be better if that candle flame weren't cut-off. I don't know if you need that much of the upper smoke, especially the white area to the upper left of the picture, if that's all smoke. See if you can light the vase better, the dark red line looks nice but the kick from the candle just cuts a diagonal and doesn't really bring out its roundness. The flames are off to a good start, really just some transparency at the base and tip could nail it. (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=56470)

LiquidStorm3d - Thanks for that terrific break-down! With that picture, you just have to have a candle blown out -- you know, like a candle in the wind! You don't want to miss an opportunity here! That middle candle, the one in front of the picture, has just the right amount of translucency, really natural-looking glow near the flame. Some of the others could use less of that or blend out more smoothly. Overall really nice, subtle scene!

Silvia - What a great scene! There really isn't much to change. If you render again, you might zoom-out a little bit, just to avoid cropping the flame-tip and candle-holder base, and you might try a little polygon smoothing on the metal candle holders, and tone down the highlights a bit on them, and maybe turn down the brightness of the SSS a bit.

GaazMaster - Welcome! That's a really nice scene. I think things need to be balanced out a bit in terms of the lighting, the candles look bright and have a lot of glow running through the wax, and yet the rest of the scene seems like it's lit mostly by a ceiling light, with very bright white highlights reflecting it. Maybe that other light and its highlights could be reduced, and the set could be lit more by lights radiating out from the flames and decaying with distance from the candles?

jucaduarte - Nice scene! I think the snow could be lit more softly, so it wasn't all white but depended on being near the candles. The shadows on the back screen could be softer, and so could the smoke. Maybe the brightest parts of the flames could be a little less saturated?[url="http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=218573"]

HowieFarkes - Welcome! That's a nice, clean scene. I might like to see it with a little less overall fill light, and a little more lit by the candles,but it's solid and believable already, and I appreciate the break-down.

-jeremy

[dany_kurian]

Hi , here is a render using Maya , Mental Ray . Comments are welcome . Hope all

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/1725/candlod4.jpg

[silvia]

Thank you Jeremy for the wonderful advice.

[Polyphemus]

Hi - great challenge :).

This is a WIP of my attempt:
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/5382/candlesvi0.jpg

I'm going for a semi-modern look. There is some work left, as you see - the bump map of the vase was not deep enough, the wax looks not waxy enough, I haven't done much work on the flames yet, and I'm not completely satisfied about the background yet. The composition has to be slightly improved too - I'm thinking of rotating the mirror a little towards the viewer, and the candle on the back should not be hiding behind the candle on the front.

All crits welcome :).

[MAU-Y2K]

Hi, everbody... it´s my first post in CGtalk and my first challenge too... critics and sugestions are welcome... sorry about my english... thank you...:buttrock:

http://features.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/220490/220490_1158029534_large.jpg

[chrisstevens]

This was pretty fun....i think ill try again on one of the others...i used Maya 8.0 and shake 4.1 THANKS...leave some crits thanks

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7404/lightfinishtd3.jpg (http://imageshack.us/)

[saavedra]

Hello all

Here is my shot at this render.....I used Carrara 3 only with my own shaders.

Kirk

Click here to have a see
http://www.kirksaavedra.com/image.html

[nverdon]

Hi,
just a little picture. great challenge :)
here's the pic:
http://www.deltazone.org/~fc4d/images/nikolas_candlelightningtest2.jpg (http://imageshack.us/)

[slatr]

http://i8.tinypic.com/2a0i2rn.jpg

My first attempt. I don't like the subsurface scattering I got on some of the candles. It looks almost blotchy.

[ACamacho]

@ MAU-Y2K: Very nice job! I like the how the colors play out. And the materials are believable too. :thumbsup:

Some really good images coming in. Keep up the good work! :)

[jeremybirn]

dany_kurian - Welcome! That's a good start. See if you can get softer shadows, and can get real reflections in the metal candle holders. The picture and frame texture aren't really working here, if you can find something more fitting to the scene -- maybe something iconic in India?

Polyphemus - Hi! OK, you already listed things you are working on. I hope you can get an impression in the next version that light really comes from the candle flames.

MAU-Y2K - Welcome! I like the refraction in the vase with flowers and water! Some of the petals and leaves could be made more translucent feeling if they had more bounce light and less dense shadows, some fill on the leaves in the top of the vase would help too. The candles are looking good, maybe near the top some of them go too bright, and maybe some of them could be a little more reflective.

chrisstevens - Welcome, good start! Try to work on softening the shadows and getting the candles to look like wax.

saavedra - Good start. Work on the look of the candles and wax, but most of all try to get the impression that the light is coming from the candle flames.

nverdon - Nice! The warm colors help build a look. The hard shadows could be softened, and the caustics by the vase could be more soft and convincing.

slatr - OK, good start. Try to figure out why some of the candle holders are going black, and others are going white. Maybe you could fix the background behind the screen so it wasn't pure white, also find a new picture to put in the frame?

-jeremy

[slatr]

Thanks Jeremy,

I was having trouble with my metal material. The small candles are different materials than the large ones, but I didn't want the large ones to be black.

I will work on that and the other two items tonight.

[wilhelm]

ok, here is another revison.
for the first revision I have already worked on the smoke and the heat ripples.
Now I have added some light to the picture and the little mirror.
I also changed the backround, some textures and the adjusted the material for the candle holders. I hope you like it!
http://www.art-3d.com/cgtalk_temp/wilhelm_candles.jpg

[silvia]

nverdon, I really like your monochromatic look! It has a really warm feeling to it, and the reduced palette puts the emphasis on contrast and shapes.

[Luc-fr]

Hi all, this is my render made with C4D 9.6 + AR2.
I can see lot of beautyfull renders on the challenge:)

Thank's Jeremybirn to open it :love:


http://www.lc-3d.com/mes_wips/light_challenge6/light_challenge6_test3.jpg

[GaazMaster]

Many thanks jeremy for your analysis, you're right. Just a new test, and new adjustments tomorrow.

http://membres.lycos.fr/gaazfactory/cg/light%236/003.jpg

[fulg0re]

Wow so many great renders.
http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/9079/candlesqz4.jpg
This is my latest work in blender.

[silvia]

Here is my image, with the improvements kindly suggested by Jeremy.
Thank you again for your help!

[slatr]

Ahhh Silvia, that is gorgeous!


Vote for front page here

[silvia]

You are really kind, slatr, thank you very much for the compliment!

[mudasirmulla]

Hey all I m new to cgtalk. And this is my first project in 3d. I would like to hear comments on this image so tht i can make some changes as per required. And reply me how it is :) ok c ya all babye.http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k286/mudasirmulla/MyPartnersBdayFinal1.jpg

[jucaduarte]

You're right Jeremy, I will do now, thanks a lot. XD

jD

[nverdon]

nverdon, I really like your monochromatic look! It has a really warm feeling to it, and the reduced palette puts the emphasis on contrast and shapes.

thanks a lot ;)
Yep jeremy. your're right. I'm working on a second version :) :)
see you guys.

[lazzhar]

I made it animated :D
HEre is a small GIF version :
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/827/candlefiretestaz1.gif

[Luc-fr]

Just a new render.
I moved some objetcs, worked the ambiance and place my katana too :D


http://www.lc-3d.com/mes_wips/light_challenge6/light_challenge6_test4.jpg

[ACamacho]

I made it animated :D
HEre is a small GIF version :
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/827/candlefiretestaz1.gif

now you're just showing off :P Great animation!:thumbsup:

[JCBug]

Lazzhar - Yes, good idea !
your animation is very nice !

