CGTalk - On-Going Challenges

jeremybirn

05-14-2007, 11:52 PM

Leotril - Before you do more variations, focus on why the area under the stair landing is so bright and gray. The front-facing surfaces of the archway closest to us (that are black now) could go a little brighter, but the back wall under the stair landing would be about the same tone as the parts of the archways that are facing the same direction. Some of the speckliness of the bright yellow highlights looks as if it isn't getting sampled very smoothly.[/url]

gato3d - Congratulations on finishing it!

piglet-pooh - Good start! The main thing to focus on next is bounce light. Right now the left side of a lot of the fruits are going black, in places where you'd expect reflected light to be bouncing back onto the from nearby surfaces. Giving the shaders a little reflectivity might help, but aiming dim, colored spot lights at them will also be necessary: on the left side of the pear, the apple, the orange, etc. Think about the colors of what's near them that would bounce the light when you choose the bounce light colors.[url="http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=267992"] (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=234000)

warriorash - Looking good! The second one seems to have some weird scale issues inside the garage, one of the posts looks big enough to park a car in. Most of the textures are looking good, the sign above the entrance seems a little squashed.

-jeremy

doodlerboy

05-14-2007, 11:56 PM

How do I add a cookie shadow, so it looks like I have a tree in the background casting a shadow onto my scene?

israelyang

05-14-2007, 11:59 PM

just create a flat tree geometry or create a black and white tree image and put it in the color slot of the light as cookie

israelyang

05-15-2007, 12:04 AM

Leotril
Sorry I didn't see your comments earlier. Thank you for your suggestion, I will look into that.

Scied

05-15-2007, 04:08 AM

Hi this is my render of the fruit bow scene, I hope you guys like it! Iwould love to recieve comments since this is my first entrand in lighting chalenge!

Best wishes!

israelyang

05-15-2007, 05:43 AM

Hey Scied
i think it's pretty good like the overall image, nice DOF, nice shading on the grapes, the plate and particularly the orange. some obvious texture problem with the apple, cherries seem too metalic, highlights not small and crisp enough. i dont see any obvious lighting issue except that the left side of the fruit (especially the orange) seem rather flat (because you use only one light?), so maybe a subtle backlight to bring out a silouette? this is a personal suggestion though.
cheers

juansilva

05-15-2007, 12:57 PM

Scied. Good work overall. There are a few things you could work on to make it better:

1. The bump on all the surfaces seems a bit too high. If you look closely, the stains on the banana skin look more like scars, sinking deep into the skin.

2. There is some weird, very intense grainyness occurring only on the grapes.

3. I agree with the highlights looking too metallic on some of the fruits.

Piglet-pooh. Nice start. I think you just need to work more on your texture maps and your image will look a lot better. Right now, it looks as if you just used flat color shaders, which I was surprised to see, since I saw in your portfolio a scene with pears, and you have a very realistic pear texture right there. Why not use it here?

Cheers guys.

bungatron71100

05-15-2007, 07:38 PM

Scied, you may also want to use two different textures for the bananas. That jumped out at me immediately.

natrule

05-16-2007, 06:02 AM

thanks Jeremy and juansilva for you comments, much appreciated. Here's an update on the current image:

http://rule.customer.netspace.net.au/revision_diffuse_and_specularv2_reduced.jpg

Jeremy: I added some bounce light like you suggested. Does it seem like the bounce lights are too strong? Anyway the scene does look a lot better from what I originally posted, thanks for your help.

juansilva: I know the textures are pretty bad. I had a look for that pear texture you mentioned but I can't seem to find it, probably floating around on my hard drive somewhere. I did some slight alterations to apple and pear textures though. I feel like the main texture I need to nail would be the grapes, maybe if I have time I'll try for something better.

jeremybirn

05-16-2007, 03:43 PM

Scied - Good start! It looks like it's focused on the front lip of the plate and the cloth in front of the plate, rather than on the fruit, that's kindof distracting. The lighting, definition, and texture on the fabric looks great. I like the glossy look on the plate. Most of the fruit shader/textures are off to a good start, but could use another pass: banana textures look like planar projections cutting through and gets cloned on the two bananas, apple leaf looks black, but one more version can probably fix this. The center fruits aren't very well defined, see if you can get some more shading and directionality on the cherries and the pear (there's nothing wrong with leaving something in darkness if you can define it as dark over a brighter background or with rims or something, but this is just an area where the fruits and their background are both murky, and some more key-side light would help.)

piglet-pooh - Nice improvements! I don't think the bounce is too bright overall. Maybe there are places where it's too bright (the edge of the lower banana as you go behind the grapes), but also places where you need more (the plum to the left of the apple certainly needs some yellow-colored bounce light, it's right next to that extremely bright yellow banana.) The lower right side of the orange needs more bounce, it's above a bright part of the plate, maybe just slide the bounce that's hitting the left side of the orange down and to the right more? I'm not seeing reflectivity on the apple or the pear. The side of the pear needs either some soft reflection of the apple, or at least a little red in its bounce from the apple.

-jeremy

warriorash

05-16-2007, 09:10 PM

hi guys

here is my 2nd render on the neon & Chrome challenge

rendered in Maya Default renderer, still i am not able to get the reflections on the
chrome right ( is there an option to blur it ?? using the Maya default renderer ?? )

is there a way to make the reflections just like a chrome, and not like a mirror which i have(something like a stretched or squeezed reflections)

and when i created a gobo for the head lamps it just repeated itself n times, giving some kind of array of headlights

i have thrown some planes in space so that the glass and the crome parts in the front of the truck can reflect something

thanks for the critics and suggestions which motivates me to make it better and better. :thumbsup:

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6855/try2bq2.jpg

israelyang

05-16-2007, 09:32 PM

warriorash
Neil Blevins has some nice articles on chrome and reflection, http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/cg_education.htm

specifically
http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/chrome/chrome.htm
http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/metal_and_refs/metal_and_refs.htm

If you insist on rendering from maya s/w, you can render out the reflections as a separate pass and blurr it in post, or you can use Mental Ray and you can blur the reflection of each shader this way.

By the way there is some weird artifact inside your shadows.

You can increase the incandense value or the neon objects to a larger number (say, 10, 20) until they show up in the reflection of your truck.

jeremybirn

05-16-2007, 10:38 PM

Hi Warriorash -

No, there's no option for soft raytraced reflections in the Maya Software Renderer, that's only Mental Ray. You can do some related things though: Bump maps break-up reflections so you could distort the reflections with a noise pattern. If you use specular highlights then you can adjust the highlight size in most Maya shaders, giving broader, softer specular highlights, even if the raytraced reflections are still sharp. If you are doing reflections of an image mapped onto a plane as you said, you can blur that image. (Luckily Chrome doesn't depend on blurry reflections, they are mostly pretty sharp.)

It seems as if you are having trace depth problems. Maybe you don't have enough shadows, reflections, set in your Render Settings/Raytrace Quality. Or if your lights have raytraced shadows make sure the ray depth limit is set high enough. (The default of 1 is not enough to appear even initially in a reflection.) If you fix this, it should get rid of the dark spots in the reflection beside the license plate frames, and hopefully also get rid of the frosty white stuff you see through the windshield glass and improve the contrast in your reflections.

If you apply a normal texture map to a spot light's color, then it'll just repeat once across the beam of a spot light. Make sure you didn't do it as a projection, and you're using spot lights, and this should work by default with no adjustments needed.

-jeremy

Leotril

05-17-2007, 08:28 AM

Another try

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/3729/46horassl7.jpg

I was kinda testing stuff and decide to do a colorbleeding shot .. it kinda work to light things a bit also the occ is scattering a bit more .. the only proble, rendertime and i cannot bake colorb properly so it has to render in one shot ,, well ill try do have the scene ready texuring if i decide to try again with colorb.. ill try give another shot this weekend after my pc rest a bit it kinda overheated a bit.. bye

jeremybirn

05-18-2007, 05:51 AM

Leotril - I can see that you are still developing the look. Keep going. The surfaces, the corners, neither look real to me. Focus yourself on some reference image of real hallways or stairwells or corners and make sure you are nailing the shading where surfaces come together and along the textured surfaces.

-jeremy

warriorash

05-18-2007, 01:43 PM

Hey

Israel yang : thanks for the very informative link, and i am trying to do it in the default renderer mainly my system is not a big fan of MR and i feel that it develops our lighting study than allowing the algorithm to calculate it for us (but i wd also love to use it)

Here i have taken care of the ray trace shadow settings But still not able to get the weird dark spot near the registration plate even after increasing the trace depth.
how about the reflections on the truck ?

My render time has increased considerably
will be posting more renders as soon as i am able to clear out all the artifacts.
andd BTW all the best for ur trip jeremy:thumbsup:
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/2788/try3kd1.jpg

juansilva

05-18-2007, 05:47 PM

Hi Jeremy,

Here's my try at the haunted hallway. Please let me know what you think.
Thanks.

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/8674/hauntedhallwayux9.jpg

israelyang

05-18-2007, 05:50 PM

Hi WarriorAsh
I can understand why you don't want to use MR. But there is also a misconception that when one mentions MR, people think of GI and FG. But MR can simply be used as an alternative renderer just like Maya software, without using the new methods that come with MR! And since (if I am not mistaken) MR is built for raytracing, it can calculate reflection and raytrace shadow faster than maya software.

For 'most cases', even if your scene is built for rendering in maya s/w, you can simply change the renderer to mental ray and the resulting renders shouldn't be any different, and with MR you can take adventage of reflection blur.

cheers

boydburggrabe

05-19-2007, 08:30 AM

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions Jeremy. This is still a work in progress, but I moved the key light and reflection a bit per your suggestion to better line up the reflected window with the light source. I need to work on the shaders for the cherries and grapes to make them less plasticy. Also need to troubleshoot some artifacting in the shadows when I try to render passes.

Boyd

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb122/boydbee_images/lighting%20challenges/fruit_v2_24.jpg

andystopps

05-19-2007, 10:06 PM

JuanSilva - your hallway's looking really good, I like the painterly lighting and the rather disturbing camera angle. The grain of the wall texture looks a bit out of scale (too big) and maybe a touch too specular (unless you're going for a moist look).
WarriorAsh - I don't have much experience with Maya (see below) but I seem to remember with 3ds Max that if MR was set up properly, and one resisted the temptation to pile on the GI, FG, caustics etc., it wasn't much slower than the default scanline renderer. I favour XSI now where the default renderer is MRay and it seems to render much faster than in Maya, using all processor threads at 100%, but it might be that Maya requires some extra settings to be enabled to get full performance. It definately isn't a case of letting the algorithm do all the work though, you have to do just as much tweaking as with other renderers to get the best of it. That notwithstanding, your scene is looking good, I have to say I wouldn't have noticed the spot by the number plate, I'd have assumed it was just a reflection from the road.
I've also decided to have a go at the haunted hallway, mostly as an exercise to get my head round Maya (which I find quite tough going). This scene reminds me so much of a house I used to live in in Portugal that I've decided to try to reproduce that, rather than going for the haunted look. (As far as I know, the only ghosts in our house were those of generations of woodworm in the timber - which'll present an interesting texturing challenge here).
http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t118/andystopps/hall_01copy.jpg

warriorash

05-21-2007, 01:26 PM

posted by israelyang :
Hi WarriorAsh
I can understand why you don't want to use MR. But there is also a misconception that when one mentions MR, people think of GI and FG. But MR can simply be used as an alternative renderer just like Maya software, without using the new methods that come with MR! And since (if I am not mistaken) MR is built for raytracing, it can calculate reflection and raytrace shadow faster than maya software.

For 'most cases', even if your scene is built for rendering in maya s/w, you can simply change the renderer to mental ray and the resulting renders shouldn't be any different, and with MR you can take adventage of reflection blur.

cheers

I agree with u Isreal , it just decreased my render time by a minute
and BTW i was also referring to algorithms like FG,GI and not just MR.

Here is my scene again, i just worked on the reflections on the chrome and the light ray trace values
this is rendered in Mental Ray

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/9064/try5lu9.jpg

SonarPhoton

05-22-2007, 01:28 PM

Hello. My first post. I use Max and Mental Ray. Only FG on.
I see many things I should fix on it. But I think I need some feedback firs.
I’m pretty new to 3D, I have about 8 months of experience.
Please forgive my bad English.

http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/2889/48151164ns2.jpg

bonim

05-23-2007, 01:53 AM

Jeremy, what a wonderful idea. I've read your first book ... it was part of a course I took in Lightwave. I've taken the haunted hallway ... and because I don't have the high end software that many of the other folks here have, I've decided to try this with Vue 5 Esprit. So ... here it is.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l224/Boni_m/hauntedhallfinal.jpg

Looking forward to feedback.

Sincerely
~ Boni ~

juansilva

05-23-2007, 03:45 AM

Boni. That's great...it cracks me up everytime I see it. It's like the doll house from hell.
I love the woman sitting on the chair underneath the staircase...but I gotta ask..what's up with that?

Anyway...now some serious feedback:

1. I think you should get rid of that red glow you have above the window. It kinda looks as if we're seeing the spotlight you're aiming at the ground.

2. There seems to be a context mismatch in your texture maps. The textures on the floor, arches and stairs do look like the interior of a building, but the really bumpy textures on the wall look more like taken right out of a dungeon.

3. The colored stains on the floor look rather odd. I think they would work best if they just look like either blood or dirt.

Hope that helps.
Cheers.

bonim

05-23-2007, 03:55 AM

juansilva:

Thanks so much for the feedback. The woman is suppose to be crouching under the stairs. IF you could see her face, she's scared. The man has a knife in his left hand.

The light ... yeah, I can see that. It's suppose to be the glow from the overhead light. As for the floor it was a "happy" accident at the time and I liked it, but it can be distracting. The walls are suppose to be rough crumbling stone walls. But again, didn't work out.

Thank you so much for your feedback!!!

Sincerely
~ Boni ~

juansilva

05-23-2007, 03:49 PM

Boni. No problem. I'm always happy to help.

Komarcic

05-24-2007, 04:46 PM

hey guys, C&C on this one please. here's a render with GI + FG, default color lambert material.

andystopps

05-24-2007, 10:18 PM

Hi, everyone.
Sonarphoton - good start. You've got a lot of self-illumination from the grapes, but the orange in particular seems very dull. The plums, cherries and bananas are much better. I think you might find it easier not to use FG (and GI) for the time being - you can get really good results from MRay without them, and the faster render times make it easier to experiment with your basic light settings.
I've done a bit more on the hallway; there are some weird artefacts on the dado panelling which are something to do with it being entirely bump mapped (I'm not to keen on hard-surface modeling, especially in Maya), I haven't figured out what to do about it yet. I did a really crude Levels adjustment in Photoshop to get the sunlight effect somewhere approaching what I want, hence the blown-out highlights. Definite room for improvement there, but it's useful as a preview.
http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t118/andystopps/hall_02.jpg

boydburggrabe

05-25-2007, 06:51 AM

warriorash

05-26-2007, 02:38 AM

andy stoops -

parts of the pillars are completely burnt out, bring the intensity down and the intensity of light that is shown outside the window is very less compared to the intensity that is hitting the pillars

and area under the steps are illuminated , i guess u didnt turn ON shadows for some of the lights

and ur camera angle is not so good there.

check out the other members wrk in the 3drender gallery, u l get an idea,
Hope this helps

Komarcic

05-26-2007, 04:59 PM

Hey Komarcic,

Looking interesting, though the black in the window is taking away from the realistic lighting feel. Even a really light blue or gray in the window would help sell the illusion.

In terms of lighting, it seems like the bounce on the ceiling and the left wall are stronger than I would expect to see. And maybe it's the camera angle, but with the light hitting the far edge of the table, I expect to see some light hitting the floor or that chair on the left.

Hope that's helpful.

Boyd

yes i agree with you, the light is definatelly too strong in these parts, but the thing is that the other parts of the scene are too dark. especially the upper right corner, it's just doesn't seem natural to be as dark during a bright sunny day. i've been studying these corners in every single room of my house, but even when the sun isn't that strong (the photons i.e.) corners don't go that dark. if i crank up either the photon intensity or energy, these corners will get brighter but so will the other now already overlit parts.

what do you think about this new render? i render it using FinalRender and a single spot light as the sunlight source. no filllights whatsoever. this was my first scene rendered using FR. it seems more natural than MR. there's just this shadow problem right of the cabinet. i don't really know how to get rid of it. but overall i'm more pleased with FR

jeremybirn

05-26-2007, 08:40 PM

Hi Everybody! I'm back from Ireland, and trying to catch-up on feedback!

Komarcic - It looks as if you have a sunbeam entering the room, but no light from the sky. Start by really focusing on the fill light from the blue sky entering the window from all the other angles, and maybe some bounce light with other colors entering from lower angles. The mix of the warm sunlight/cool sky fill is the main thing to get right for a sunny day look. Next, turn down the intensity with which the sun light bounces indirectly, because right now it's making too much bouce, the wall that has the window should look at least a little back-lit. If you can figure out why the little cracks between the panels on the front of the cabinets are going pure black, fix that. Maybe it's a need for more indirect light bounces, maybe it's some occlusion turned on? Also, working a little on the materials, like a sink that's really made of metal, would help the image a great deal.

andystopps - Keep going with that. The perspective of using a point-source light just outside of the window looks somewhat theatrical, the way the fog beams diverge away from eachother. The area that needs the most work is the left side, where the archways meet the left wall. I think some occlusion could help make that contact feel more solid.

bonim - The guy in the center could use some rim or kick lighting, something along the top of his head, and maybe just a hint of specular from below too. The walls could use some occlusion to darken the corner areas. Maybe the blue light on the floor could be dimmer and with softer shadows?

SonarPhoton - Welcome! That's a good start. I think you need to work on shadows, I can't really see the shadows between the fruits. The green shader (on the leaf and grapes) looks too bright, maybe the self-illuminating shader is part of why the shadows don't show up.

warriorash - If you're rendering in MR you should be able to get the neon tubes to actually illuminate the surfaces near them using FG, so the blue circle would actually add blue illumination to the P sign for example. Some parts of the lights are going too bright, the circular hotspot in the upper center of the image for example. Try to figure out why parts of the windows are going pure white, if anything they might go dark where there's dark environment to reflect.

boydburggrabe - Looking good. The shaders need more work, especially the reflectivity seems like it's all-or-nothing with very sharp reflections on the olives and apple and cherries, but no reflectivity at all on the grapes, orange, pear.

juansilva - That's great! The textures are giving it a really organic feel. There's a bright area on the back wall, where one third of it is above the stair landing, and two thirds are below it. It makes me wonder why the landing isn't shadowing that light. The light bulb is a little awkward, just because I can't tell if it's on or off. If it's off I'd expect more reflectivity. Maybe you could use a bit of occlusion on the corners (esp. the archway meeting the side walls) and a bit of bounce light on the foreground boards where they are right next to the sunbeam on the floor.

-jeremy

Komarcic

05-26-2007, 09:29 PM

Komarcic

05-29-2007, 08:39 AM

hey i've made a few changes here. i've added some color to the walls and set up a few shaders. i have to add some reflectivity to the table and garbage bin. some reflection blur to the floor, table and the garbage bin. i still have to tweak those shaders, and drop some texture to the chairs.

what do you think abuot the lighting now? i'm thinking of cranking up the bounce light intensity. i've created a reddish-purpleish bounce light coming from below the floor. i still haven't figured out why the crack between the cabinet doors is pitch black. i've tried by cranking up the number of bounces but it still doesn't work.

juansilva

05-29-2007, 01:05 PM

Komarcic. That's starting to look a lot better. I think you need to increase the amount of fill light coming from the back of the room so the bottle and the chairs don't look so dark. Also, you might want to give this bounce a light blue color since like Jeremy said, that's the key to getting the bright sunny day look.

You may also want to turn down the reflectivity on all your surfaces, particularly the floor and the garbage bin.
Oh, and the dark part under the cabinets doesn't really bother me. I think it looks ok, and once you kick up the fill light, it will look a lot better.

Hope this helps.
Juan

Komarcic

05-29-2007, 02:37 PM

thank you for the feedback juansilva. i'm doing my best

i know about the bottle and chairs, i was too lazy to make some shaders and drop textures to them :)

about the reflections i know i have to turn them down, thing is that when i enter even a value of 0.002 to FR the reflection blur gets sky rocketed. impossible to tell what is actually being reflected. no matter to the change of blur amount it still is the same. i think i'll render this one in passes, edit the reflection blur in photoshop and composit the whole thing.

i'm working on the fill light at the moment :)

Rafael Braga

05-30-2007, 02:30 AM

Hi Guys!

Here goes my "attempt" to light the fruits scene.

My goal was to achieve a good result with simple lights and to know how to work rightly with lights.

I know that some textures are not good, but as i said, i wanted to work more with lights and composite.

Thanks! :)

http://paginas.terra.com.br/arte/rbraga/frutas_01.jpg
http://paginas.terra.com.br/arte/rbraga/frutas_01.jpg

Komarcic

05-30-2007, 07:30 AM

here's an update. I've changed some GI settings, added light blue bounce light. I didn't want to bring the intensity too high because I was afraid I'd the walls might become greenish. yellow+blue=green neh? I still have to figure out what's wrong with the reflections. must be something I'm doing wrong because no matter how low I set the final render reflection values, the final result is absurd because the whole surface appears lamber with reflections resembling splotches.

now there's even some light between the cabinet doors due to increasing detail detection i believe. i'm going to add a bit of reflectivity to cabinet doors once i figure out what the reflection blur problem is

the glass bottle is just default FR_glass shader with bright color.

oh and i'm going to close off the door opening behind the camera because it's creating that awkward reflection on the edge of the table. i dunno, or do you guys think i should just leave for a detail?

boydburggrabe

05-30-2007, 07:54 AM

Komarcic, it's coming along nicely. I agree with your idea to get the door reflection out of the table edge, it is a little odd. Also looks like you have some light leaks at the top of the under-counter cabinets, probably coming from where the sink meets the counter top. You might want to check the geometry there, or maybe that was due to the detail setting you changed? Sorry I have no help to offer on your reflection issues.

Boyd

Komarcic

05-30-2007, 09:35 PM

thank you boydburggrabe. I've managed to remove the door reflection. Yes I'm currently struggling with those light leaks at the moment. It's apparently some kind of geometry issue, i've eliminated the idea that some of the bounce lights were kicking in too much light inbetween so it's got to be the geometry. i'll try to fix this today.
I'll post my progress later this evening.

israelyang

05-30-2007, 09:57 PM

Komarcic
I am working on the same scene and experiencing the same light leak, I don't have a solution yet.

Komarcic

05-31-2007, 12:14 AM

i'm sorry that you are having the same problem as i am, but i'm just glad that we know that the problem MOST probably is in the geometry. i've created a dummy object between the blueish lightsource (arealight) and the area leaking which should pick up all the lighting coming from that specific direction and turned off it's primary visibility. i've also beveled all the edges that could be causing problems.but it's still penetrating and creating light leaking.

which renderer are you using? mental ray?

israelyang

05-31-2007, 12:36 AM

yes I am using MR

israelyang

05-31-2007, 03:54 AM

Here is my try at the kitchen scene.
My script is:

MEG glides through the house, precisely following Hank’s
directions to the washroom. She passes through A WELL-APPOINTED
KITCHEN. MEG pauses to glance at A BOTTLE OF VINTAGE MERLOT
sitting unopened on the table. She smiles in anticipation and
continues through the moonlit expanse.

http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/3565/14pz8.jpg

In my rendering, Meg is standing in the hallway, her shadow is on the wall.

Thank you for your comments.

warriorash

05-31-2007, 04:11 AM

Here is an update on the Neon and chrome Challenge ...
last render the side glass was becoming white cos of the reflections of the tube light on the sides ... kind of a fresnal efffect ...

i know the red on the EXIT sign has blown out , will take care of that

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/5697/asdfy7.jpg

israelyang

05-31-2007, 04:27 AM

warriorash

05-31-2007, 04:30 PM

warriorash
I think you image could use some depth by creating a difference in light intensity in the foreground and background.
Also if you are trying to achieve photorealism, think of exposure. Consider how the camera (and our eyes) will adjust to the lighting at where you are, and where you are looking at.

thanks for the comments Israel Yang ...
Here is an update
- I Have reduced the light intensity inside the garage
- The Bright Red Glow on the Exit sign is reduced
- added some DOF and Lens Flare
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/636/o6talktc0.jpg

Update :
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9919/07jbf9.jpg

Komarcic

05-31-2007, 11:31 PM

here's a small update from me. apparently the light leaking problem i had before wasn't a geometry issue. i don't know why but apparently the final render doesn't go well with maya area lights. it didn't cast any shadows whatsoever so all the light just went through the geometry. perhaps i'm doing something wrong i don't know yet.

so now i had to create a point light and use "area shadows" for FR. i have to fix the lighting now on the wall on the left, right part of the window frame and shadow on the wall on the right. don't worry about the reflections i'll blur them

http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/4797/updatelq4.jpg

israelyang

06-01-2007, 06:04 AM

warriorash
Personally I like it much better. I think your exit sign looks very 3d, I am not sure if that's what you have intended. If not, you can try changing its incandence colour to a medium red, and add some glow, to make it appear more flat and neon like.

Here is my update, I have asked a couple people and they thought before the room was too dark. So this version I suppose is closer to what the eyes see, and not what the camera sees.

http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/3057/15gr8.jpg

My script again

MEG glides through the house, precisely following Hank’s
directions to the washroom. She passes through A WELL-APPOINTED
KITCHEN. MEG pauses to glance at A BOTTLE OF VINTAGE MERLOT
sitting unopened on the table. She smiles in anticipation and
continues through the moonlit expanse.

titanwong31

06-01-2007, 09:04 AM

I wanted to create bump on the bottle using L_glass shader, as in the bottle challenge breakdown in Jeremy Birn, but i facing problem on connecting the notes. Can anyone help me on this?

Bellow is the breakdown of what i did, it turns out weird bum the bottle image.

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w62/khaituck/glass.jpg

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w62/khaituck/shader.jpg

That is the breakdown of the L_glass Shader. I have tried another way connecting L_glass2.outvalue to L_glass2SG.miDisplacementShader, the bottle cannot be rendered.

andystopps

06-01-2007, 09:53 PM

Here's the latest version of the hallway. I did an occlusion pass to darken the corners as you suggested Jeremy. It seems like the right hand wall somehow got shifted between the beauty and occlusion passes, which is rather annoying. I was tempted to hide the evidence with Photoshop, but maybe I'll do it properly when i get the time.
http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t118/andystopps/hall_04.jpg

lancillotto

06-02-2007, 06:55 PM

Hi friends, I have just dwnlded this scene and made the first test.I have used max9+vray with very low set . to create caustics in short time I have placed a spot (with water map) behind the camera.The first image has a little CC in photoshop, the second one has a massive post to simulate a frame-still of a motion camera.dof is vray in both the pics.render time about 13 minutes with single p 3400mhz.What else? oh yes...sorry I have broken the handrail.

Bye
Gabriele

Komarcic

06-02-2007, 06:59 PM

hi Gabriele, nice work you've done here so far. Keep going

...sorry I have broken the handrail.
lol that's a good one :)

jeremybirn

06-03-2007, 10:52 PM

lancillotto - Nice job! What is the dark line on the character for (the lower part gets dark below a horizontal line, like his hips have darker skin than the torso?

andystopps - Nice job! The sunbeam hitting the archway looks as if it is hasing a polygon smoothing issue. THe place where the sunbeam hits the foreground left column, it makes the column look round. Apart from the sunbeam, the column looks square. On more minor points, the lower rear wall should be darker, more like the bottom of the stairs above it, and it's a little hard to tell if the lightbulb is supposed to be on or off.

titanwong31 - So, you are creating bump, or displacement? I can't tell. I don't know why you would be connecting anything as a displacement shader? What are you trying to do with displacement anyway?

israelyang - I don't think the foreground bright wall with the shadow really looks like a part of a romantic scene, maybe it would work more in a suspense film. The rest is off to a good start. Since the bottle is back-lit, you could use rim light to really make it read. Maybe some rim or kick could help with the chair and the fruit and other things as well. Also, the chrome of the sink could use less diffuse, more reflectivity.

Komarcic - That's great! You're getting a really solid look there. You might have some trace depth issues, where you look at the reflection in the floor in the lower left, it appears that the floor is reflecting the molding and wall without reflections of the shadows from some light, making parts of the reflection too bright? The reflection of the window seen on the table has other problems, again it looks like the reflection is of something different than what we see directly.

warriorash - That's looking great! I agree about the exit sign not looking realistic. The textures are looking solid, maybe the edges of the manhole cover could be adjusted, but overall that's a terrific scene.

-jeremy

titanwong31

06-04-2007, 04:07 AM

Jeremy-------- I wanted to create and try out the stripes on the bottle like what u have done on ur bottle challenge, like what in your breakdown scene "A lot of the bottles have different Maya procedural textures on them, for example, there's a leather procedural as a bump map on the 2nd bottle, and a ramp texture to make stripes running across the 5th bottle (the blue one.)"