Silvia - Good work, very nice picture, I like it.

Jeremy - Thanks for your comments, I've tried to make it better...

http://www.arctique.fr/production/Candles-jap-15.jpg

[GaazMaster]

The last picture. great challenge !

http://membres.lycos.fr/gaazfactory/cg/light%236/005.jpg

[Hamburger]

Well, it's been a while since I've done a render for one of the Lighting Challenges, anyway here's my Candle scene:

http://www.kiernanmay.net/images/cgchallenge/Kiernan_CandlesTest1.jpg

I just did this one overnight, still not happy with the candle holders' material or some of the picture frame but I'm happy with it overall. I tried to light in a way where it is difficult to tell if it's set in the early hours of the morning or at night.

Some great renders in this thread, keep up the good work. Love what you have done with your scene, GaazMaster.

[monoclon]

Hey everyone,

Being impressed by the quality of the works ..It's my first challenge in CGtalk.

I learned a lot here... thank's a lot jeremy, and courage for those still working on it...

http://www2.sva.edu/~young/WIP/candleLighting1.JPG

[silvia]

GaazMaster, I really like your originality! The one half in and half out of the picture is my favourite!

[SousaDavid]

hi guys, there is my contribution to this mini challenge, it's not yet finished :D


http://www.multimania.com/thekhan/compo/lighting4.jpg

[lazzhar]

now you're just showing off :P Great animation!:thumbsup:
Haha !
If I don't show off here , where do I show off? http://forums.cgsociety.org/images/icons/icon10.gif
Thanks Camacho and JCBug.

[yohann]

Luc-fr: Your image it´s pretty good. But I think it has many Japanese characters dirtying the scene. Maybe the vase doesn’t need the characters. The shaders of candle and sword are very nice.

ACamacho: Great images! Congratulations! The first entry remembers the Christmas time, nice lighting and the cooper shader of candle support is very good! About the second entry: I liked very much the cinematography of the scene. The background, portrait and candle colors work great together. Congratulations one more time.

Well. I made my scene again. Testing two more points of view. I have changed the camera, just a little bit, as the Jeremy suggestion.

http://www.yohann.com.br/3D/lc/candle_yohann_all_wv.jpg

Candle shader:

http://www.yohann.com.br/3D/lc/candle_wax.jpg


Flame shader:


http://www.yohann.com.br/3D/lc/candle_flame.jpg

Light Scheme (In the last image I turn off the background light)

http://www.yohann.com.br/3D/lc/scene_le.jpg



And the post-production: I used occlusion pass, the smoke was made with particle flow. For color grading I used the same image but in grayscale overlapped with Soft Light transfer mode to emulate ENR process (Technicolor’s proprietary ENR process is a color-positive developing technique that utilizes an additional black and white developing bath inserted at an appropriate stage of a print’s processing to retain silver), in the first and second image I used 50 % of effect but in the last one I used 100%.

[SousaDavid]

the last one for me.

i must restart my work :shrug:

hope you like it.

http://www.multimania.com/thekhan/compo/lighting5.jpg

[jeremybirn]

yohann - Great work & great break-down! I like how you got the vase looking in the 3rd one there (the one without the bright specular highlight) although maybe you need to put a little of the light back behind it so it can read. I'd say all you need to do is zoom out a bit (so you don't crop off the tops of the candle flames) and make the picture glass less reflective.

SousaDavid - Good start! Keep going with more soft candle light on the environment...

monoclon - That's great! The candles look good, maybe just the translucency effect in the wax could be blended into a softer gradient, and the shadows they cast on the table could be softer. For the picture, maybe you could move that reflection on the glass sideways so that her face falls in a dark part instead of a light part?

HamburgerTrain - I raelly like the look you have on the vase and the dusty table-top, that's great. Maybe just the bump on the picture frame and the SSS effect on the candle wax need to be turned down, and I only say turn the translucency down because the scene seems to be lit largely by fill light not the candles. The candle holders are almost there, maybe less reflection more occlusion from the table.

GaazMaster - Brilliant stuff! I wouldn't be surprised if your work appeared on the front page one of these days!

JCBug - Terrific! I guess the only thing I think about it is that if you squint some of the candles come out looking brighter than their flames.

Luc-fr - I love it! Your scene has a really solid, tangible feeling, as if we were looking at real objects. If you're looking for improvements, maybe the picture could be matted in the picture frame to look more natural, and some of the shadows could be a little softer. Really top-notch work there!

lazzhar - I agree, you French snobs shouldn't show-off in ways that make the rest of us look bad! (I'm kidding, of course, that's a great scene and a terrific animation. In terms of the fluid sim flames, they seem as if they are on a different, larger scale somehow, like larger flames coming out of a flame thrower instead of simple, smooth candle flames?)

mudasirmulla - Welcome! That's a good start. Going forwards, maybe some places (tops of the candles, plate) are going very bright, the table could use more variation from light to dark, and the shadows could be much softer?

Silvia - Awsome! I love how you're handling the candle flames, with the little transparent area around the wick like you would really see.

wilhelm - Those are great! The flames have really nice color and transparency to them, that's terrific. The smoke looks really nice. The "heat ripple" doesn't really work for me, maybe it could be much smoother and more subtle? Also, the background with the shelves looks strange, so bright in the reflection, dark in the background, without causing a similar lighting shift on the set... Maybe you could put something else there like the screen again? The mirror sortof works, maybe if you put a candle closer to it it would be more obvious?

-jeremy

[Luc-fr]

Thank's jeremy for your C&C and i'll apply in a new render :love:

So, before your suggestions, I return to the original position scene and I try to reproduce a camera picture but not a humain view. So I put on my floor 3 candles, I photographie these candles for reprocuce this picture.
And this is my work.

http://www.lc-3d.com/mes_wips/light_challenge6/light_challenge6_test5.jpg





And I could see a photo grain on. And I just apply this filter in Photoshop to try it, just for fun :D
http://www.lc-3d.com/mes_wips/light_challenge6/light_challenge6_test5b.jpg



PS: I'm really sorry for my poor english :sad: but i try ...

[monoclon]

Hey. thisi is my second work.
My issue is how to put my individuality into the scene.
(My scene look normal most of times.. I know T__--)
I think the individuality is as important as goot lighting in the scene.

Lazzhar, I love your GIF version. So nice.
http://www2.sva.edu/~young/WIP/candleLighting2.JPG

[corack]

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/5716/4ui6.jpg

So here it is!
Its my very first Lighting Challenge here and also my first try in lighting these Scene.
Im using Cinema 4D and I did the postwork in Photoshop.
I used 5 Arealights for the Candles, 2 Arealights acting as fill lights, 1 backlight behind the paravent and a plane with a Light Emitter for the highlites so far. I also used Global Illumination.

For postwork I rendered a multipass Image and did some Colorcorrection and add a littlebit bloom.

For the next phases of my work Im thinking about adding some smoke effects and some extra details.

And now please start critizing my picture :)

[jeremybirn]

Luc-fr -

Nice, maybe before the next version you could just see if you can soften that reflection on the vase and do a little more polygon smoothing. That's looking really great!