So i was trying to do that also, i dunno how to connect my bump map to the L_glass shader. That is the problem i am facing.

lancillotto

06-04-2007, 11:57 PM

Thanks jeremy for your reply.The dark line should be like a tarzan shorts ( too fit..I know).I have attached that mesh because I didn't want show him naked ( catch him from behind was a his request.He sayd: water is too cold..please respect me) ;) I will appreciate any tips about lighting from you...and I read almost all thread..so I know your opinion about my next question...but I wish to ask same...please forgive me: "could I change scene?" I would like to test the interior scene (table with bottle)? If u prefer I continue with this..I will...Anyway I am glad to stay in this wonderful community...wonderful people
p.s. Hi komarcic..nice job.

ErshadRahbar

06-05-2007, 11:43 AM

hi dear friends

in this post i try to dirting all object in the scene and painting all map also using light for showing the winter sun light
please tell me your opinion about it

15 min for rendering and 1 day for all

kind regards

israelyang

06-05-2007, 06:16 PM

Thanks Jeremy.

Here is my update per your comments.

some colour correction in PS
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/8704/18psqh2.jpg

warriorash

06-06-2007, 11:20 AM

@israelyang : I love that small yellow specs on the table, may be if u give more detail to ur materials. should look gr8.

warriorash - That's looking great! I agree about the exit sign not looking realistic. The textures are looking solid, maybe the edges of the manhole cover could be adjusted, but overall that's a terrific scene.
-Jeremy

Thanks for those words jeremy,
here i have done a few subtle colour changes and i think il call this The Final.
Thanks a lot again.
when is the next Lighting challenge gona start ??
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/8540/psdcopyph9.jpg

Komarcic

06-06-2007, 02:10 PM

Komarcic - That's great! You're getting a really solid look there. You might have some trace depth issues, where you look at the reflection in the floor in the lower left, it appears that the floor is reflecting the molding and wall without reflections of the shadows from some light, making parts of the reflection too bright? The reflection of the window seen on the table has other problems, again it looks like the reflection is of something different than what we see directly.

Thank you Jeremy. Yes I see what you mean about the trace depth. I can't solve this one. Final Render is giving me a hard time. Even if I increase the "Ray Depth Limit" in the light source AE, it has no effect on the scene.
The problem with reflection on the table is that if I decrease the Specular multiplier of the light it will affect the rest of the objects in the scene aswell, not just the table. It will result in low specularity which didn't give me good results.

israelyang

06-06-2007, 06:51 PM

warriorash
Your scene looks great!
yeah my materials are just blinns, most of them with just one colour.

Komarcic
why not just lower the reflectivity on your table?

lancillotto

06-06-2007, 08:25 PM

My first attempt for '4 scripts'. I saw the ugly cross between sink and bottle too late....I will keep out from next try.

Leotril

06-06-2007, 09:08 PM

Hello

This is my new try at the Neon Challenge i been tweaking for a week the quality of the picture is what i consider draft .. i wanted to show hows the scene is coming together lighting wise , textures are in the works unfortanly i loose i more advance file with some texturin in it ill be carefull next time :D
Im trying to achieve the look of batman returns, blader runner or the terminator films those are my biggest inspiration por this proyect also i did some extensive researh on flick

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/803/neon2compcropxk1.jpg

Ok thereas a lot of things to fix im thinking right now the rains looks a bit blue .. im going for a night look on this one of my biggest cocern is the neon lights ..im using the surface shader but i want to get some shading in there kinda more light from the inside and more transparent on the edges (probably a ramp kinda invert like the fresnell one lighter on the top and darken at bottom with the sampler info ?) in my early attemps when i use 2 lights only,the reflections were more clear now they look a bit overbright in some places i thik this is due to d increase in the color value of the surface shader.. it wouldn hurt to do some test with other materials like blinn or phongE on that issue.. ok thats about it im using all the maya lights in this scene but not so many with GI and Hdr sky also using colorbleeding on this one .. bye

leiluparker

06-07-2007, 04:52 AM

Hi everyone! This is my first attempt at the lighting challenges.

I haven't figured out how to make good smoke. I should probably make new flame also since it looks horrible. So please help me if you can and tell me what else looks wrong. Thanks!

MartinRomero

06-07-2007, 09:31 AM

Here is the still life. I unwrapped every single object in the scene. I was going to go for procedural texturing but it wasn't working the way I wanted it so, I just went ahead and painted the textures instead. They look way better this way. I wasn't unable to blur the reflections on the cherries and apple Maya was acting funny about it. Overall I feel pretty happy with the result. For the lighting I have a directional light and two point lights and GI/ Ambient occlusion. That’s it

Thanks again Jeremy for your comments

Later

juansilva

06-07-2007, 01:17 PM

Lancilotto. Great work on the four scripts scene. There's only a couple things that don't work for me:

1. The bump on the floortile it's just a tad too high...just a little bit. That's just me being picky, hehe.

2. The lid on the trash can seem rather flat compared to the other surfaces, particularly compared to the rest of the trashcan.

3. This could just be me, but, the framed worldmap on the wall looks really out of place. Again, it could just be me. I guess I just wouldn't put a world map in my kitchen :)

Leiluparker. Good start on the candle scene. A few comments:

1. Overall the scene is very dark. Even if just lit by candles, you should be able to see some more of the scene...especially some part of the wall in the background.

2. You need to get more shadows in your scene. Both contact and cast shadows. Make sure to add some color to your shadows.

3. The flames on the candles need more work. Try them as a separate pass...it worked for me. And you've probably noticed this...but some of them have glow and others don't.

4. This is just personal taste...but the picture in the frame doesn't really seem to match the japanese "memorial shrine" theme. You could change the scene a bit to better fit the context you'd see that kind of picture in...or just change the picture.

Gato3d. Good start. There's several issues with your scene, both lighting and texturing wise:

1. It looks like you're using very low-res texture maps. This shows most in the fabric in the background, and the texture on the plate. Also, you should give the fabric in the background more tiling, since right now it really looks blown out of proportion. And try a different mapping method on it too...it shows you used automatic mapping because the faces are breaking up at the top.

2. The bump on some of your surfaces is very high, i.e. the orange...it looks really rough, as if made out of solid concrete.

3. You mentioned you unwrapped all the surfaces...that's great. Since you took the time to do that, you could take some time to work on the texture maps. Some of them look a bit unnatural. They don't really look edible...they just look really dirty.

4. The overall lighting is very flat. A simple 3-point light set-up is a good start to help enhance the mood in a piece like this. You should really try to show the direction of your main light source, and get some highlights as well.

5. Try adding some translucency to the grapes.

Well..that's all folks! I really hope you find any of this helpful. I'll be looking forwrard to some updates.

Cheers, guys!
Juan

juansilva

06-07-2007, 02:21 PM

Hi Jeremy here's my try at the neon and chrome challenge.

This challenge was a lot of work. I wanted the overall color palette to resemble that nice brown/copperish hue from Batman Begins.
Lighting wise...I used a key/fill setup for the main lighitng, some area lights inside the parking lot, and a couple colored lights here and there.
I used software render for the beauty pass, and mental ray for the occlusion pass, and an additional overall color pass done with a simple IBL globe and Final Gathering.
The textures I did in photoshop and I added some extra dirt after the render was complete. Something subtle...I didn't want it to look so dirty and roughed up that it would be creepy to actually go see a movie in that place, hehe.

I still have to add the rim/halo effect to the car headlights...do you know of a good way to this that doesn't look cheap like with the lens flare in photoshop?

Thanks!

http://features-temp.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/187847/187847_1181171003_large.jpg

leiluparker

06-07-2007, 02:27 PM

juansilva, thanks for replying. I'd like to blame my apple monitor for the darkness of the image:wise:. I updated the original post with a new one edited on a window's machine that is closer to my intention. Do you think the shadows works better? I will definitely replace the flames. Regarding your last comment, I wanted the scene to be Baroque themed to match the Bach portrait. But I guess when you got candles and screen, it's hard not to look oriental. Again, thank you very much and please look at the new pic.

lancillotto

06-07-2007, 03:03 PM

andystopps

06-07-2007, 08:19 PM

Lancilotto - you've made a good start there; a couple of things which struck me were that it needs a bit of dirtying up, maybe with an occlusion pass (I know kitchens should be clean, but they generally aren't, walls and ceilings get a fine film of grease and dust very quickly - or is that just mine?). The other thing is that the grain of the wooden chairs and table runs the wrong way - furniture is much stronger if the grain runs parallel to the longest edge. Of course if the furniture has been veneered, then the grain can run in any direction you like, but most furniture makers would still observe the convention of having it lengthwise.
Leiluparker - just rendering the candle flames seperately and compositing them in with some transparency will make them look much better. A tip which Jeremy gave in the original thread for this scene, is to use a screen operation to add a second layer of flames, but with some blur. This is much more reliable and controllable than the troublesome glow effects that the 3d package adds (or, sometimes, fails to add). Some compositors have a defocus node that can be worth trying instead of a blur. That's a nice effect you've got for the candle wax btw.
Juansilva - Looking good. The truck windscreen (or windshield, in US-speak) seems rather milky, and that thing shaped like a backwards P by the barriers jumps out at me somehow; it looks as if it ought to be made of galvanised steel, but if it was it would look a lot duller.
A tip I saw recently for lens flares is to knock them about a bit, the fake ones from Photoshop or whatever are too perfect, and distorting them, making the brightness uneven etc., gives a more convincing effect. I haven't had cause to try it yet, but it sounds reasonable.
Jeremy - thanks for your comments, I've tried to take them on board and hopefully this is better. The height of the stair handrails had seemed too low to me and I raised it, perhaps too much:
http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t118/andystopps/hall_07_compcopy.jpg

lancillotto

06-07-2007, 10:56 PM

andystopps...I am very shy about it..but I know as well about the wood veines ...I have done interior design for long time...and...lol..it's absolutely true..it was just a fast wip where I left much stuff uncomplete (some objects they don't have uvw at all)because I would get some tips about lighting before fix all stuff..anyway txs a lot for your tip..it would be useful...but I have also a bad news for u...now everybody knows u have a dirty kitchen..:)...no..really kidding.Thanks so much for your reply.

I like your image..I think u don't mind if I give u my tips right? ok basically I don't like:
1)the point of view...it looks like speedy gonzales snapshot
2) the bump in the boiserie (it should be flat..or very little )
3) why put a new boiserie (it doesn't look aged as the rest)in that place before fix the wall or the floor? I think is unreal..and not logical
4) the light solution is abit flat (beautyful anyway..but too few contrast IMHO)
bye friend.

lancillotto

06-08-2007, 04:35 AM

I am focusing the script#1. I know about hard and wrong reflections..but now I care just about the mood and the camera angle.To find what I suppose to be the right one, I am testing color correction in psd to change fast the c balance.After I find(Hope so) the way, I will reproduce the same light condition in 3dsmax.Actually I have just environment and a yellow key light very soft from left.I will add some fill and maybe backlight to draw the bottle shape.
sorry for jpeg compression.could anybody tell me if is possible to use any biggersize for images?
txs.

MasterZap

06-08-2007, 09:35 AM

Hey, that's some of the best (as in "most realistic") renders of the "4 scripts" challenge I've seen to date! Very Nice.

(Especially since the scene has such a "cartoony look" in the geometry, it's difficult to get a "realistic" result out of it)

/Z

andystopps

06-08-2007, 10:09 PM

Thanks for your comments Lancilotto, the reason the bump on the paneling is so deep is because I'm basing this on a place I used to live in Portugal, and they make it that way there (just to make life difficult for people trying to imitate it with bump maps). I agree it needs to look older, but I haven't figured out how to get the right, worm-eaten look yet.
Your new renders are looking good, I like the first (top left) the best, but maybe the sky needs to be bluer ? Photobucket, http://photobucket.com, will host large images for you (for free). Ciao.

lancillotto

06-09-2007, 03:58 AM

@MasterZap
Txs a lot.My target is to get an hybrid style (cartoon/photoreal).

@andystopps
Txs for tips (and for the link too), I have blu balanced the bckgrnd as u suggested me.About your wood..I think just some scratches (revealing some wood raw) could be working for your needs (let's keep the worms alive somewhere else).Ciao (hmmm portugal...I should go for a visit).Ciao
...
In this second up I have included some 'drawing shadows' modeling a grid element close to cooking area ( i suppose to be at left side of the scene)and also changed the left yellow light to fill, 'cause I've added a red keylight from right behind the camera and a blue backlight out of the window to lit the tent and enhance the bottle/glasses shapes as u can see in #1 image.But I am not still persuaded about the colors so tried again with color balance in photoshop (images #2-3-4)

the second link is my favourite right now in a bigger size.
C&C are welcome...please help me to understand what's wrong ( 'cause I feel something still doesn't works)
After I will reach enough the mood, I will add details to all materials.

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x190/lancillotto_album/study3.jpg

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x190/lancillotto_album/study3bg.jpg

bye friends

boydburggrabe

06-09-2007, 09:03 AM

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb122/boydbee_images/lighting%20challenges/fruit_v2_36.jpg

One more pass at the fruit scene, and probably the last. I want to move on to some of the other challenges.

lancillotto - I agree with the others, your four scenes lighting has a very nice feel to it.

-boyd

vasishtr

06-09-2007, 06:34 PM

Here's my shot at the 4 scripts challenge. Maya and MentalRay. FG and GI. Didn't texture the fruits though, and whatever I do, the window turns out too bright :sad: .

Crits and Comments please...

doodlerboy

06-09-2007, 11:48 PM

Vasishtr-....................Gangsta!. lol

Here is the Neon Chrome Challenge I've been working on for the past day and a half. I unwrapped and textured the Truck and than Linked my mainlights to the truck. THAN I put it in the scene which I just started to unwrapp and texture, still need to work on the rest of the scene. Texturings hard. lol...Here. I havn't decided what mood to make it just yet, so I just am starting out with a mid day scene. Probably will go for a dusk, or dawn.

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/6521/truckwq6.th.jpg (http://img177.imageshack.us/my.php?image=truckwq6.jpg)http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/6972/truckaz4.th.jpg (http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=truckaz4.jpg)

Komarcic

06-12-2007, 03:07 PM

here's an update of my scene

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/4113/5copyob5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

(http://imageshack.us)

abak

06-13-2007, 12:46 AM

These challenges are a great idea, there are lots of good information and inspiration on these forums so thanks to all who help make them happen. This is an old challenge but I had never done anything with hair so I thought I would give it a go. I have taken this as far as I can without help, so any advice is appreciated.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s311/abak_39/Hare.jpg

Regards, abak

lancillotto

06-13-2007, 04:48 AM

Hi friends, I've made a test using this scene too (while I am waiting for any C&C or ideas on four scripts scene).hope u like it..really I don't think I will fix all details..it was just for fun.SSS for grapes, vrayfur for kiwi( I know...it doesn't look so tasty) and dof in photoshop.
Bye

juansilva

06-13-2007, 03:23 PM

Abak. The hare scene looks pretty good. I think the lighing is a little flat overall, but the fur is looking really good. Good work.

Lancillotto. I like the natural feel of the light in your scene. Your textures are pretty good too, although there are some really odd reflections on the grapes on the left. Also, this could just be me..but I think it would help if you changed the brownish fruit in the back..it looks like it's rotten or something...sort of drives the viewer's attention straight to it.

Hope that helps.
Cheers.

lancillotto

06-13-2007, 04:12 PM

Txs juansilva for tips.I agree with it.Kiwi stays at max interest point...so need to be undertoned in some way.the reflections ..really is refraction of the plate decors..I should fix the attributes for SSS material/refractions.
bye.

abak

06-14-2007, 12:12 AM

Thanks for the feedback juansilva. The lighting certainly needs improvement. I will try a different setup and post the results for further c&c.
Regards abak

epochapex

06-14-2007, 04:23 AM

Hey, I thought I'd post my fruit bowl. It still needs a lot of work, but it was my first ever texturing assignment and it turned out allright. The articifial look of some of the fruit was intentional.

http://www.epochapex.com/dynamic/files/images/stillLifeFinalV2_0.jpg
www.epochapex.com

Thanks!

juansilva

06-15-2007, 04:07 AM

Epochapex. Not a bad start for the first time texturing. Here's a little bit of constructive crit:

1. Ok...um..the background...what is that supposed to be? It definitely doesn't look like fabric. It looks blown out of proportion, and the bump is waaaay to high. You might also wanna turn down the reflectivity on the plate.

2. You need to either UV map your objects or use projections or something because right now, you have that "swimming textures" effect, and we can also see the seams in the tiling. So you might want to fix 'em up in photoshop so they're seamless.

3. I'm not exactly sure which is the fruit that is supposed to look artificial...but anyway..to me..the grapes and the orage look the best here. Some fruit like the pear and the apple look as if you just roughly did a base paint for it but never finished.

4. The lighting overall is very flat. There's no highlights and almost no shadows. If you're doing lighting for the first time, try the basic 3 point lighting approach..it will help you define the direction of your light source, and add a lot more interest and contrast to the piece.

Hope this is of any help.
Cheers.

MartinRomero

06-15-2007, 06:59 PM

I made a few changes, will post later on for you to see, bye for now

leiluparker

06-17-2007, 08:04 PM

Thanks for the feedback guys. I made some changes to my candlelight image, redid the flame and added smoke. More critiques will be extremely helpful. Thanks!

glad227

06-17-2007, 10:00 PM

lancillotto

06-18-2007, 12:29 AM

This is my favourite image regarding this challenge.I liiiiiike it. Just one thing in my honest opinion I would change.The light hits the car a bit uniform..Maybe we should see some difference from an hard one from back to a soft one from the city outside.I can see the blu neon on top..but I expect something else on the front /side.Congrats man...really congrats.

juansilva

06-18-2007, 01:26 AM

Glad227. Great work!!! I really like the blurry red/yellow trails from the car lights...it adds a lot to the image. I also like the street lights in the background. Oh, and the texture you used on the asphalt is awesome....could you please share briefly how you went about creating this shader? I'd like to know if it's a very complex shader or if it's more texture work in photoshop.
Cheers.

glad227

06-18-2007, 07:29 AM

lancillotto: Thanks for your suggestions. I'll see what I can do in my next revision.

juansilva: I created a dry asphalt shader and a wet asphalt (high spec) one and painted a blender matte texture using a blend colors node to define road surface variations, potholes, etc.

juansilva

06-18-2007, 12:48 PM

Glad227. Thanks for the explanation!! I appreciate it. :bounce:

warriorash

06-18-2007, 07:49 PM

glad227, love ur wrk! ur scene looks pretty dramatic...
how did u do those red trials ??? ...

May be blur the reflections on the trucks crome material
and the front glass of ur truck looks dark
litttle bit of the neon shd be reflected on the shiny truck

very nice wrk, its a lot different frm the other renders
and heres mine (http://warriorash.deviantart.com/gallery/)

lancillotto

06-18-2007, 10:37 PM

warriorash..ur render is cool...maybe too much bump on the pillar (?).Good job.

glad227

06-18-2007, 10:55 PM

warriorash, thanks for your input. I like your Neon Chrome renders a lot as well...fine details. The taillight trails on mine was done by a few nurbs surfaces with some color glow, rendered separately with Motion Blur, then minor adjustments (such as glow and a ripple filter on some parts to give it a bumpy effect due to uneven road surfaces) in Photoshop.

warriorash

06-19-2007, 05:16 PM

warriorash..ur render is cool...maybe too much bump on the pillar (?).Good job.

lancillotto - well if u are talking about the Audi A3 yeah, it was a WIP nver got the time to complete it !

Glad227 - Thanks, and how about the orange streaks only on the right side, as if they are turn indicators, just my opinion

jeremybirn

06-21-2007, 04:12 AM

Hey Everybody - I'm still in Singapore (just a couple more days now!) and can't really review work from this terminal kiosk at the CGOverdrive event, but I just wanted to say how great it is to see people giving eachother feedback during my absence. I look forwards to seeing more work and catching up on replies when I get home and have time to see it all! -jeremy

cgsamurai

06-21-2007, 04:47 PM

Hi Mr. jeremy this is my new image

neuromancer1978

06-23-2007, 06:51 AM

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w300/animate1978/tg_light_chall_08.jpg

Hi!

I haven't done one of these for some time now so I decided to give the hallway to try. This is the WIP render, just wanted to get some tips. I am using Maya 6.0 with Liquid, using Pixie to render. Aside from the obvious lack of sky there is the issue with the shaders and the geometry I added, can combine them with the existing mesh then the shaders will look uniform. I am still working on a better wall shader, both surface and displacement.
Um, the shadow map needs some tweaking, and need to rewrite shaders to receive ambient occlusion, or use some creative lighting.

Other than what I see, anything eles would be very helpfull. I think I am close, but I need to work on the lighting a bit more.

TLobes

06-23-2007, 08:26 PM

http://timlobes.googlepages.com/kitchen18_2_med.jpg

This is my first attempt at a GL and FG render using mental ray in Maya. It was one of the projects for a lighting and texturing class a couple weeks ago (May 2007) in my senior year as an undergrad at DePaul University in Chicago.

Every material has a color, spec, and bump. Sink uses silver shader from highend3d and bottle is l_glass_v2. rim_shader on the table and ctrl_occlusion were used from mymentalray. Besides what was in the original scene, everythign else was modeled by me. The rainbow and blurring were done in photoshop. I really want to improve on this so please crit and let me know how you feel. Thanks :)

lancillotto

06-24-2007, 03:22 AM

@Tlobes
I will say a lot but it doesn't mean I don't like the work...just I will try to give u as more tips as I can..then u will trash anything u don't agree.

IMHO u forced a little bit the dynamism...too many elements shake the snapshot .The rainbow and the broken glass are like the quiet after the storm...they give a different sense to the original scripts but anyway interesting.I think u could leave the tent relaxed and the chairs tidy ( the carpet too)Also the moved paper works at same way and it's enough.In this story ( yours) you missed the subject (the glass was broken by...???). For example u could leave a pebble on the floor....or justify all your moved elements by a tree branch through the glass ( we could imagine a hurricane..but u should move also the bottle).The camera distortion gives a dramatic sense but I feel I am looking inside a doll-house ( If u put Barbie doll sitting and a big finger throug the broken glass I suppose it should be more interesting..honestly).In modeling..when u clone the closet using the low parts, u should move vertex ..not scale ..because now u see different proportions in lines( was it your intention or just missed it?).I like u have misaligned one..reality is chaos not order (entropy) but not so much or u can't open the shutter.
Bye

p.s. why don't u put a bull dog flatted to the floor and as innocent as the cat with the boots of shrek ? (the guy who made it should take the award just for that pose..I am still laughing)

TLobes

06-24-2007, 11:10 PM

Thanks a bunch for the comments lancillotto, I will try and simple the scene up and present a focus before I add more secondary stuff. Good point about the camera, I hadn't thought about it in that way before. That is definately not what I want to portray to the viewer :)

I'd like to offer up my fruitbowl for crits, too. FG/GI. Thanks

http://timlobes.googlepages.com/lobesTim_fruitbowl_med.jpg

lancillotto

06-25-2007, 12:00 AM

No crits from me.I like it...except the dof.

Is it simulated? there something ....hmmm not sure about the result.

nice job Tlobes.

jojo1975

06-25-2007, 09:13 PM

@ Tltoombs try to use SSS for the grapes and also to light a bit more "overall" the scene. Good work :)

gattaca13

06-27-2007, 01:29 AM

This is my first post to CGsociety. With some urging from others, I've decided to post a couple of my renders for your critique.
I've done the fruit bowl and the kitchen.
So....let me know whatcha think. :)

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g235/gattaca13/fruitbowl.jpg

Rendered with Maya Software.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g235/gattaca13/kitchen.jpg

Rendered with Maya Software. Rose was a 3Dmax model I borrowed from someone. The glass is the glass shader from highend3D, and the sink is the metal shader from highend3d. Everything else that is not in the original model was done by me.

jojo1975

06-27-2007, 03:09 PM

@ gattaca 13 I love the atmosphere of the second image. perfect details really great work

israelyang

06-27-2007, 03:10 PM

TLobes
Hi, just some comments here.
I don't understand the point of having the rainbow there, i'd say it's quite distracting if you are going for a realistic render. It took me quite a while to realize it's a carpet, it's not very obvious to me with it's uniform texture and orientation to the camera. The shadow on the table stands out a lot, and does not continue elsewhere (say, on the floor).

glad227

06-27-2007, 10:13 PM

gattaca13: I like how both your images convey a sense of serenity and softness. I'm guessing a warmer tone and some color bleeding may add to the fruit plate scene. How about some more glossiness on the cherries?

For the kitchen scene, the placement of objects seems a bit random. Maybe you can design a composition so that they can better lead the viewer to the couple's silhouette on the left.

juansilva

06-28-2007, 01:38 AM

TLobes. I like the overall look of your fruitbowl scene. However, I think the cast shadows you are using are really obstrusive...they kinda cut in harshly onto the fruit making it look like there's seams on your texture maps. Others like the orange are just split into light and total darkness. I think it really works against the image.
There's also issues with the specularity...for instance, the highlight on the apple looks really odd, and also like a default blinn spec..and some of the other fruit which should have sharp highlihgts like the cherries and the orange, don't have any.

Gattaca13. The fruitbowl scene looks nice. I think the lighting is a bit flat..you could do with some more contrast. Your brightest areas are rather dim so the fruit sort of fades into the background. I dunno...that's just my opinion. Again, a simple 3-point-lighting setup can do wonders if used wisely. Also, watch out for the uv mapping on the banana..the texture looks really distorted there.

The kitchen I liked the best. I think the purple spilling onto the tablecloth underneath the wineglass is a little too much, and the rose could use some transluscency. Oh, and I totally agree with glad227; you could work out the composition so it leads better to the silhouette of the two people, which is a really nice detail..it actually makes the image for me.

Hope that helps.
Cheers, guys!
Juan

jeremybirn

06-29-2007, 04:18 PM

Hi, this is my first post. I look forward to your feedback.

Hi Jeremy, it's been a while since I took your class. Hope you're doing well and enjoying your time in Singapore! Thanks for this wonderful Lighting Challenges Forum. It took me long enough to finally participate after viewing it in past years.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/2407/neonchromeglfm7.jpg

Hi Gladys!

What a wonderful image. The integration of the CG with photographed elements looks great. The colors really create a night look. If there's an area you might look a little more at, it's around the truck itself. The paint seems to have a lot of diffuse shading, not to be mostly about reflections. If you could darken the shaders main color or diffuse value, you might get more of the reflections showing. The project is staged so that we can get neon reflecting off the chrome and glass and carpaint on the truck. The position and angle might not be perfect for that, but maybe if you turned on the arrow right behind it and made that bright red or something, you could get some of the colored neon reflecting in the truck?

It looks as if the reflections of the truck onto the ground are reflections of something much more brightly lit than the truck itself. Look at the reflections of the front and back hubcaps, for example, and compare to the actual hubcaps. This is usually a warning sign that there's a trace depth problem: some light that casts raytraced shadows has a ray depth limit of 1 when it should be 2 for the shadows to appear in reflections. (There also could be raytrace limits set too low in render settings, but it's the default on the light that usually gets people.)

The reflections on the truck windshield look good, but they should be going brighter on the part of the glass that faces away from us (the left side in this case) and maybe getting a little darken on the other side. On the parking garage there appear to be some glass signs or windows or something with these round highlights appearing again and again, I don't know where those come from. If there's glass there, it should reflect the neon sign and night sky, not so many of those round highlights.

Sorry I'm so far behind on critiquing, I'm getting back in the swing of things at home now!

-jeremy

jeremybirn

06-29-2007, 04:39 PM

cgsamurai - Nice start on the candle scene. Work on the flames themselves: How soft are the edges, how transparent on the bottom, how they appear in reflections.

neuromancer1978 - Great, keep going with all the things you list. If it's supposed to be daytime, then in addition to a sunbeam you need all the other light from the sky coming in through the windows from all the other angles.

TLobes - Nice scene. I'm confused about what the dark circle in the lower left represents, if is it an object or a shadow? The raytracing is inconsistent, parts of a chair leg look like a perfect mirror under the table, but the table doesn't seem to be reflective at all. In terms of materials, you could work a lot more on making more convincing, refractive glass for the bottle. The highlights on the cabinets seem to come from a light that doesn't cast shadows.

TLobes - Nice scene. I'm confused about what you're trying to represent with all the hard edged lines: are they supposed to be shadows of something, or a part of the texture mapping on the fruits?

gattaca13 - Welcome! Those are great! For the fruit bowl, you've got nice textures and shading, it looks very believable. Even if you were trying to make it such a dark, forelorn image, it does look a bit underexposed and the framing looks very loose. Somehow some of the shadows of the fruit onto the plate appear to cancel out even the reflections on the plate, so that some parts of the white plate become the darkest parts of the scene. If the bottom of the banana has that much bounce light, then surely it's reflection on the plate doesn't need to go all the way to black. The romantic kitchen scene is terrific also. A few areas on the table needs work: the plate and grapes don't have the nice rim-lit look that the bottle and other things do, and you could work a bit more on how the rose fits together with the glass, maybe just by sliding it a bit.