-jeremy

[JCBug]

Jeremy, Your are right, thanks a lot for your analysis,
I've changed the wax candles bright...

http://www.arctique.fr/production/Candles-jap-17.jpg

[edjkodiak]

:thumbsup: to all !!! very good images

I'm using Cinema4D and Photoshop.

http://edjkodiak.free.fr/3D/FC4D/1142.jpg

[corack]

My Brakedown. :)

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/2695/brakedownqj0.jpg

[Polyphemus]

Ok, here is the second version of my attempt. Not rendered with shadows yet, I'll do that in my final render :). All crits welcome.

http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/9708/candles2sp3.jpg

[jeremybirn]

Polyphemus - Nice! See if the light on the candles can be smoothed out a bit, so the very top isn't quite that bright, but it spreads a little further down.

corack - Nice image, great breakdown! Those "light-emitting planes" (or whatever appears in reflections) seem to make the bases of the candle holders so bright, but they don't brighten the picture frame at all, it looks almost black. Maybe you could even that kind of thing out?

edjkodiak - Good start. Work on softer more subtle shadows and reducing the translucency in the wax.

JCBug - Looking good! I like how the reflection in the plate makes a Yin Yang symbol. I don't know why the background is so much more grainy than the foreground, I can't tell if it's the occlusion or DOF or something else.

corack - That's great! Really solid already. It might be good to see the candles illuminate more of the picture frame and table, and also to see a little occlusion on the bottom of the vase and plate and candle-holders so they don't stay totally bright right near where they touch the table.

monoclon - Your versions look good. I think the really focused reflections on the vase and picture are a bit distracting, if you could find a way to soften and tone them down it might fit with the scene better. (The scene's lighting doesn't look as if it were lit by windows as shown in the reflections.)

Luc-fr - All of your renders are great. One more thing I could mention: the short candle with the dripping wax seems to have a lot of rim-light along the edges of the wax drips, they wouldn't really be there on the front of the candle.

-jeremy

[edjkodiak]

thank you to comment each work

here is the update :

http://edjkodiak.free.fr/3D/cg/1211.jpg

[jucaduarte]

Hi everyone again,
Jeremy, I do all changes was you talk about, follow the image below.

thanks I learn so much things in this time, how I can do the contrast in scene directly in maya, adjust the raytracing and how to control the particles and their attributes, how appearence and style.

the render time is 2h 15m, in mentalRay

http://www.jucaduarte.com/galeria/render4.jpg

here's the wire

http://www.jucaduarte.com/galeria/wire.jpg

thanks for all.

jD

[nverdon]

hi all.
Some reallu good stuff here :) :)
just a little update of my work. see you guys.
http://www.deltazone.org/%7Efc4d/images/nikolas_candle_test4.jpg

[monoclon]

Hello
I add some minor tweaks in shake.
I know what you are saying Jeremy. I'll fix that.
Thanks !!

http://www2.sva.edu/~young/WIP/candleLighting3.JPG

[corack]

Thanks Jeremy for your Comment. I have tried to do it better in this update. Hope you all like it.

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/8969/8ft6.jpg

regards
Chris

[Luc-fr]

Hi all,

This is my last render and I try to apply your crits mister Jeremy but not really easy ...
So, I modify the short candle with the dripping wax, removed the ideogram on all candles, refined the lighting set, matted the picture in the frame and change the shader of the vase and the reflection.

When a have a little of free time, I try on my other scene :)
See you
http://www.lc-3d.com/mes_wips/light_challenge6/light_challenge6_test6.jpg

[ello23]

wow, after seeing luc_fr and monoclon's (those are really fantastic and i specially like luc's because of its spirit) i hope you dont mind if i throw in my candle lighted scene. i am always deeply impresse when i browse this place.

i used cinema4d to render and a little postwork to adjust the colors.. as this is my first post here any c&c is welcome to help me increase my skills

http://www.earthcontrol.de/gallery/3dillu/c4d_misc/candles_big.jpg

[B-A-R]

Thought it would be nice to give it a try,..
I've used Cinema4D and a bit of photoshop to adjust the levels,...

[Pyrael]

My first try :

http://pyrael.de/pics/kerzen/001.jpg

C4D No Antialias. The white reflektion under the Plate are an Ambient Occlution error i think. Also an error are this big withe splash on the image. Hope you like it.

[Djampa]

Wow, we learn a lot here !


So many great works.

Yohann, my good friend, great to see your work here, since we work like mad it's easier to find you here at CGtalk then to see you in person *lol*.
Very nice lightning as usual.

MasterZap, amazing work, nice TsongKapa picture too ;) ! Well chosen subject.

Luc-Fr, very good renders and interesting composition. Nice you choose Karate grand master Funakoshi to be there ;) hehehe. (Osss)

GaazMaster, funny subject on your portrait, front page worth render ! Your incense's smoke is very natural too, I see everyone is making it grey colored mostly, but it's generally bluish tone when lit by candle lights, congratulations !

Everybody doing great job here, very nice to see it all.

Jeremy, great challenges you've been doing here! Thanks for sharing your knowledge here with us.
One of these challenges I'll join up, by the moment I can just 'watch' and learn.

Best wishes! Cya,

[GaazMaster]

Many thanks Jeremy and Djamba for your Comment.
I hope to take part in the next challenge. The renders are splendid. congratulation everybody.

Luc .... Whouaaah :thumbsup:

[neablo]

these are all very nice renders

but how about a .blend file in the future as blender is rising to world domination?

[iamjens]

so many great works here :thumbsup:
this is my first entry, need some work i think... especially the wax.
renderd with cinema 4d. thank you :)
http://jeso-art.de/3d/lc/lc6_1.jpg
(http://jeso-art.de/3d/lc/lc6_1.jpg)

[TillAurousseau]

Many thanks for your accurate comments jeremy, here's my second attempt, i tried to simplify the lighting and add more readability to the scene, c4d 6 omni lights with adaptative shadows, basic render engine, no GI, a sphere for reflections, smoke and flares in photoshop.

http://till.aurousseau.com/LC6_2.jpg

[ello23]

;)justemoi, i just had the same idea about putting in the candle scene into the picture without having seen your entry. nice one, i just find the candle material a little strange.

anyway, here is my second one:
http://www.earthcontrol.de/gallery/3dillu/c4d_misc/candles3.jpg

[Hamburger]

Here's another entry.

http://www.kiernanmay.net/images/cgchallenge/Kiernan_Cartoon.jpg

http://www.kiernanmay.net/images/cgchallenge/Kiernan_CartoonBW.jpg

I need to buy a Wacom Tablet, it's hard sketching with a mouse!

[sillycone]

Wow, a lot of very nice entry. Keep it up guys. This is my first entry lit it in xsi and soften it a bit in photoshop. :)



http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/3332/candlehd9.jpg

[Luc-fr]

Hi guys,

In a first time I would like to give a big thanks for yours C&C and your very nice renders :love:



Like I said, this is my last test on my second scene.
I hope that you like it.
I have juste retouched the level in Photoshop, that's all.

http://www.lc-3d.com/mes_wips/light_challenge6/light_challenge6_test7.jpg


See you :)

[DigMe5]

http://www.shadydimensions.com/FILES/Candle_Light.jpg


Lighting Challenge - Candle Light
September 20, 2006

This render was done in Maya using eight lights, and rendered in Mental Ray without GI/FG, except for an ambient occlusion pass. The image was comped in Shake.


Cameron Thomas
www.ShadyDimensions.com (http://www.ShadyDimensions.com)

[mswertfager]

Here is my final.