-jeremy

ErshadRahbar

06-29-2007, 08:26 PM

andystopps

07-03-2007, 08:51 PM

ErshadRahbar - that's great ! You can almost smell the mould ! A couple of things:
you can see unsmoothed polygons on the bin (the missing lid is a nice touch).
The bump on the floorboards seems a bit too deep. Even if they'd started out being just rough sawn, being walked on would smooth them out.
The light on the wall seems a too bright and sharp to have passed through the dirt on the window, maybe it should be more diffuse.

Glad227 - I'll just add my congratulations to everyone else for your image, it really is excellent.

I've been having a go at the kitchen scene, using Renderman for Maya. I had intended to use GI for this, but I lost patience with the painfully slow renders. I see Pixar have just released a new version of RfM, which addresses the issue of multi-thread/multi-processor machines only rendering on one thread - a good thing too, it really is quite frustrating. Anyway, I went back and used conventional lighting, with an occlusion pass rendered with Mental Ray ( I couldn't get Renderman to produce a worthwhile AO pass - does anyone know where the controls for it are ? All I could find was either On or Off). I'm going to add a few more things on the table and worktop, when I get the time.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t118/andystopps/kitchen_01.jpg

jeremybirn

07-06-2007, 01:04 AM

ErshadRahbar - Nice job! Good textures. I don't know where the light in the upper right corner is coming from, it's like a 2nd sunbeam? Overall good job. The back wall is lit a little strangely, with a big drop-shadow around the window frame, that could probably be more of a gradient brighter near the window and going darker.

andystopps - Nice job! If you do another pass I'd say mostly focus on small detail areas. The chrome in the sink could look more reflective and would probably get brighter near a window. Some of the fruit like the pear on the fruit plate could get more bounce so it doesn't look black in places. The side of the cabinet near the window certainly should get more bounce/fill light in the top part that runs outside the sunbeam, because it's right next to a sunlit window.

-jeremy

vasishtr

07-06-2007, 01:19 AM

This is my entry for the 4 scripts challenge. Tried my hand with GI and FG with Maya and MentalRay. Tried blinds for interesting shadows. The window always turned out overbright...mabbe I didn't use enough photons to pass through the blinds?
Used some DOF in the bottle close-up. Did colour-correction and glow in Photoshop.

BTW, that is one cool render @andystopps!

titanwong31

07-06-2007, 02:37 AM

Finally i have got my animated version of hauntedhallway and neon & chrome upload on the web. Please download it to watch, as it will be in proper resolution and play smoothly. Feel free to comment and critic.

Here it go the url:
http://www.4shared.com/file/18987794/f7f787e9/hauntedhall.html
http://www.4shared.com/file/18989361/e7d3b046/neon_rain.html

Leotril

07-06-2007, 03:18 PM

@andystopps.. I can give u some hints on how to setup GI correctly with rfm :)

- measure the height of your scene with the distance tool on use that value in max dist of the Env Light.
- to help the light get into the scene use the shadow attr of Env light also diffuse softness reduce that to somethin like 0.4 experiment also with shadow bias reduce that also.
- to get the occ pass use the renderman output passes attribute hope u can find that :thumbsup:

Cheers

Kamid

07-07-2007, 10:17 AM

Not alot of things at hand to do. So I decided to give this a little joy ride.

As below. Image was rendered in 3d Max on its scanline render. No GI solution was used. Just trying out individual object lighting rigs to light the scene.

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/6717/fruitbowlpj2.th.jpg (http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fruitbowlpj2.jpg)

andystopps

07-07-2007, 07:20 PM

Thanks for that Leotril, I'll give it a go next time I get a chance to work on the scene.

Z.O.V

07-10-2007, 04:10 PM

No matter what shaders I used ( Blinn\Phong\Dielectric ). Once I open refraction, I can't see the sky. I checked the normal. They're facing upward.

OK. I solve this...All objects in the scene are uncheck "visible in reflection" "visible in refraction"......

glad227

07-12-2007, 08:44 AM

Update from last post: I've added reflections to the truck and windshield, toned down tire reflections on the ground and replaced placeholder glows with interior lighting at the building's glass windows.

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/6365/neonchromegl02cy0.jpg

JoshuaDynamicsGraham

07-12-2007, 07:15 PM

hey everyone i am just starting to learn lighting and am looking for crits. i choose the candle scene. no textures just lighting.

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/6043/candlepy0.png (http://imageshack.us)

every crit is welcome. thanks

dinoiastefano

07-16-2007, 05:38 PM

Hi everyone. I'm a new poster and here is my first try on this challenge (never done any others actually). Please comment back on this so i can get better.
What i've done is pretty basic...2 spotlights and final gather tinted in yellow-orange to give it some warm mood. I used Maya 8.5, Mental Ray, Photoshop and Fusion 5. Also Body Paint to fix some seams.
BTW, Jeremy your book is a bible. :)
Ravez

http://ravez.eu/cgs/l1/l1.jpg

barbaccia

07-18-2007, 11:47 PM

hi! here's another fruit bowl.. yesterday i went out to buy some fruit.. so i decided to texture this scene.. i'm still working on the reflections..
what do you think about it?

thanks a lot ;)

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/4856/3fruitbowlkd6.jpg

jeremybirn

07-22-2007, 07:05 AM

Sorry I've been gone! Here's some feedback on images posted on this page!

barbaccia - Nice job on those textures. It looks like it could get darker in the cracks in between some of the fruits, I agree the reflections will help. The cloth texture looks very different in the foreground light than in the background, I don't know if a bump map is causing that or what?

Ravez - Welcome! That's a really beautiful image. Maybe it could use more bounced or reflected light, so that parts of the pear for example could pick up some of the tones of surrounding fruits in the shadow areas instead of going so close to black.

JoshuaDynamicsGraham - Good start! When you start working on materials, don't forget to make the candle wax translucent so they glow near the top. The flames also look very consistent and should get more transparent near the wick.

glad227 - Great work, as I said before. I should add this to the gallery next time I update them. If there's anything you even might think about, it would be fading the interior of the garage (back behind the truck on the first floor) into a dimmer or tinted light, so that there's some shift of brightness or color as you move deeper into the interior space.

-jeremy

Chrisdc

07-22-2007, 09:56 PM

Hello, I wanted another go at creating a night time image, so here's my attempt at the four scripts challenge (based on script 1):
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x239/ChrisDC_CG/post1.jpg?t=1185137586

Rendered in Lightwave without any GI. Thanks in advance for all comments,

Chris

jeremybirn

07-23-2007, 12:42 AM

Chrisdc - That's great. I think most of the colors are working, except that relatively bright blue that appears on the cabinets would be best kept outside the window. The cabinet doors are on a back-lit wall and don't need to be that bright or that saturated. I like the highlight in the upper center of the window, but I don't think it should continue onto the wall immediately above it.

-jeremy

dinoiastefano

07-23-2007, 01:19 AM

:) hi Jeremy. I've added some specular bounces and a bit of DOF. If i had some more time i'd tweak the leaf texture, maybe working on an SSS, but the one on the grapes took me so much time that i need to take a break from this now and maybe move to the next challenge...overall i'm quite satisfied with the mood. Thanks so much for your comment and advices. I'll be back with another scene as soon as i can...i'm quite new to cg and feel so much excited to express myself this way, really...can't wait to face all the other challenges and learn a lot from this.
Cheers everybody!
Ravez

http://www.ravez.eu/cgs/l1/l2.jpg

Chrisdc

07-23-2007, 08:05 PM

Thanks, I have made the colour on the cabinet doors rather less saturated and adjusted a few of the lights. The highlight on the window is actually caused by a volumetric light outside, whereas the highlight on the wall is caused by a bounce light on the floor. I have made the bounce light slightly wider and softer and made the colour slightly redder to take the redness of the tiles into account. I have also introduced a very slight shadow above the window frame.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x239/ChrisDC_CG/post2.jpg

As a quick test I also tried introducing more warm light into the foreground to represent artificial light coming in from another room.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x239/ChrisDC_CG/post3.jpg

RazorJack

07-24-2007, 01:55 PM

Here is my fruit bowl :) better late than never ...

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/2140/fruitsym8.jpg

It's almost ready, only a few more things to be done.
Comments, suggestions? :)

jeremybirn

07-24-2007, 02:32 PM

RazorJack - Nice job! Keep going with the textures, onto the other banana. Maybe the apple could be a bit more reflective?

Chrisdc - Looking good! I still think the cabinets (especially the upper ones) are a bit bright on the front, for something on a back-lit wall. Maybe more rim or kick could be added to the fruit and the trash can, and less frontal fill on the trash can?

Ravez - I look forwards to seeing your other work then. In terms of the image you posted, it looks terrific. I think the apple leaf is a bit bright and distracting compared to the rest, but if the apple were made reflective and picked up some of the green from the leaf, or if there were some green translucency in the shadow of the leaf instead of pure black, it might be better integrated.

-jeremy

barbaccia

07-24-2007, 11:09 PM

and here is an update.. it was my choice to make it dark in the background.. but i've changed my mind.. maybe now it's too bright.. ah and i'm still working on the reflections..

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/8641/6fruitbowl3qm3.jpg

jeremybirn

07-25-2007, 03:02 PM

barbaccia - Nice job. The brightness of the backdrop is OK I think, but the texture seems to change suddenly from the foreground to the background. Also, in the foreground it has moiré patterns that might be due to the sampling being too low compared to the texture resolution. The area under the leaf might get a little soft green light through it.

-jeremy

Kender

07-26-2007, 12:55 AM

Hi,
First at all, I wanna thank you, jeremy, for all your time spent to this forum.

There is my picture for the haunted house
Comments welcome

http://www.kenderland.com/images/20070725044424_cgtalk_haunted_house_sin_city.jpg

jojo1975

07-26-2007, 10:46 AM

@RazorJack (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=270690) Grat work, The banana on the left look a bit odd and I will add a bit of translucency to the grapes that seem a bit "glassy"

RazorJack

07-26-2007, 12:02 PM

10x :)
There will always be things that need improvement but i kinda don't feel like working on this project anymore ... so i'll call it finished.

I posted my final version here:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=522083

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/6523/fruitsiv6.th.jpg (http://img48.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fruitsiv6.jpg)

jeremybirn

07-26-2007, 12:53 PM

Kender - Nice job overall. On the floor, I can't tell if the pentagram symbol is supposed to be projected in light, or is painted onto the wood, or what? Also, there's a white glow on the bottom edge of the boards leaning against the wall, and inside the cracks between the stair steps, that seems unmotivated and should at least be toned down.

RazorJack - Nice job.

-jeremy

Chrisdc

07-27-2007, 12:03 AM

I haven't had too much time to fiddle with the scene in the last few days, but I have made the changes suggested so here's a quick update on the scene. I removed a general fill light from behind the camera, reduced the fill light on the bin and added a kicker each to the bin and the fruit.

Thanks,
Chris

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x239/ChrisDC_CG/post6.jpg?t=1185489349

jeremybirn

07-27-2007, 04:06 PM

Chrisdc -

Looking good! I'm worried the overall scene might look a little underexposed (I know, I'm the one who recommended some areas get darker so it's my fault...) but selecting some areas like the top of the table and making them a little brighter and more reflective could balance things out. Also, making sure there's glass in the window and putting a little reflection onto that could help, as well as some clouds or something outside the window in the night sky.

-jeremy

Chrisdc

07-30-2007, 09:55 PM

Hello again, I have replaced the specular shading on the table with brighter blurred reflections for the time being , adjusted the rim lighting on the bottle and added a moon outside. The light coming in from the window has been shifted over slightly to match the position of the moon, and I have added a volumetric light to simulate a light cloud effect in front of the moon.

http://www.chrisdc.com/forums/post10.jpg

Thanks as ever for all your help,

Chris

glad227

07-30-2007, 10:26 PM

Chrisdc: I like the mood setting of your room. If it is intended to be on earth, double check the scale of your moon. Also, I think more focused highlights/spec on various furniture materials, such as the chairs, counter top or trash can may help your image look less flat. The fruit bowl may blend in better if you lower the saturation of the fruits.

glad227

07-31-2007, 07:51 AM

Here's a revision of my Neon & Chrome scene. I have darkened and tinted the garage interior as suggested. Jeremy, I truly appreciate your help and comments. Also thanks in advance for adding it to the gallery!

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/5669/neonchromegl03qw1.jpg

RazorJack

07-31-2007, 01:51 PM

Chrisdc - if this is intended to look like a photo ... well ... on such exposure settings that will allow capturing the dark room the moon will certainly be overexposed and will look like a white circle :)

glad227 - :thumbsup: your entry for neon and chrome is one of the best i've seen. Maybe only the car paint looks little unreallistic.

jeremybirn

08-02-2007, 03:59 AM

chrisdc - Great work! Congratulations!

glad227 - Terrific! I have updated the Neon and Chrome Gallery (http://www.3drender.com/challenges/neonandchrome/) with your work, hope this looks OK.

-jeremy

titanwong31

08-02-2007, 07:53 AM

I have posted this 5/6 weeks back, i did not get any feedback from anyone .So i post it once again.
This is the link to the animated version of hauntedhallway and neon & chrome. Please download it to watch, as it will be in proper resolution and play smoothly. Feel free to comment and critic.

Here it go the url:
1. Haunted Hallway : http://www.4shared.com/file/1898779...auntedhall.html (http://www.4shared.com/file/18987794/f7f787e9/hauntedhall.html)
2. Neon & Chrome : http://www.4shared.com/file/1898936.../neon_rain.html
(http://www.4shared.com/file/18989361/e7d3b046/neon_rain.html)
Hopefully this time will be getting some feedback. Enjoy.

(http://www.4shared.com/file/18989361/e7d3b046/neon_rain.html)

jeremybirn

08-04-2007, 04:12 PM

The haunted hallway scene is nice, good work on that.

The Neon and Chrome animation shows neon signs turning on. It seems that the scene was fairly bright even without any of the lights turned on. It would have been nice to see a scene where the neon lights were responsible for more of the illumination.

-jeremy

Chrisdc

08-05-2007, 07:21 PM

Hi everyone, thanks for all the comments. I'm about ready to move on to something else now, but here's one last render of the kitchen to take into account (as best I can) what people have said.

Thanks,

Chris

http://www.chrisdc.com/forums/post11a.jpg

titanwong31

08-06-2007, 04:02 AM

Jeremybirn - Thanks for your comment. I will keep that in mind, i will work back on that if i got spare time.
Enjoy your time at Siggraph 2007.

arunurakkadan

08-06-2007, 03:40 PM

Here is my try..C & C most welcome......

[/url][url="http://img169.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hallmayfinaltestet5.jpg"]http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/7080/hallmayfinaltestet5.th.jpg (http://img169.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hallmayfinaltestet5.jpg)

jeremybirn

08-06-2007, 06:47 PM

arunurakkadan - Nice job! From what I can see (on the little laptop in this hotel room) the lighting looks good overall. Most of the texture mapping is nice too, it's just out of alignment in the lower left column area. The 3 vertical posts look kindof Escher-like, especially with the inside of the middle one getting bright above the curved line and not below it.

Chrisdc - Great job, congratulations! If I'm expected to find some comment to make, I think there could be a little more of an impression that there is glass in the window, but that's a minor point. I'll see if I can add more of these to the gallery when I get back home.

-jeremy

arunurakkadan

08-08-2007, 04:43 AM

hai jeremybirn thanks for your valuable comments .here is my updated image.i have added some more bounce lights.

http://img461.imageshack.us/img461/755/hallwaynew01td4.th.jpg (http://img461.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hallwaynew01td4.jpg)

arunurakkadan

08-10-2007, 06:58 AM

Here is my Image for the Four scripts challenge C&C is most Welcomed

http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/7852/kitchen02compzn1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
By arun_urakkadan (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/arun_urakkadan) at 2007-08-09

RazorJack

08-10-2007, 09:17 AM

hi arunurakkadan :) good job on the texturing.

but have you ever tried to shoot a picture from a room that shows a bright day through the windows? There is an enormous difference in the illumination in the room and outside the room and for that reason - either you will see the outside and the room will be dark, or you will see the room and the outside will be overexposed :)

So to get this illusion you can either darken the room or brighten the image through the window :)

oh and also i think the bin is a bit too reflective

Edit: hm i think it's time to try this challenge myself :) Here's what i've just did. This is the initial lighting test without any textures.

hehe now this is my kind of script :)

Come out, come out, wherever you are :twisted:

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/1863/renderui4.jpg

juansilva

08-10-2007, 02:08 PM

arunurakkadan. I agree with RazorJack. You should either change the picture you placed on the window or lower the intensity of the illumination in the room to match the light outside. Right now it's too bright, and the vivid colors make it even more so, whereas the light outside is very diffused.

The bin is indeed to reflective. It's the only element that looks rather fake in the image, and in addition, because of its color, it draws unnecessary attention to it. You'd want the viewers' eyes to move around the scene..right now, all attention goes to the bin. I'd suggest you change the color to something more analogue to the dominant yellow that dominates your scene and of course, less saturated.

Hope that helps.
Cheers.

arunurakkadan

08-13-2007, 04:41 AM

Hai RazorJack , juansilva thanks for your comments,and here is my updated image..

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/3347/kitchen02compnewwi4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
By arun_urakkadan (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/arun_urakkadan) at 2007-08-12

juansilva

08-13-2007, 10:40 AM

arunurakkadan. That's much better! I think the trash bin still draws too much unnecessary attention to itself. Also, I get the feeling that it's really cold outside...so perhaps I subtle touch of frost in the window would finish selling the image?

Good work.
Cheers.

arunurakkadan

08-14-2007, 04:46 AM

hi i have changed the textures and the background image

c& c most welcomed ..i know there is lot to improve...

http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/5475/kitchennewfinalmq2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
By arun_urakkadan (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/arun_urakkadan) at 2007-08-13

RazorJack

08-14-2007, 08:52 AM

well .. you changed the colour of the bin but not the reflection, why?
and about the window ... here for example you can see what is the difference in the illumination inside and outside the room:
http://www.dlowry.com/images/Living%20room%20window.jpg

jeremybirn

08-14-2007, 03:00 PM

arunurakkadan - About the hallway - I agree with RazorJack there could be more difference in the brightness, what you see out the windows could be brighter. Also, even though it's dark in there, I think you still need to fix up the brick textures that are out of alignment where they meet at corners.

About the kitchen - Same note on what you see out the window being brighter. Also, in your scene, I think you really need some glass windows there, you can clearly see the place where there should be some glass. I think the back corner under the cabinet is going a bit bright, and you should see more destinction between the left wall and the right wall at the corner, with the left wall going darker. The bottle is looking OK but going too dark near the base, as if it were triggering full occlusion even though it's transparent.

RazorJack - Nice start with the shadow and composition!

-jeremy

rejijohn000

08-15-2007, 02:42 PM

hi I have some problem with bleeding i tried lots of things ut still having problem this is my first post on this forum...hope u will help me thanz

RazorJack

08-15-2007, 03:40 PM

^ the tiling of your wall and floor textures is too obvious.

btw arunurakkadan, the image through your window can't be defocused if you don't have DOF in your scene :)

Everybody's going for nice and clean interior visualisation ... i prefer old and creepy look :)
Here what i've done so far:
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/7678/renderox9.jpg

maybe i should make some dirt and stains .. maybe a poster on the wall and stuff like that :)

jeremybirn

08-16-2007, 02:17 AM

RazorJack - Better and better! Keep going with the texture!

rejijohn000 - It looks as if most of the illumination in that scene is coming from incredibly bright GI. Try turning off the GI and FG, and make sure your direct lighting is working well and doing a good job of lighting the scene. Then turn on GI just to simulate bounce light, which is always dimmer than the light it reflects.

-jeremy

arunurakkadan

08-16-2007, 04:47 AM

Hi jeremy and razorjack thanks for your support and valuable remarks :) here is my updated image of the hall way i corrected brick textures alignment and changed the background image too.

http://img469.imageshack.us/img469/266/hallway15aug0701fk1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
By arun_urakkadan (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/arun_urakkadan) at 2007-08-16

arunurakkadan

08-16-2007, 04:51 AM

hi here is my updated image of the Kitchen i changed the textures again..since i was not happy with the old textures..and kept a glass in the window ..

http://img458.imageshack.us/img458/7829/kitchennew15aug0702fu4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
By arun_urakkadan (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/arun_urakkadan) at 2007-08-16

arunurakkadan

08-18-2007, 02:02 PM

Hi here comes my candles....i have used maya and mentalray to render the image..

http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/8931/candlecomp001ss3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
By arun_urakkadan (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/arun_urakkadan) at 2007-08-18

jeremybirn

08-18-2007, 05:57 PM

arunurakkadan -

Your hallway is looking good, but I think it's underexposed. The window light, and perhaps some of the other lights, could go brighter. Check the levels and histogram in Photoshop.

The kitchen is good. The glass and the way the glass connects to the window frame aren't convincing yet.

The candles are off to a solid start. The glow around the flames doesn't look like it's really coming from the flames, it looks like it's coming from a round point in the middle. Render the flames as a separate layer to make it easier to build the glow around it. The shadows are much too crisp for candle light, and the flames themselves shouldn't cast shadows. The glow around the top of the candles is too tall on some of them, check photo reference on that. Also, the glow looks brighter than the flames themselves, that wouldn't happen. I don't know what that picture in the frame is of, but it's mostly too dark to see.

-jeremy

weng888

08-20-2007, 07:11 PM

hi jeremy ,

just a simple try on this challenge

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s275/weng_888/botte.jpg

RazorJack

08-20-2007, 10:30 PM

And here is my final version for the scripts challenge :)

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/6738/cgchallenge2ok3.jpg

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=531134

Ackee

08-21-2007, 09:37 PM

Hi, here you got my spaghetti monster :-) the meatballs, eyes and plate shader are in some desperate need of some love but time isnt my friend this time.

http://hem.bredband.net/ackee/3.png

jeremybirn

08-22-2007, 03:53 AM

Ackee - Welcome! That's a good start. When you get the time, I think you could keep developing that scene. The kitchen wall in the background looks very bright, so that makes me think the surfaces on the chair and plate that face the same direction should also be getting brighter. Make sure you can see shadows through the refraction, like the shadow under the fork. It would be nice if the ripples in the water radiated from his noodly appendages, to better convey the idea that they are inside the glass instead of just behind it.

RazorJack - Congratulations! I am adding your image to the Challenge Gallery! :thumbsup:

weng888 - You can probably develop your glass look by test-rendering fewer bottles than that. The glass looks very thin in places. The right-most bottle looks much darker where you see it through the front bottle - I think that's a trace-depth issue where some reflections on the bottle aren't visible through all the refraction steps.

-jeremy

arunurakkadan

08-23-2007, 06:07 PM

Hi here is my updated version of the candle...

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/9562/candlefinal01us0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
By arun_urakkadan (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/arun_urakkadan)

weng888

08-24-2007, 06:58 PM

jeremy ,

will work on the bottles ,i made it a long time ago just never got to post it , by the way never got to finish the challenge 9 , here is the finish image .

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s275/weng_888/night21.jpg

thanks

glad227

08-25-2007, 07:01 PM

weng888: Nice work! Since the truck is so close to the camera, maybe you can consider smoothing the truck's geometry. The reflections, especially on the hood, will benefit from that.

jeremybirn

08-26-2007, 04:23 PM

weng888 - That's great. You've got nice colors and tones there. The DOF looks fake to me, especially where it fades in all of a sudden in the middle of those flourescent tubes. In the lower part of the truck, I think the tires could use a little more bounce or reflection on them, and you could tone-down the orange thing between the two right tires.

arunurakkadan - Looking good. The flames look a bit solid and opaque. Especially because some of them don't look that bright, I'd expect the bottom parts to be more transparent. Reflections in the scene need work: The reflection of the table visible in the lower part of the candles looks like it's a white table - make sure you are seeing shadows from your main lights in reflections. The reflection of the framed picture doesn't look like the picture, and the reflection of the screen in the background almost makes the table look transparent on the left side. Maybe you could find a better picture to put in the frame?

-jeremy

MinaRagaie

08-31-2007, 11:03 AM

I decided to add an animated shot of challenge 6 to my reel...
a "few" fixes I wanted to make to it, resulted in almost a whole remaking of it.
I meant not to change the lighting design (wich learning wise is not a very good idea), but to make it a more mature render so it would fit on my reel.

no animation done yet, few fixes to make, but anyway... here's what I've got so far :)
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n214/Minaragaie/challange_6_Candles/Ch06Wip_01_Snd.jpg
tell me what your thinking,
I am really in need for C&C.

edit: almost forgot to ask a few questions...
-In such a dim lit scene, would you expect a shallower DOF? ( or have I already taken it way too far?)
-Is the scene dim enough for a candle lit scene with light bleeding in from the translucent background??
-Should I consider adding film grain?? (maybe it's shot on a higher film speed 400 ASA)

thanks in advance, all help is appreciated :)
-Mina

rudolfmenon

08-31-2007, 11:24 AM

Hi, heres my 1st entry for Challenge #8 Haunted hallway. Its B/W becoz i wanted the old world look, ill also post the color version and a day version. (i hope the image loads).

-rudi.

jeremybirn

08-31-2007, 12:38 PM

MinaRagaie - That looks great. The DOF is fine. Maybe two tiny tweaks: The candle flames could have a bit more glow around them, right around the edges of the flames, like you'd get from screening a blurred copy of the flame pass over the image. The picture in the frame looks a little dark, maybe if there could be a bit more diffuse illumination from the candle near it on the right, just subtly brightening the image a bit in that pool of light, that could help it read a little better. (This could just be one dim spotlight linked to the picture, only a tiny difference.)

-jeremy

doodlerboy

09-01-2007, 04:51 AM

Here is my first start at it I'll add the Occlusion pass when Im working on the final image.

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/5338/beautypassee5.th.jpg (http://img213.imageshack.us/my.php?image=beautypassee5.jpg)

It's a pretty lowres image but right now. So go ahead and start cracking down on me kind sir. It'll make me better.

fuadmiftari

09-03-2007, 04:55 PM

Hello everyone!

In the name of foreword
This is my first post here. And is my first scene lighted and rendered from lighting challenge scenes. thanks to Jeremy and the others that are contributing in this aspect. As I am fairly new here I wait from you a lot of advices in my work, cause I know that nothing and noone is perfect.
Jeremy's book is perfect for what it is. (now i am reading the third chapter, shadows and occlusion).

How I did.
First of all I just downloaded scenes after I read for their excistence in Lighting and Rendering book. I didnt read about the challenge on cgtalk.com . However, to light this scene I used a directional light as sunlight and an IBL for skylight and for reflections in the car, and I used Global illumination in Mental Ray for maya. I used an occlusion pass too (the first occlusion ambient pass i have ever used).
I have tried to simulate sunset time, I have rendered it in midday time too.
\This is what i did:
http://www.freewebs.com/xstudio/sunset%5Fgarage.jpg

regards
fuadmiftari

jeremybirn

09-03-2007, 05:06 PM

doodlerboy - Keep going with that.

rudolfmenon - Welcome! No image yet. Upload it somewhere and just post the link to where you uploaded it.

-jeremy

Daggie

09-05-2007, 12:19 PM

Here are the bottles, thought id get a bit colourfull.
thanks.tell me what ya'll think.

jeremybirn

09-05-2007, 12:31 PM

fuadmiftari - Good start on the parking garage. In the interior, it looks like there's no light coming from some angles (no upwards light), and the light from other angles has no shadows or occlusion. It would be great to see reflections on the truck, especially of what's in front of it.

Daggie - Good start. The colors could extend into the shadows or caustics in the shadow areas beside the bottles. Some of the glass could use more thickness or presence.

-jeremy

doodlerboy

09-06-2007, 08:04 PM

I'm doing the "Under The Boardwalk" scene and I have no Idea how to get that foggy effect underwater, you know how it gets foggy the further out you look when underwater? Anyways, how do I get that effect? How in the world do I get it to render foggy, lol I have no Idea on what steps to take for this one. Umm I'm going to be rendering in Mental Ray.

Any help will be most appreciated.

Thanks
Anthony.

arunurakkadan

09-09-2007, 07:13 AM

here comes my new update i changed the frame image and one candle position and the back ground.. c&C is most welcomed..

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/5149/candlefinalsep090702ga8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
By arun_urakkadan (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/arun_urakkadan)

jeremybirn

09-09-2007, 05:35 PM

arunurakkadan - Nice. The background is spot-on. Lovely. Most of the foreground lighting is coming along great as well. The reflections need work. The hard-edged reflections on the left and right of the framed picture don't look like anything, at least soften those a lot. The reflections on the table top seem to be missing shadows and reflections. In the reflection of the vase, you can see a specular highlight from the candle, but you can't see the the candle stick leading up to the highlight. The reflections of the picture frame is much too bright (unlike the reflection of the picture itself), probably because the reflection doesn't include shadows or reflections of the dark environment. The three candles on the left all appear too bright in the reflection as well, looking solidly lit in the reflection instead of having a gradient. Hope this isn't too nitpicky.

doodlerboy - Maya has Environment Fog as a global render option, and more local fog options as an effect on a spot light. There are also much fancier, more advanced approaches like putting the whole scene in a cube that has a fluid volume shader or mental ray parti_volume on it. Most of the people who made good underwater looks combined techniques and used some particles, some basic depth fading, some compositing tricks based on depth, and maybe some depth of field. A forum about your specific software would be a better place to ask for specifics about a function.
-jeremy

doodlerboy

09-10-2007, 02:09 AM

Oh ok. I'll run some tests for the under the boardwalk scene. But right now here is my entree for the Fruit Bowl, I added an occlusion pass with it and used photoshop for color correction.