Modifications made:
- Each candle flame now has fluid effects at different states
- Added a touch more light to the table coming from the window
- Added a slight DOF
- Increased brightness of reflected candle on vase
- Fixed broken cross member on screen

http://www.AlphaDogCreations.com/images/Challenge6_mswertfager_v3.jpg

Michael Swertfager
www.AlphaDogCreations.com (http://www.AlphaDogCreations.com)

[Nosferatu8650]

My Attempt
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/6858/candlecdh6.jpg (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=candlecdh6.jpg)

[Psotek]

Hey kinda late but here goes.

This is my first post on cgtalk in ages, by the way. :shrug:

Max 8, Photoshop

http://www.eciad.ca/%7Ebnowakow/candles_render02.jpg

[Polyphemus]

Ok, I guess this is my final, unless Jeremy has some really good tips left :).

The scene has a total of 10 lights:
- two backlights
- 5 lights for each candle with high intensity and linear drop off
- 3 lights with low intensity between the candles for lighting up the scene a bit.

The scene is composited using 5 passes:
- Main pass
- Occlusion pass
- Occlusion pass with all lights and final gather turned on (was originally a mistake, but I could use it for a really nice contrast and 'deeper' colours when used as overlay)
- Shadow pass
- RGB pass - mainly used for the background.

Smoke was added and created (using a number of filter combinations) in Photoshop.

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/9615/candles22920061449bs8.jpg

[jeremybirn]

Wow, these are looking great!

I'm in Montreal now for ADAPT (http://www.adaptmontreal.com/) and can't possibly keep up with all these images (nor can I see them with great accuracy on this laptop), so I won't comment other than to say "WOW!" and congratulations on another front-page thread!

-jeremy

[jeremybirn]

these are all very nice renders

but how about a .blend file in the future as blender is rising to world domination?

I'm always happy to host more file formats. justemoi has donated a Cinema 4D file, which I'll put on-line as soon as I get home.

If you want to provide a Blender version of this scene, please transfer it to me and I'd be happy to host it. If you are having any trouble importing the files that are available as a starting point, please list which file formats Blender can import and I'm sure someone with another program can help you bridge the gap.

-jeremy

[slatr]

http://home.centurytel.net/skyye/Candles2c.jpg

Modo and Photoshop

I replaced the pic with something more suitable and worked on the candleholders.

Still trying to figure out something nice for the backdrop screen and how to make the flames look better.

Help is welcome, I have lots to learn

[yencaray]

ok here is my attempt i've been playing with this for awhile and i think this is the better of my trials. Any info that may inlighten me as to what would make this better and possibly what you like would be great! maybe i should texture some more??? or no? so here it is.....

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/moon_lit_eyes/CGTALK%20forums/Candels_1.jpg

ok i applied some textures and changed some shaders maybe this looks better??
I also put the picture "Blood Siren" done by Robert Chang into the frame i really like it so i put it in!
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/moon_lit_eyes/CGTALK%20forums/Candels_2.jpg

[bwanaghana]

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l284/bwanaghana/candles2.jpg
This is my first time posting here, but the challenge looked like fun so here is my entry. I didn't have any access to SSS because I am using an old version of lightwave, so I had to do all of the glow work using gradients. Incense smoke painted in photoshop. C&C welcome. Lemme know what you think.

[Raaf]

so, my first time here, and here is my entry.
Let's say is 70% done for may self, but your opinion can change this for sure,
so waiting for comments.
Maya MentalRay - FG, OCC, no SSS...render time 1min 30sec on notebook/dual 2 core 2400
Levels and small blur effect in PS.
I hope to find some time to finish it soon.
c'ya
Raf.http://www.lizard.neostrada.pl/candles_v1.jpg

[kingmango]

Couldn't figure out create smoke for my incense... I made a texture and named it incensesmoke.0 and made sure that cycle was off, but I kept getting errors about being unable to find incensesmoke.#>0 ad nauseum which was locking Maya up big time. So then I tried a fluid, but I couldn't get it to stop over glowing at the origin and only look like grey smoke. Was going to also put fluids on the candles, but since the challenge was for lighting I tried only to modify the parts which required achieving the correct lighting effect. And I really had to change that table shader just because it was distracting me hehe ;) And add my mascot.

No post except to downsize and jpg the image.

[Hamburger]

For creating the smoke I found it easiest to comp in an image of some smoke (white smoke on black background) through photoshop, then blend the layer by screen.

[barrymcw]

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/1050/candlechallenge11mks8.png

My latest pass, some 2 weeks after my previous one. Oh how time flies.

C4d, 5 lights (candles), one fill light (turned down very low), GI (2 bounces) and AO.

The GI didn't do much for me, I ended up duping the layer in photoshop. I actually duped it 5-6 times and got really nice color on the table - very warm and orangey - but got kinda cruddy "macro-blocking" in some other areas. Had I wanted to spend the time in photoshop I could've made that work, but this is what I've got for now.

The haloes on the candles, I've only just noticed - a byproduct of compressing to a PNG as they're not so stark in my photoshop file. I should fix that.

Also, the reflection in the mirror is too bright to justify the darkness of the scene.

I'd like to get another pass at this in a day or two.

Cheers.

[pietjepixel]

Here's my first try, its not that good but he....... my first try wright.
Tips are very welcome!

[barrymcw]

@ Matt,
I'd say don't spend more time texturing. You've got some good stuff there already, the candles, particularly, look very nice. What I think you should look at is your overall composition. You've
got a lot of things that are in a similar color range and, as a result, it's a bit hard for my eye to really move around the scene.

I'd try some color variation that might help pull the plates & vase away from the table and some lighting variaion that might pull the screens away from the foreground.

Actually, one note on the textures is that many of them have a very similiar distressed quality so that they all look a little bit alike. Not that they're the same - your metal is obviously metal and your wood obviously wood - but they all have a graininess that's very similar.

[silvia]

barrymcw nice smoke!

[kingmango]

For creating the smoke I found it easiest to comp in an image of some smoke (white smoke on black background) through photoshop, then blend the layer by screen.
ah nice ty

[EverCall]

My homework in this case...
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/5937/timo001ib8.jpg
I tell later more... sorry

[nado319]

hi all this my first share in this forum ..
and need your comments to going on..thx

[yencaray]

@ Matt,
I'd say don't spend more time texturing. You've got some good stuff there already, the candles, particularly, look very nice. What I think you should look at is your overall composition. You've
got a lot of things that are in a similar color range and, as a result, it's a bit hard for my eye to really move around the scene.

I'd try some color variation that might help pull the plates & vase away from the table and some lighting variaion that might pull the screens away from the foreground.

Actually, one note on the textures is that many of them have a very similiar distressed quality so that they all look a little bit alike. Not that they're the same - your metal is obviously metal and your wood obviously wood - but they all have a graininess that's very similar.

ok I made the tweaks so tell me if it was enough or should go further to pull them from the table and textures. I choose a color that was 180 degrees roughly from the overall red warm feel of the picture so did the colors work or should another one be used? Also for anyone curious i've used 5 volume lights...one for each flame a rather straight approach. I made the lights more of a red color then a warm orange....make it better or worse?

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/moon_lit_eyes/CGTALK%20forums/Candels_5.jpg

[suchoparek]

Hi pals,
that's my first try in this contest (well, actually it's my first post at all...:rolleyes: ), so please be merciful! That's not supposed be my only try, but i was afraid i was in late, so i posted my 1-day-and-a-half work.
Lightwave: 5 point light for candles and 1 spot for natural light (i suppose it's moonlight...:scream: ), a bit of amb_occ on stone. Flames and bloom "made in photoshop".
There are a lot of errors (eg: innatural shadows on some candles), i'm workin'on it.
Every comment is welcome!