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/7245/fruitbowlhn0.th.jpg (http://img527.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fruitbowlhn0.jpg)

martinartz

09-10-2007, 03:45 AM

Hi all.............

This is my very late try on haunted hallway..........Just started.....will post the final soon...........
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1332/1353526854_330842dc31.jpg?v=0

Regards,

Martin

Daggie

09-12-2007, 11:46 AM

Well finally finished lighting the fruit scne, got some free time at work..
i wanted to get a very pleasent look.
I used v ray.
this is the pure render ,no post effects.
tell me what you think.
Thanks.

doodlerboy

09-14-2007, 08:36 PM

DAGGIE- I think you could really work with the Anti-Aliasing a bit more. It looks to pixelated. In my opinion You could add a touch of yellow. If your using VRAy, I'm guessing your using a VRay light....I really don't know what your light settings are but I'd use a vray light and then a directional light, the Directional light would cast the main shadows as the VRay light would help lighten up the scene. But whatever, I still like the blue feel, just add a bit more yellow.

JohnPGiancarlo

09-15-2007, 03:23 AM

Hi my name is John Paul Giancarlo I am from Caracas-Venezuela (CRAZY CHAVEZ LAND), i work at a animation studio named Animax Studio as a Generalist, I read about this challenge in a book from Jeremy Birn that I bought recently and decided to give it a try, I only had one day to work on this because I am between projects rightnow, I will try to improve it some time soon.

Jeremy Birn I learned a lot from you the last 3 days, thanks man! :)

PD: Pardon my English I know its kinda rough I hope you can understand me though!
I will be waiting for your comments on this.

jeremybirn

09-15-2007, 07:36 PM

animaxstudio - Welcome! That's a nice image. I think the ceiling is too bright, especially where walls touch the ceiling you expect some occlusion or shadows. The bright window is nice, but the top surface of the window should get more fill and bounce light on it. The rainbow doesn't look very convincing, you could get rid of that.

Daggie - Welcome! That's a nice job. The green grapes on the left side look very believable and translucent. The pear has too much bump mapping, and the apple a little too much. The apple looks very evenly lit, not as much of a bright side/dark side as you'd expect with that highlight on the right. The cherries have too much rim light on the fill side. See if you can get more occlusion or somehow darken the contact between the bottom of the plate and the cloth below it.

martinartz - Welcome! Keep going with that!

doodlerboy - Good start, those are nice colors. You should work more on your key light. Hide all the other lights, and just work on getting nice directionality (so the apple will have a bright side and a darker side), softer shadows, and consistent illumination on everything. There's something making half of the apple leaf go black, and the bottom of the green things on the left looks almost black as well.

-jeremy

arunurakkadan

09-16-2007, 05:04 PM

hi jeremy,

thanks a lot for your continued support..your comments are helping me a lot to improve..and i am not getting shadows in reflection (i need your help on that....) and here is my updated version .i changed the picture frame texture..

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/2637/candlefinalsep0160701hn3.jpg (http://imageshack.us/)
By arun_urakkadan (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/arun_urakkadan)

doodlerboy

09-17-2007, 07:38 PM

Ok The first image is the rendered Image, the Second Image is what I believe are things I fixed and things I need to figure out. I know it might be a bit dark, probably cause of monitor difference. Mine makes it look just right, but hey, than again my monitor sucks. lol

Rendered Image

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/2570/fruitbowl2roughxp8.th.jpg (http://img47.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fruitbowl2roughxp8.jpg)

Explanation Image

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6812/fruitbowlexplanationcopmg4.th.jpg (http://img248.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fruitbowlexplanationcopmg4.jpg)

BRASH

09-18-2007, 04:14 AM

Greetings.

I'm an animation student planning to graduate in 9 months at the Art Institute of Orange County CA. I used the Haunted Hallway scene by Dan Wade for my Lighting and Texturing final.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/Kai_Shirito/rs_single_final.jpg

I'm seeking just about any kind of constructive critiques anyone wishes to give. Thanks to 3DRender.com for the scene file.

jeremybirn

09-19-2007, 03:00 AM

arunurakkadan - That's looking really good, it's encouraging to see your work get better with each post. I think the flames need to be visible in reflections. For getting your shadows to appear in reflections, in Maya you just increase the Ray Depth Limit on each light's shadow settings, and if necessary increase the Shadow trace depth and Max trace depth in your Render Settings. Maybe the picture frame is getting a bit too blown-out with the highlight from that candle.

doodlerboy - Getting better. I still think you need to look at your key light. Maybe render a breakdown and show the key light by itself so we can see your key, then show what lights are being added that flatten out the apple so much?

BRASH - Welcome! That's a good start to the hallway scene. I think it looks a little too ambient in places. The walls that are facing towards the camera around the arches, as well as the bottom of the staircase and the back wall around the window, could all be darker if they are back-lit and the light is coming in the window. The texturing needs to be adjusted so that it looks more like each surface has its own texture. Right now there's a streak running vertically down all of the stairs on the right that's also projected onto the archway in the foreground.

-jeremy

doodlerboy

09-19-2007, 07:08 AM

Awesome this might help you critique me better :) I render each light set individually: Key Light, Rim Lights, "HDR" Map and Bounce Lights. I tookt he liberty to show an individual shot of the Rim Lights, I think there MIGHT be an issue but I don't see it to be a huge issue, just a minor problem. Let me know what to do Kind sir, Jeremy. Thank you for helping me.

Individual Lights:
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/8212/individuallightstj4.th.jpg (http://img158.imageshack.us/my.php?image=individuallightstj4.jpg)

Rim Light Situation:
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/269/rimlightsissuesdg8.th.jpg (http://img294.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rimlightsissuesdg8.jpg)

jsahn

09-20-2007, 05:37 PM

I used sss shaders for most of the fruit. in hindsight, i should've had a strong indirect light from the bottom, and the specular shape on the grapes could've been less uniform. it was a fun practice, and i'm planning to do more of these. by the way, Jeremy Birn's book was one of the most important books i've read. it's a shame i didn't read it in school.

jsahn

jsahn

09-22-2007, 05:56 AM

i didn't use any textures but just used the l_glass shader. i changed it to a b&w image in ps. for some reason, the bottle on the right has a really intense caustics on the bottom. i also used GI, but i'm not sure if it added anything. your comments are appreciated. -jsahn-

http://www.jsahn.com/public/webImages/MS-bottles3.jpg

ps. can someone tell me how to upload an image here instead of a link? ;;;

pete7319

09-22-2007, 02:03 PM

hello everybody,

i thought this is a very nice theme to practice create atmosphere. apart from lighting i tried to support the daunting atmosphere by mimicing the stile of old horror movies. i have done two variations, the first one came out a bit too friendly, so i reduced the lightfog, which really hurt, because i liked it a lot.

here are my two versions:

http://www.pmegele.de/imagedump/final_comp_night.jpg
http://www.pmegele.de/imagedump/final_comp_day.jpg

jeremybirn

09-23-2007, 04:11 AM

doodlerboy - A rim is a bright line. A rim is a line around part of the outline or contour of something. If a light illuminates part of the front-face of a surface, if it lets you see some of the texture, then that's not a rim. Something a little thicker than a rim is called a kick, but what you're showing goes way beyond that. It's competing with your key light. If the rim lights are set to emit photons, turn that off. If all the glowing in your rim light pass comes from final gathering, then turn that off when rendering your rim lights. Make sure your rim lights cast proper shadows, too. It would be nice to see some indirect light from your key light though, I can't see much now.

jsahn (regarding the fruit bowl) - That's great! Especially your close-up on the fruit looks like it's really going for something believable. You're right that it needs some bounce light from the plate. It could use some raytraced reflections, too, on the fruits and the plate, and maybe a bit less bump on the pear. Terrific work.

jsahn - The bottles are off to a good start too. The directionality of the light isn't very clear to me. it looks from a distance like it should be a back-lit image, but then all the shadows are criss-cross front-lit, no shadows coming forwards towards us from the bright window? Besides the direction, I think those shadows look too hard-edged, too, and should be visible when viewed through refraction.

-jeremy

lancillotto

09-23-2007, 07:40 AM

martinartz

09-24-2007, 07:06 AM

[img=http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/1714/hauntedhallwayxf3.th.jpg] (http://img388.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hauntedhallwayxf3.jpg)

martinartz

09-24-2007, 08:39 AM

http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/1714/hauntedhallwayxf3.jpg (http://img388.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hauntedhallwayxf3.jpg)

Here is my updation. Comments welcome.
(http://img388.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hauntedhallwayxf3.jpg)

jeremybirn

09-24-2007, 04:06 PM

Hi Jeremy,

Some pages ago (pg 22-23) I've posted some images.It would be nice to me to read an your opinion about it. C&C are most welcome.
Here the links:
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x190/lancillotto_album/study3.jpg

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x190/lancillotto_album/study3bg.jpg

http://forums.cgsociety.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=114603

thanks

Gabriele

Hi Gabriele -

Great job on the fruit bowl! The textures look truly realistic. Only areas I could point out for improvement would be the tops of some of the grapes along the left side and the tips of the bananas, but the banana tips are tricky without having all those stubs there. Nice colors and detail throughout. If there are areas to explore with this, it would be making the lighting a little less frontal and uniform, so there'd be some real brights and darks in the scene, getting some raytraced reflections so the more polished looking fruits reflect eachother and the plate reflects the fruits.

For the kitchen, I'm getting mixed signals about where the light is coming from. We can see the moon, and it looks really bright, the way the moon only does when there's not much other light and the exposure is set to pick up a really dark scene. The light on the curtain supports that. But then the light in the kitchen looks like it comes mainly from the left, casting shadows onto the right wall. And the reflections in the wine bottle look like the left side is a dark area not a bright one, and most of the light should be coming from behind. It would be great if you could choose just one or two of those sources, and get everything including the shadows, rim light, and reflections, to all reinforce them, so other viewers aren't as confused as I was about the location of the light source(s).

-jeremy

jeremybirn

09-24-2007, 04:12 PM

martinartz - Nice start. See if you can make it a little more interesting in any way. The ceiling could be more of a gradient, running from darkness near the dark beam in front of it, to lighter in the foreground by the light. The floor also would be better as a gradient than a constant value, maybe make it start darker near the landing, get brighter, then get darker again as it approaches us?

-jeremy

lancillotto

09-25-2007, 08:21 AM

Thanks Jeremy, I will try to do what you suggest to me.

Gabriele

martinartz

09-25-2007, 08:22 PM

Thanks Jeremy..........I will try my level best.............

JohnPGiancarlo

09-26-2007, 02:57 AM

I changed the light a bit, added a few new touches i forgot to fill the top of the window a bit more.

Let me know what do you think of it

jsahn

09-26-2007, 11:54 PM

Jeremy,
thanks a lot for your feedback. i'm going to work on it again. by the way, your book was invaluable.

jsahn

jsahn (regarding the fruit bowl) - That's great! Especially your close-up on the fruit looks like it's really going for something believable. You're right that it needs some bounce light from the plate. It could use some raytraced reflections, too, on the fruits and the plate, and maybe a bit less bump on the pear. Terrific work.

jsahn - The bottles are off to a good start too. The directionality of the light isn't very clear to me. it looks from a distance like it should be a back-lit image, but then all the shadows are criss-cross front-lit, no shadows coming forwards towards us from the bright window? Besides the direction, I think those shadows look too hard-edged, too, and should be visible when viewed through refraction.

-jeremy

arunurakkadan

09-29-2007, 09:03 AM

hi all

here is my updated candle image...

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/5729/candlefinalsep0290702ms5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
By arun_urakkadan (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/arun_urakkadan)

i don,t know y.. i am not getting the flame reflections any where...

c& C most welcome...

Pixelsonic

10-01-2007, 12:24 AM

Hi all, hi Jeremy,

first let me say thanks for your wonderful book. Its one of the best ones I ever bought.

Here is my first contribution in this forum. Please let me know your thoughts...

http://www.martinjann.de/images/Fruit%20Bowl%2014b.jpg

Thanks,
Martin

juansilva

10-01-2007, 12:25 PM

Hi Martin. Really good start. There are a few issues with the render that you need to look out for. I will point them out for you:

1. The texture map you're using for the fabric is probably a lil' bit low-res and it's coming out pixelated.

2. It seems you are using cylindrical mapping for the bananas. However, notice how there's a green seam running thru them. A quick fix for this would be to simply rotate the projection cylinder so the seam is where we cannot see it.

3. I guess something's not right with the SSS on the grapes...especially the ones up front. They look almost radioactive.

4. Lighting and textures are good overall, but be carefull with details such as highlights and shadows. The plums seem to have a bit of a plastic highlight to them...and if you look closely..the brightest highlight on the grapes is on the opposite side to where your key light is coming from.

I think the render would benefit from an occlusion pass since there are fruits that have no shadows areas at all..like the orange.

Well. I'll shut up now. :) That's just my humble opinion. Hope this is any help to you.
Cheers.
Juan

Pixelsonic

10-01-2007, 11:25 PM

Hi Martin. Really good start. There are a few issues with the render that you need to look out for. I will point them out for you:

1. The texture map you're using for the fabric is probably a lil' bit low-res and it's coming out pixelated.

Thanks for your comments !
The texture is high resolution, but I think it might look pixalated, because its the structure of the fabric, which is causing this impression. I actually don´t know how to improve this, whats your suggestion ?

2. It seems you are using cylindrical mapping for the bananas. However, notice how there's a green seam running thru them. A quick fix for this would be to simply rotate the projection cylinder so the seam is where we cannot see it.

Hm, ok. I thought this gives it a more realistic look, as some bananas are still green on one side. But maybe the brown parts don´t really work with the green side. I´ll give it a try to rotate.

3. I guess something's not right with the SSS on the grapes...especially the ones up front. They look almost radioactive.

:)) Well, don´t you know that radioactive grapes don´t have any seeds ? ;) ... no honestly, those really give me a hard time. I´ll try again ...