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/8127/candele2trattatomo7.jpg

[isdanny]

My 1st attempt on a lighting project.

Software: Maya, Digital Fusion
Lights: point lights, volume lights and spot lights (no FG and no GI)
Effects: flame is using shader with glow, smoke is using maya fluid
http://isdanny.googlepages.com/candles.jpg


I made a 10 seconds animation clip of it too. The flames are soft bodies with turbulance field.
download avi clip (http://isdanny.googlepages.com/candles.avi)
(http://isdanny.googlepages.com/candles.avi)

[ariander]

http://www.ariander.com/files/forumposts/render_candles_1.jpg

Hi! Here is my attempt. I realize it's too noisy because of too few samples in the shadows from the candle light. (I have used the candle flame objects as light sources + one HDRI for reflection and for general light)
Rendered in Cinema.

[zasid]

Hi ,

Here is my attempt in 3dsmax and vray render time is less than 1 minute.awaiting for your C&C.

[EverCall]

I'm almost done...
Some secial FX are made with Photoshop.
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/6384/007mp0002vv8.jpg
Later I share all my passes.

[EverCall]

Here a newer version of my image..
I have edit it in Photoshop.
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/6384/007mp0002vv8.jpg
Later I send the passes too..

And here the same a bit lighter...
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/6264/007mp0005yb0.jpg

[JCBug]

EverCall - Yes, very very nice picture !

[MinaRagaie]

I thought I was going to miss this challange...:bounce:
challange 7 will be out tomorrow and I've just Posted my first entery...
I know there's no deadline, but I don't wanna miss the fun when the new challange begins

It's not really the result I hopped to post...:D
there are minor problems with the reflections
and major problems in composting... "the jagged edges on the candles are due to badly simulated depth of field" I don't really know how to simulate it in a nice way.. can anyone point me to a tutorial

criticisim is more than welcomed :)
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/5236/challange6candleszb5.jpg

I'm not quite sure if I can call this a final Image, But I think I wanna start eraly on challange7
I'll try to post a breakdown of my lighting, but it all depends on how much spare time I have and How Challaenging is challange 7 :thumbsup:
by the way that's my very first render using Maya :thumbsup:

[elte]

This is my first entry, I've watched the lighting entry since the beginning but I was always busy with work :D A lot of people here in this forum have inspired and motivated me to finish this piece. Thanks to all who have shared the techniques. And thanks to Jeremy for creating this challenge. It's been a fun time working with this scene.

I was using Maxwell as part of my experiment on renderer. Render time took up 38h34m30s, with the SL (sampling level) 20. I know it's a bit too long, but so far I'm quite satisfied with the result, except the candle. Tweaking the SSS is a pain in the ***. I'm not sure whether it's the limitation of the software itself in this version or the scene scale problem. The candle flame and the smoke are composited in photoshop.

Any Critics and comments are welcome. I'll post the breakdown and scene wireframe if anyone interested :)

Thank you.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b310/elte_tan/scene_final_jpg_submit.jpg

[jeremybirn]

There's no way I could get caught-up again with posting crits of all the recent entries. But I'll try for a few:

elte - Welcome! That's a really solid image. The only thing that looks a little distracting for me is the DOF, especially where the candle flame on the right looks as if it is much further out of focus than the candle underneath it.

EverCall - Nice image! I like the dark tones and the falloff of the light on the table. The candle wax looks very black in some parts, even though the parts near the flame don't look like black wax, maybe some more glints of light or something there could make the candles themselves more believable.

ariander - Nice scene! Maybe some areas are too uniform: the candles too uniformly white, the background too consistent, & some more variation in the lighting could help build the candle-lit look more.

isdanny - Welcome, that's a nice, clean scene. Maybe softer shadows and more of a sense of light dropping off with distance would add to the scene. The flames look a little bit too blurry to me, maybe you could do less blurring in the render and just add a little glow around them in compositing or photoshop.

suchoparek - That's great! The issue you mention of the black stripes on the candles should be fixed, and the glass vase could refract the table so it doesn't show a straight line through the bottom of the vase. Otherwise that's a really solid scene.

yencaray - Nice scene. The texture on the table looks great. The glow at the top of the wax looks convincing, and the background is nice and subtle. Some of the candle flames look hollow in a strange way, and the smoke from the plate seems to be glowing. The picture frame looks too much like a bump map distorting the reflection, maybe some more texture there or a softer reflection so it isn't just noise distortion would help.

EverCall - Nice homework! Tell your teacher I'd give you a good grade! Can you figure out why some of the flames are going dark at the edges? Maybe if you rendered the flames as a separate layer you could screen them on without darkening anything?

-jeremy

[elte]

Thank you Jeremy for your reply.

Please allow myself to give my personal comments :)

evercall - Man that's a lot of effort to bring up this scene :applause: I personally love your first render better (with the red candle), somehow it gave the 'scary' impression (the b/w photo + red candle in Asia are strongly related to someone who passed away) but by all means no offense to the girl in the photo. Plus the chinese text on the wall behind, if you can bring this theme stronger, I believe it can create a story behind :)

zasid - Less than 1 minute is damn fast! I love the material on the candle holder. Is the background supposed to be a landscape or wallpaper? Rite now it seems a little bit off from its place.

ariander - nice image ari, I agree with Jeremy, the candle flame looked uniform. And I felt that the SSS on the candle is too much.

isdanny - maybe ur glow make the flame look blurry. I would love to know if you can share how to make the smoke using maya fluid :)

suchoparek - I love the mood, but isn't candle light supposed to give warmer cooler to the overall scene? and I notice the black line below the candle flame. any clue what cause that?

yencaray - I love the texture on the table. And the color in the photoframe actually stand out from the overall warm scene. The candle looks a little bit weird on the transparency. and also the smoke looks kinda like gas :P

So many posts :D I'll try to give more comments later. Gotta back to work.

-elte-

[suchoparek]

@jeremy: thanks-a-lot! i didn't realized the problem on glass vase, i guess it's about incident angle gradient on transparency.

@elte: thanks! probably you're right. IMHO less saturated lights (and not only lights...) give image a more realistic look. about black line on candles, i exclude shadow issue, maybe it's about translucency... Your image is very good, but render time is a way too long: my rendertime, 9 antialias pass at 1024*768 with internal lightwave renderer, took 6min 50sec...

[jojo1975]

Hello Jeremy , shouldn't today start the new challenge ;) ?
Waiting for the new one. Great work seen in this one !

Jojo

[yencaray]

Thanks Jeremy! i was wondering about that flames so i'm glad you cleared that up! i Changed that lighting and basicall turned down all the lights and then picked one and bumped it a bit compared to the rest to give the scene some direction with the light? can you see it at all? is this something i should try doing with this or not? what else could be improved? should i add more color to the smoke or does it sit well in the scene as is? i'm not sure what to do with it as thats what i tried doing previously with the smoke.

I ordered your book weeks ago too..barnes is a little slow this time! So i'm way excited to read your book! thanks again for the critique!

elte - So is the picture frame good? this was what i purposfully tried to achieve so good bad? tha smoke looks like gas yeah and i wanted it to look more of a disturbed smoke instead of a scene that was still. ya know when you burn insence if you are laying in bed or something where there is no movement in the room notice how it's usually a straight stream of smoke thats got hard edges? but then notice how even just walking around the room changes how it behaves drastically? i wanted to do that here and give the smoke a softer edge as if the air is moving around from a disturbance. maybe good idea but the smoke looks more like gas...hmm i'll work on that! i think i have some ideas! Thanks!

heres the updated pic
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/moon_lit_eyes/CGTALK%20forums/Candels_5-1.jpg

[MinaRagaie]

how come I got no feedback at all??? is my work that bad???:D

Just Kiddin'....:)
I'm anew member and my posts need to be validated... so there only 24 hours late after I post.
thanks god that's only true for the first 2 posts.

I've been quite busy working on that challange that I had no time to chat about it...
Damn it, I've missed all the fun this challange.

I'll start early on chalange #7:bounce:

one more last thing.... (wich I should've said first)

@JeremyBirn Thanks alot for these online challanges
and thanks alot for your Book it really helped me alot.
I'm living in Egypt so getting a copy of your book wasn't quite easy, But it really was worth it.
congratulations... Great Book, I'll be waitting for the 3rd edition :)

[barrymcw]

@ Matt, obviously I'm not sure what exacty Jeremey was seeing in the picture frame, but from what I can see, comparing your last two renders is that in the first, the distortion seemed to come from a displacement map, but that the displacement wasn't mirrored in any of the other channels - color, diffusion, etc. That makes it look a bit artificial. Now, to me, it looks more natural.

Regarding one light being stronger than another, I can't spot it immediately. My eye is drawn to the center one, but, well, it's in the center. I wonder if rendering lights on separate passes would be a way try this effect out. Logically why one candle would be really bright vs. another, I'm not sure but that's no reason not to try it.

@ Mina, nice render. In terms of compostion, my eye goes right to the folks in the pic, which is great in terms of storytelling but when critiquing technical stuff that's not where I want to look. But that's not your problem ;).

I'd like to see a bit more of the table. There's just enough of it for me to wonder what it looks like.

Is the glow on the candleholders also due to the DOF issues you mentioned?

I like the papery screen and the painterly reflections on the vase.

[jeremybirn]

yencaray - The picture frame now looks like it has random noise or film grain of some kind superimposed, still not a believable surface. Especially in a render like yours, where some surfaces are realistically textured like the table-top, you need to be consistent in how you depict other surfaces. Find a real surface made of some material for reference, and try to copy how it looks in diffuse, specular, reflections, distortion to reflections, etc. Smoke needs some shading, smoke does get illuminated by lights, it isn't just a field that gets all bright or all dark.

jojo1975 - Yep, Challenge #7 is on-line already, and I'll be making a thread about it soon.

MinaRagaie - Nice scene! For a scene with that much ambient light, I don't think the tops of the candles would be going all the way to so bright a white tone where they are translucent. The background is nice, although I don't know where that circle of light comes from. Your textures and surfaces are convincing, on the vase, frame, etc. (If people don't comment soon enough, you should consider it a personal insult. Nobody here has a job or gets busy with other things or anything, so that's the only explaination. :) )

zasid - That's a good start. The scene looks very evenly lit, not as if it were lit by the candle flames, maybe you could start with just lights in the candles as the only light sources and work from there?

nado319 - Nice scene, and welcome! Maybe the candle flames look a bit too hard-edged and opaque, and making them a little softer and more transparent in places could add to the image. The lighting is off to a good start, but could be more focused around the candles, being brighter where they light the scene and darker as you move a little away from them.

pietjepixel - That's a nice scene. You are very brave with using bold, saturated colors, which is good, but in a few places there is a loss of contrast because of that. The red candle over the red sky kindof makes them blur together. With all those colors in the sky, it would be nice if the fill light on the screne in the background could be illuminated with colored fill light, instead of just the gray lighting that's there now.

barrymcw - That's a good scene. In some ways it works. That hard-edged circle of shadow around the candles is something that wouldn't exist in real life. I wish the candle flames had a bit more color variation and softness to them. The empty picture frame and its reflections work for me, that looks pretty good. The smoke is nice, it looks believable and matches the tone of the scene well.

kingmango - That's a nice scene. The flames need work, parts of them look like hard-edged objects, then the glow around the point at the top doesn't really fit with the shape. The illumination on the background could be evened out a bit. The reflections on the plate and the candle wax are spot-on, good details add to the believability.

Raaf - That's a nice scene. The shadows could be softer, and seem strangly different between the different candles. Overall the look is good. A better wood texture would add alot to the believability.

bwanaghana - Nice scene! The glows around the flames seem a bit over-done, but parts of the image without the flames like the plate and vase are nicely balanced in terms of tones. It would be great if you could get softer shadows.

slatr - Nice scene. I agree you need to fill in light on the background more. The flames might be going too white. THere's something strange about the reflections on the table: the texture doesn't look like something that would be that mirror-like in the first place, and then the reflections slant off sideways?

Polyphemus - Nice scene!

Bartosz - Glad you posted, that's a nice scene. I like the embossed metal artwork.

mswertfager - Nice final scene, I'll have to add that to the gallery.

-jeremy

[MinaRagaie]

@jeremybirn, I was just kiddin' about the feedback (obviously not funny):sad:. I know that everyone is busy and got alot to do. I haven't had time to post feedback myself.
I'll make a practical apolgy...
I'll send a brakedown of my lighting before I start in challange 7.
least I can do... I haven't shared anything since the challange started.

@barrymcw, Well... I wish I could see more of that table :), but it's just that I liked that camer angle much that I wouldn't give it up for showing technical details.
The glow on the candle holders is placed there intentionally. It got nothing to do with that DOF problem. it's actually the same Painterly effect that shows on the highlights on the vase

Changes I've made:
-I've fixed the candles top. (wich appears to be a composting mistake)
-I used a different technique to simulate Dof. (no more jagged edges)
-I've desaturaed far objects based on the Z-depth pass.
-I've enhanced the glow on the highlights and the glow on the flames.(very slightly)

http://img486.imageshack.us/img486/166/challange62ndtrial1ji3.jpg

I'll be back with that breakdown ASAP.

[behrooz]

hi everybody perhaps its late but this is my render with MR:

http://xs207.xs.to/xs207/06401/candle3.jpg (http://xs.to)

[JCBug]

Behrooz - Wonderful work. Now, try the Challenge N°7...

[vtcgman]

An updated version of an image that I posted a while ago:
http://rpi.edu/~decelj/cgtalk/candlesFull_1.jpg
I worked on the candle holders and bringing out the vase more. I really need to work on the flames though. I can't seem to get a good shader. I'm trying to use a sampler info node to get soft colored edges but I keep getting black spots in the middle of the flame in the front most flame and the flame on the right. I photoshoped these two flames in for this image but you can still see the reflection of the old on in the glass. Oh well. Great work everyone. There are some amazing images in this thread!

[isdanny]

@jeremybirn - Thanks for your suggestions. I have removed the depth blur and added glow onto the flames. I have lower the background(screen) brightness a bit and also lower the atmosphere fog a bit. My render passes are in a mess, and I have difficulties controlling the lights and shadows due to lack of experience/skills as well as poor planning. :sad:

@elte - I used the pre-made cigarette2D example and tweak the settings for my smoke.

http://isdanny.googlepages.com/candlesv11.jpg


nevertheless, I have also re-render the animation. download avi clip (http://isdanny.googlepages.com/candlesv11.avi)
Thanks to all for viewing. :)

[fulg0re]

Hi, I just want to say this challenge is great. I am new in 3D and have learned so much during this challenge. Here is my update
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/4340/candlesmq1.jpg

[MinaRagaie]

OK, Here's My Breakdown as I promised...
I've got alot more to share about it, But I don't have that much time, I'm a bout 1 week late for challange 7, so I thought I'd share my "compositing fx tree" (the part I'm mostly proud of -although it got some minor mistakes)

This Image is my very first render using Maya, however as I've been using XSI for about a year now, I decided to use it's attatched compositing software to bring my passes togather.