4. Lighting and textures are good overall, but be carefull with details such as highlights and shadows. The plums seem to have a bit of a plastic highlight to them...and if you look closely..the brightest highlight on the grapes is on the opposite side to where your key light is coming from.

You´re right. Light is not really clear. I´ve tried to simulate sunlight through leaves. I´ll see how this works with new grapes material.

I think the render would benefit from an occlusion pass since there are fruits that have no shadows areas at all..like the orange.

Yes, the contours could be better on the orange and overall.

Well. I'll shut up now. :) That's just my humble opinion. Hope this is any help to you.
Cheers.
Juan

Absolutely, thanks. I´ll try to improve.

Any other comments / opinions ?

Best,
Martin

juansilva

10-01-2007, 11:55 PM

Hi Martin,

Well...to fix the problem with the fabric texture map you could try to clean up the pixelated look in photoshop. Nothing that a few tweaks here and there cannot fix :)

Cheers.
Juan

Meteoro

10-02-2007, 04:27 AM

Hi guys, Hi jeremy!

As you can see I modeled a snowball, I hope that is not a problem.

http://img466.imageshack.us/img466/6524/0014fr5.jpg

Made with Cinema4D as always.

jeremybirn

10-02-2007, 04:42 PM

animaxstudio - That's a terrific scene. The lighting from the left window looks inconsistent, as if it hits the back wall more than it hits its own window frame. Maybe you need some glass or wooden frame or something in that window to make it believable too. Cobwebs are a nice touch. I don't know what the white thing on the right center part of the floor is. Some of the textures would be more believable if they wrapped from one wall to another around corners, instead of cutting off and changing.

arunurakkadan - Really nice scene! I think my only big concern is that parts of it are so bright (the candle wax, the picture frame) and look brighter than the flames themselves, which should be the light source. Maybe you could put a bit more of a glow around the flames, and a bit less brightness in the wax, especially the lower parts.

Pixelsonic - Nice, rich scene. The orange looks like a hallow, plastic orange, probably because the whole thing is glowing. It would be better if it had a bright side and a darker side, with some nice shaping in between. More reflectivity, so the fruits reflect eachother, would also help. The grapes almost look flat, with no gradient to define them as round yet, maybe this is hyperactive scattering and it might just need to be turned down.

Meteoro - Great job! You've got a nice consistent theme there with the snow globe, the picture, the snow. I think the view through the window is a clever idea. The amount of contrast outside the window seems too high, like bright snow on a pure black window frame, maybe some soft blue fill from outside to show the window frame as well as the snow would help, and a little more presence of the window glass, maybe some reflection near the edges? I like the shading on the candles, the black wicks work better than the white ones, maybe the bottom of the flames could be a bit more transparent.
-jeremy

Meteoro

10-02-2007, 09:34 PM

Thanks Jeremy!
Reading your words make me feel really good :bounce:.

I will work on your suggestions as soon as I can.

visua

10-03-2007, 10:06 PM

Progress at last:

I'm gonna add a caustics-pass as well. I've heard from different people that the angle towards the backdrop isn't that convincing but I'm not sure on how to solve that issue, don't wanna change it since I think it fits the "mood".

http://www.nicz.net/bottles.png

wat2k

10-04-2007, 02:27 PM

Hi all, Hi jeremy!

I just have a chance to work on this challenges.
I used Maya,Mr,PS.
What do you think?

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/8339/carmm8.jpg

jeremybirn

10-05-2007, 03:41 PM

visua - Wow! That's a great job with the bottle collection challenge. Nice interesting variety of looks. I agree adding caustics would be good, you can block-out the raytraced shadows so they are pure black, and the caustics will give the transparency. The wood under the window ledge looks brighter than the ledge, that would be a lot of bounce light, maybe it could have more of a gradient darkening as you go up towards the bottom of the ledge. The background looks OK in terms of angles to me, I think the white foam of the waves is clipped though, as if the white foam were overexposed to pure white in the original photograph, and now that you see it reproduced at a lower white-point the flatness of the gray isn't very believable, especially when parts of the image inside the room reach a brighter white.

wat2k - Nice job! I think the shadows look too hard-edged, maybe softer shadows would help especially on the right side. In the truck, the reflections look very angular in places too. The florescent tubes on the ceiling should light up the inside of their own reflectors more, another fill light might be needed to make sure the inside of the reflectors doesn't go black in places.

-jeremy

RezaTJazayeri

10-05-2007, 07:54 PM

hey guys
I wanna start working on challenge#9:Neon and Chrome.... but I have one really strange problem.
I can`t open UVtexturing window in maya! anyone having the same problem?

naveenwwe

10-06-2007, 07:15 AM

This is my challange in cgsociety.

i rendered this image in maya mentalray.and i add some objects.
How it is ? plz give me some comments...............................

naveenwwe

10-06-2007, 07:42 AM

This is my challange in cgsociety.

i rendered this image in maya mentalray.and i add some objects.
How it is ? just look it out. ...............................

Meteoro

10-07-2007, 03:37 AM

Some changes as suggested earlier by Jeremy.

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/5259/0016xo2.jpg

jeremybirn

10-07-2007, 11:24 PM

RezaTJazayeri - I don't know. Try using the UV editor without those models imported, then importing just some of them...

naveenwwe - Welcome, that looks good. I think occlusion would help a lot, as well as a little bit of bounce light from behind the camera. There are places, like the base of the brick arches in the foreground, that lack a sense of contact with the floor. An occlusion pass darkening some of the fill and bounce could fix that.

Meteoro - Still great. If you're making more tweaks, a little bump mapping on the window to break-up reflections (either that or some reflection blur) would help. The snow goes black in places that stop it from looking translucent. Maybe a tiny bit of a blue ambient color on the snow material would bring it to life more?

-jeremy

jasp3d

10-09-2007, 01:56 AM

linHi there, my first challenge here in cgtalk too, and well, impressed by some of the renderings, lots of talented and hard-worker people in here.

I wanted to use this exercise to learn to simulate gi (at least, a bit), work mixing colors, and still get some "haunted mood", evading volumetrics just to do it a bit more difficult and learn more(i had view maybe the entire post before starting so, a bit of cheat there). I got some critics about having 2 principal lights, but at the moment, i'm sure i want the lamp "on" in my render, but having the focus of the eye to the upstairs, dunno how to achieve this first term (lets say the long distance) and second term, the nearest one, maybe sitwching the red-blue to blue-red. Now that's what i wanted to do, and need advice if it's a valid way if i do it right or if i need to go in another direction,apart from finish some texturing, thanks in advance.

http://www.nainona.com/haunted%20hallway/3%20dia%20render-lw.jpg

http://www.nainona.com/haunted%20hal...0render-lw.jpg

here are a pair of links of some wip renders i've done,maybe they're useful for something:

http://www.nainona.com/haunted%20hallway/1er-dia.jpg

http://www.nainona.com/haunted%20hallway/2do-dia.jpg

http://www.nainona.com/haunted%20hal...el-cuelgue.jpg (http://www.nainona.com/haunted%20hallway/3erdia%20antes-del-cuelgue.jpg)

http://www.nainona.com/haunted%20hal...%20gi-o-no.jpg (http://www.nainona.com/haunted%20hallway/3er%20dia%20gi-o-no.jpg)

juansilva

10-09-2007, 11:48 AM

Hi Pablo,

Good work. The choice of color works for me, although perhaps they could work better if used more subtly. Right now it looks more "theatre stage" lit to me...but then again I don't know if that's whate you were aiming for.

I think your textures need a bit more work. The bump map is the most noticeable thing right now and it doesn't make up for the lack of more texture/dirt. Also, watch your composition:

I like the fact that you changed the window but at the same time you got rid of the nice cast shadow it can provide, and if you sum that with the fact that you're using horizontal framing, then you end up with a lot of dead/empty space in the scene which makes it boring.

So, that's about it. Just my opinion. I hope it's any help to you.

Cheers.

Juan

jeremybirn

10-09-2007, 02:41 PM

jasp3d - Nice scene. I like the look of the bare red bulb. The bent window bars are a nice addition, if you wanted to accentuate them there could be some rim light highlighting them and the window frame around them, and maybe even some light through that window casting a shadow of the bent bars onto the side wall. Maybe some specularity on the walls or floor could add interest to some of the blank looking surfaces too - a little wetness can add an icky feeling to a place. There's probably room to develop some bigger/darker shadow areas as well, maybe with darkness under the stair landing. Everything I'm suggesting are just possibilities, but something could certainly break-up the surfaces that are largely constant in value.

-jeremy

jasp3d

10-10-2007, 12:21 AM

Thank you to both juan and jeremy, those comments are show me the path to follow, i can't nothing but agree with you and will finish the image during the weekend, i hope. The only thing, is that, i don't understand you juan, when you say that the only noticeable map is the bump and that there's a lack of texture (?¿)/dirty, that's you think the texture is bad cause it just doesn't suit the ambient, cause of irreality, or wheter just to add more detail & dirty to them? If you could be more explicit about that, i would appreciate a lot !

just got an idea to un-bore it : d

djltrain

10-10-2007, 10:42 PM

Isoroku Yamamoto

This was done with maya / mr / fg

C&C welcome

I think i would like to change the flames and the glass vase but it is getting there.

lightreverse

10-12-2007, 05:26 PM

Hello friends I am new to lighting but getting immense interest in this subject. I am posting my first work please let me know your feedbacks so that I can understand and work on them.

I have worked on Maya with simple shaders, one spot light for Key Light, one spot light for fill and couple of them for rim lights.

Please click on this following link

http://s231.photobucket.com/albums/ee136/lightreverse/?action=view&current=fruitbowl.jpg

Thanks.

juansilva

10-13-2007, 12:18 AM

Lightreverse. I think that you should go back and do a lot more work on this piece before asking for feedback. Right now it's really hard to say anything about it because you have done very little work.

You have no texture maps, except for what I think it is a procedural on the apple.
You haven't tweaked your shaders so everything looks plastic.
Your lights are just plain, there is no color, no color in the shadows, no bounce light.
There is no contact shadows.

I don't mean to be discouraging by any means, but do understand that it is technically impossible to give constructive criticism on an image at such an early stage.

Do go back and put a lot more work into it. I will look forward to seeing an updated version.
Cheers.

martinartz

10-13-2007, 08:49 AM

[/url][url="http://imageshack.us"]http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/4387/hauntedhallwaywe7.jpg (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hauntedhallwayhp8.jpg)

Here is my update.....
By martinartz (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/martinartz)

jeremybirn

10-13-2007, 06:45 PM

djltrain - Yes, I didn't build a complete interior on the vase so that messed up the refraction. You'd need to change the model if you wanted it to work well with a glass shader. Overall the scene looks good. The glow around some of the candle flames seems too circular, not following the shape of the flame. If you render the flames as a separate pass you can add a bloom around them in a paint or compositing program that looks better than the glow around a point-source light. The sword is a good idea and helps build a nice them for the image, but it gets lost visually. Part of that is the composition, where the decorated edge of the handle is hidden behind the holder for the candle base, and the holder ring is much brighter and better defined. The handle itself also gets lost against the black frame of the screen in the background. Maybe a rim light or reflection could run along the length of the sword to tie it together and brighten the top of the handle.

lightreverse - Welcome, that's a good start. The shaders need some work to make it look like a complete scene. Reflections will add to everything. Some places look over-worked with little lights like the one aimed at the top of the banana, leaving a little pool of light and shadow on the plate that doesn't seem to come from anywhere. Try to get most of your lighting and shadows working well with one key light, then add a little fill. If you add rim, make sure it is really just a rim (just a bright line outlining something) and not adding to the shading on the front-face of any surfaces.

martinartz - That's coming along. Maybe some specularity or something else to add interest to the walls, and some more shadow on the floor especially under the stair landing?

-jeremy

lightreverse

10-13-2007, 07:58 PM

Thankyou Jeremy. Thankyou Juan. I am so happy to get your suggestions. I never had expected.... I will definitely try to rectify the scene, work according to the suggestions....try to understand the forms and would post it again once I finish. I always had the problem of understanding the purpose of rim lights.... thankyou so much Jeremy for explaining things so nicely.....

lightreverse

10-14-2007, 01:36 AM

I am working on the fruitbowl scene...tried to make some changes. Am I going in the right direction? I want to know more on shaders? I am not really good at understanding them. This time I have one spot light as key light, another as fill light and two spot lights as rim lights...please do let me know the corrections....I would work on them...I would try again....it was really fun working on this scene.........thanks in advance. Such a wonderful place to learn things....

http://s231.photobucket.com/albums/ee136/lightreverse/?action=view&current=fruitbowl3.jpg

jeremybirn

10-14-2007, 05:47 PM

lightreverse - yeah, keep going with shaders and textures. They take time but are important. The rim light on the lower pear looks unmotivated. Usually your rim light needs to cast shadows, and if you use light linking don't set it for shadows obey light linking.

-jeremy

ErshadRahbar

10-14-2007, 08:20 PM

hi jeremy

this is my first post ( hallway)

i wroked on this scene about 2 hours (lighting and texture)and using 3dsmax default renderer with out adv.lighting (gi) and render time : 0:03:33 res 1600*1200

please help me to improve that
thank u Jeremybirn for every thing

lauras

10-15-2007, 02:30 PM

Hello,

This is my first attempt at the lighting challenges. I'd just like to say that this forum has been infinately helpful with learning to analyze my own work and understanding more and more about the art of CG lighting. I'd also like to thank Jeremy for his amazing book which I carry with me to work almost everyday :)

Software: Maya 8.0
Time to complete: 1 week on and off
Intended time of day: Sunset

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v140/laura0666/Work/Oct14001.jpg
(http://forums.cgsociety.org/)

quakeking

10-16-2007, 07:19 AM

Hello friends, I am posting my first work in here.I like this forums very much,because of a lot of talented CGer in here, and well so many warm-hearted friends will give you helpful suggestion.
I worked in this scene with Maya default renderer.

VirtualCatharsis

10-18-2007, 07:28 PM

Well i took a Maya class in Uni this fall and this is the 4th project we did. I knew absolutely nothing of maya before i started this class and it's got a pretty steep learning curve. Our first assignment had us build and entire room with at least 5 pieces of furniture (with a theme, of course) using only nurbs!! (not only that, but no curve projections or anything like that). This one im actually pretty happy about. I think the glass looks pretty good. There definitely is a lot of pretty talented CG artists on this site, that's for sure!

edit: i forgot to mention that there were guidelines to this exercise:

1) 1 metal object (my table)
2) 1 glass object (the glass)
3) minimum 4 fruits (i will be adding more)
4) raytracing shadows/refractions
5) 3 point lighting
6) nurbs only
7) a projection

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/8455/fruityor3.jpg