This Breakdown is 7 pages witch could be quite huge for a single post, I'll send 1 page and link to the other 6 pages.

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n214/Minaragaie/challange_6_Candles/Page_01.jpg


Page2 (http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n214/Minaragaie/challange_6_Candles/Page_02.jpg)
Page3 (http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n214/Minaragaie/challange_6_Candles/Page_03.jpg)
page4 (http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n214/Minaragaie/challange_6_Candles/Page_04.jpg)
page5 (http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n214/Minaragaie/challange_6_Candles/Page_05.jpg)
page6 (http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n214/Minaragaie/challange_6_Candles/Page_06.jpg)
page7 (http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n214/Minaragaie/challange_6_Candles/Page_07.jpg)

other techniques I used ( witch I would've shared if I had more time):
-Using fresnel effects on most of my reflective objects
-Bilbording texture projections on the flames
-Color correcting reflections (in hypershade) to tint them with a hue similar to the metal diffuse color.

(I know this breakdown is not that neat, But I hope it's useful)

Mina Ragaie... :)

[MinaRagaie]

@behrooz, I can only Say WOW about those flames reflections, the background is not as good as the rest of the image, But from the quality of your render I can tell you that's propably because you didn't have much time.
Hope to see your work on challange 7.

@fulg0re, first I must say that I like your attitude, you've been working on this for quite a while now, but still there is a problem with the reflections.
-Try mapping a hemisphere with a "dim room" panoramic image and place it behind the camera. the reflections on your vase give away the fact that there's no enviroment around the scene (it reflects pure black in parts where there is nothing to reflect)

[neonbulbs]

Hi, greetings to you all. I'm a new member and I just want to say that this forum is a great way to learn lighting. This is my first rendering on the candle challenge using XSI. I composed the passes using digital fusion and make the final image to look like an old and mystical place. Please feel free to comment it and any advice is welcome.

http://www.geocities.com/neonbulbs/Candle_Challenge.jpg

[jeremybirn]

MinaRagaie - Thanks for the breakdown, that's great! Your image looks terrific, too, although if all your DOF was done in post it would be nice if the framed photograph were in focus, seeing the picture (is that you?) a little soft looks like the camera wasn't focused on the main area of interest.

fulg0re - Nice update!

isdanny - Great scene! I like the subtle lighting around the vase, and the candles and smoke look even better in the animation file.

vtcgman - Nice scene! I think you are having shadow trace depth problems, with shadows not appearing in reflections, and that might be why the reflections of the candle holders you see in the table are brighter than the holders themselves. I might like to see it with a less blank picture in the frame, too, but overall good job!

behrooz - Wonderful! I love the rich, ornamental textures. Really the whole foreground is looking great. The background, the asian screen seems to just be cheap formica or some other fake wood, and plain paper in between without any real print or pattern on it. If you don't have maps for the wood and canvas of the screen, then at least consider darkening it way down and maybe vignetting it so it's darker at the edges than the center.

-jeremy

[chikoritaKun]

here is my work...i took about 6 hours to do this...i think its not really good...but anyway hope can hear comment from u guys...

tq ;)

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e354/deBomb/candle.jpg

[titanwong31]

This is my wip rendering. Im still working on the overall lighting and feel for the image. Please feel free to give me comments on improving it. Thank you alot.

http://server2.uploadit.org/files/titanwong31-candle_kt.jpg (http://server2.uploadit.org/files/titanwong31-candle_kt.jpg)

[jeremybirn]

titanwong31 - That's actually a good start. Try to get more illumination from the candles onto other surfaces like the table. There should be a pool of light with the table getting warmer and brighter near the candles.

chikoritaKun - That's a nice image. The girl is cute, is she a pop star or actress? The table looks very brightly and evenly lit, as if it were lit by a unifom light source a distance away instead of all the little candles. It would be better if there were pools of light around the candles and it got darker with distance. The texture on the vase looks very procedural, I hope you can find something more natural for that. The plate and incense are good by some shadows or maybe reflections would help connect them better.

neonbulbs - Welcome! Good work. I think the "old photograph" look would work better if there weren't so much green in the candle flame color and the picture frame didn't go that black. It would be great if you could soften the candle shadows and add a bit of a warm glow to the top of the candle wax to make it look translucent.

-jeremy

[neonbulbs]

Hi again. Alright, this is an update of my rendering, I've fixed the candle translucencies, the glow colors, and also smoothed out the overall shadow. I decided to decrease the depth blur and the particles to make the image less blurry.

http://www.geocities.com/neonbulbs/Candle_Challenge_2.jpg

Anyway, feel free to comment on my latest rendering. Oh, yes, I just want a little bit of advice from you guys. I've used standard lighting method to light the scene, but when I tried to render it using Final Gather, the Fast SSS shader on the candles just went crazy. All the surface was covered by white diffuse only. Can anyone give me a tip how to tweak SSS when using Final Gather please?

[sagarkarwa]

hi....all of you!

I know ths is too late...but i will post for this challenge..:)

so far all images are to good...!:thumbsup:

This is my first post to this Site...!

Thank you,
Sagar

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k41/sagarkarwa7/candle_light.png

[titanwong31]

Thank you for the comment. Here is the image after those changes. I change the attribute of translucent and specular for the candles, the particles of smokes and also the decay of light to quadratic.

http://server2.uploadit.org/files/titanwong31-candle_kt1.jpg

[croonstreet]

I was given this in calss to light and only after I finished did our teacher tell us it was a challenge on CG Talk. So, I dont really know if this is late or whatnot but here's mine. All we had to do was light it. Our teacher put on the textures and gave us the scene to light.

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n165/croonstreet/MAL07_candles02.jpg

I would really like some critiques, more along the lighting side of things. We haven't really learned too much about texturing yet, so I'm a little illiterate when it comes to that.

[praveenud]

Dear Jeremy Bin, I have always been learning from your tutorials and challenges, ofcourse the candle scene was a challenge and I did that..I am posting the final composite image which I have done and is keen to hear from you about it. Thanks for the online help you are providing..it's great to have you here:)http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/3563/candlescene002ub6.jpg

[Leotril]

Hi..

this is what i got so far.. ill probably change the picture and add raytracing next.. a lot of work to do ill keep posting k.

http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/4789/candles4copia4pb4.th.jpg (http://img54.imageshack.us/my.php?image=candles4copia4pb4.jpg)

-im havin some problems with SSS so is disable right now
-shadows are not giving my good results .. i dont like the circular shadow around the candles.. i like the long shadows casting from the pointlights in the candles .. ill try to work on that
- ill try to do somethin with the flames rigth now there are a ramp shader but im not really happy with it... im working on render layers right now one for the flames only and another for rest of teh objects including lights ..


Thanks for the challenge

[Leotril]

UPDATE

Well i added Raytrace Reflection adn Shadows ..it takes all afternoon about 7 hours ..before it was a minute render :sad: my settings are very high quality mno jjagies .. but i want to improve a lot of thins including rendertime .. i cant stand past 20 minutes renders :wise:


http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/7780/candles4raytracecompyh3.jpg

I know my flames suck stop buggin me :scream: no smoke yet .. are the reflections all right?
i wanna go minimalistic in my next render if is goint to be raytrace so ..i need specific values for raytracing reflections and shadows .. hmm i dont like my shadows im not getting the long shadows taht i ilke . just the circular ones in some candles .. in others dont show at all
I would like some feedback .. oops i didn change the picture :)

[Xiaojun]

hi all,it is a very funny experience to do it.
I used MAX scanline randerer for this scenes.Each candle has 3 light ,one omni lighten the other object and cost the shadow :one omni lighten the upside of candle:the last one at the button of the candle ,to make it a little dark:)
hehe,the photo in the frame comes from my home town,i take this photo at 2003 winter.

Holp you give me some advise to improve this works .
Any comments is welcome:)

http://forums.cgsociety.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=104069

[neonbulbs]

@croonstreet: Nice start. I think you can improve your image realism by toning down the lens and glow effect, because candles have more subtle glows on the edge of the flame. And again, great work, keep on doing it.

@xiaojun: It's a great image, but I think you should put more contrast on the shadow, because I think the some of the object on the table, seems floating on the table. Maybe you can add some negative lights to add the shadows or using ambient occlussion to darken up the overall effect. Again nice work.

[ivanwang3d]

Hi,
Here is my first attempt. I use maya software render to render whole scene. Mental Ray for A.O., and then composite in Photoshop. I'm trying to learn more about SSS to improve my candles.
Comments are very welcome. :)

http://features.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/192991/192991_1163408344_medium.jpg

[lightboxhere]

Hello there everyone...first of all i m really elated to be here...n it feels nice to be a tiny molecule of a droplet amongst this vast ocean of talent dat we have here on CGTALK.Im new to dis forum n this is my very first post...n i must say dat this is one great site we have here n its a great platform to learn n improve on our work n am really thankful to Mr.Jeremy Birn.i ve just finished a course in 3d animation.am working on my portfolio,n am an ASPIRINGhttp://www.cgtantra.com/forum/smileys/smiley4.gif lighting artist,lookin out for openings in the animation industry. . http://www.cgtantra.com/forum/smileys/smiley2.gifn this is my very first lighting scene in progress.n this is the only scene i ve EVER done besides my academic project!http://www.cgtantra.com/forum/smileys/smiley5.gifso i really need help n hope to hear comments frm people frm the animation industry.I did this scene on maya n wud like help to get the reflections n shadows rite.n i wanna learn rendering n compositing too.so widout dat i m kinda stuck rite nw...do send me comments on hw to reneder n composite it better so as to make it look more realistic!so all u lighting/rendering/compositing artists!!S.O.S! http://www.cgtantra.com/forum/smileys/smiley19.gif
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/5247/finalcandlescenetk2.jpg (http://imageshack.us/)

[LeeGriggs]

Here is my asian prince altar. :)

Rendered with RenderDrive in Maya (no sss unfortunately :cry: ).

Did a bit of cleaning up in photoshop.

cheers,
lee

[jmBoekestein]

hey some really nice entries people! I'm learning a lot of colour schemes by watching such varying styles (in itself the variance is interesting too).

I had to get back at it, didn't like the results of previous arduous attempts and it didn't feel right. I deleted my previous lights and camera's And reworked it.

I've taken time to set it up for a wider range of exposures as well, Brazil has an option to exceed white (by alot in floats) which you can use for hdr and also different exposures. Puts materials through a rigorous test as well. (basically this is the same render, just in case, onyl exposure tweak. I'm going for realism on this one so thta's why I spose))

first Brazil exposure preview control at 1
http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/4467/candlescene21sp3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

and exposure at 0.33
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/3268/candlescene233ji2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

and exposure set at 3
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/3397/candlescene23gi5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

(bit of a shame about the bright base of the candle, don't know how that happens, must be an intersection of sorts)

[thunders]

Hi ! Maybe it's too late but here is an evolution of my picture.
Of course your comments are welcome ;)
I've learn so many things. Thanks to all !

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/5506/candlestest22mrfume2coran5.jpg

[RallyMan]

Hello, I'm new on the forum, It's my first time for a 3D Render Challenge... I have a very poor english, sorry..
http://features.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/254906/254906_1163987939_large.jpg

[RallyMan]

Oh..It's too late ?.. I don't know...

[Veliar]

Hello everybody! I'm new on the forum. I know it's way too late to post anything here, but oh well, I couldn't not to.
I still would so much appreciate your critics.

p.s. Guys you are all awesome artists, lots of simply amazing works. I learned seriously lot of stuff.
Big thanks Jeremy for his new book. Just finished reading it. Truly fountain of knowledge.

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r320/viktor12ru/candle_scene-1.jpg

[jeremybirn]

http://www.3drender.com/challenges/candles/index.htm

I just put up a first version of a gallery for this challenge.

If there are any mistakes, or if anyone whose work appears in the gallery doesn't have their full name on-line, please PM me because you'll only see the name from cgtalk in the copyright message under your work.

-jeremy

[MinaRagaie]

Thanks a lot for including my Image in your gallery Jeremy. I'm honored being on your site.

I'm using my full name on CGtalk
Do you mean I should include my name on the image itself ?? (as some kind of signature)

[jeremybirn]

Mina -

Since it was on cgtalk, your full name appears in the copyright message below the image in the gallery. (right? PM me if not.)

-jeremy

[MinaRagaie]

Right, My full name is there, I just misunderstood what you were sayin' the first time. thank you jeremy :)

[yogeshsherman]

Hi jeremy as suggested by you i am now giving my entry for this challange hope it not too late.i have made it earlier but couldn't post it .I have used SSS shader for candles and used MR for rendering in Maya but I have not used any GI solution.http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o167/yogeshsherman/yogeshCandle.jpg

[jeremybirn]

Hey Yogesh -

That looks nice, but it seems very diffusely lit. Maybe it would look more like candle light if the light came from the candle flames and the scene wasn't so evenly lit all over.

-jeremy

[yogeshsherman]

Thanks jeremy for your suggestion Now that's the benefit of joing such a challange you learn so much from the experienced ppl but sorry for my ignorance but it would be easier for me to understand if you can show some image or some link related to my fault.Thanks again.

[CME64]

oh is the challenge finished ?
can i use this work ( i made it quickly to make a little vedio tutorial about candle flam)
this is the pics :

http://www.bof3d.com/upload/upload/wh_783878596.jpg

http://www.bof3d.com/upload/upload/wh_154047595.jpg

& this was a special gift ^_^ :
http://www.bof3d.com/upload/upload/wh_600505654.jpg

hope u like it

[qqlan]

sorry, post error

[qqlan]

It's a bit late... but still want to share it. Hope you like it.
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/7838/candlelightslanfu7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[qqlan]

double posted... sorry. :)


(http://imageshack.us)

[jeremybirn]

qqlan - That's amazing! I love the soft shadow on the translucent screen. Great job!

al3ashiq64 - Thanks for posting. The flame looks good. Maybe if more of the light came from the candle flame instead of the environment, and the wax were a little more translucent, the scene would have more of a candle-lit look?

-jeremy

[jeremybirn]

This thread is archived. If you scroll down to the Challenge #6 section of the downloads page, you'll see that the models can still be downloaded for your tests, and also that a gallery has been made of top entries.

See you there,

-jeremy