On-Going Challenges

[EdtheHobbit]

Here's my take on challenge 9

I wanted to answer the question "so... where's the driver then?"

And this is what I got.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/1372/fallout1copykt9.png

[jeremybirn]

I'm sorry I'm so slow to get back and reply to these! Family is in town... Anyway:

ErshadRahbar - That's a nice scene. The atmosphere looks good - I like the way the light moves through the fog. By the way, nobody calls me "dear" except my girlfriend. :)

lauras - Welcome! That's a good start. A lot of the shaders and textures look good. i think the apple has too much bump mapping and needs more reflectivity. The cherries cast too dark a shadow onto the pear, but almost no shadow at all on the grapes. If you're using a lot of light linking, you might turn off the "Shadows Follow Light Linking" render option. Apart from the parts of the pear that are too dark and need fill lighting, overall the lighting looks too even on everything else. Maybe the brightest light now is very frontal, and would look better more from one side or the top, and then dimmer fill light from the other way?

quakeking - Welcome! Nice bottle scene. I think parts of the bottles, especially near the bottom of the right ones, are too bright. I think they are too bright is because the shadows are not visible in reflections, maybe they need more Ray Depth Limit on the light or more shadow and refraction steps in your render settings. The reflection under the bottle in the window sill looks much darker in most places. Some of the refraction doesn't seem to show enough steps, such as the clear bottle with a red bottle behind it that doesn't show any red. Some caustics would add to the shadows.


VirtualCatharsis - Welcome! Good start on that assignment. It looks like you used depth map shadows, not just raytraced shadows, and they need to be adjusted. Probably a higher resolution and a higher bias are needed to get rid of the artifacts and the blockiness. The red liquid inside that container needs some refraction and maybe some caustics to lighten it up. The fruits in the bowl need bounce light to brighten up their black edges.

goldlens - Nice candle scene! For the flames, they might have a bit more glow around them, and be more transparent near the bottom. The glass in the background looks terrific, nice color and depth there. The metal holders to the candles don't really look like metal, they need less diffuse brightness (darker base color) so the shading will come less from the diffuse and more from the specular and reflections.

aelphasis - Welcome! In terms of improving the lighting, getting some highlights in there, specularity on the walls, rim light on the bannisters, and maybe reflections on the metal shade would help. Subdivision on the shade to hide the faceting would help too.

JoyVoltenburg - Welcome, that's a good start. It looks very bright, I think a building at night could have more contrast with darker areas, especially up above the lights. See if you can get nice shadows and maybe also occlusion below the truck, to make the contact between the front tires and the ground more believable.

riri284 - Post whatever you've got!

EdtheHobbit - Terrific! I guess the driver was killed in the fallout. It has a nice theme and nice colors. Maybe in the foreground especially on the right could use some dark tones, like really solid looking shadows and occlusion, so that it only gets foggy with distance.

-jerem

[kunwarnikhil]

Hi jeremy,
i was going through the forums when i came across this particular area of the challeneges and the work on it is absolutely mind blowing. i particularly like the under boardwalk scene so decided to give it a try and spent abt a week on it spending 3-4 hrs a day. and finally i have something i can show. this is my fst attempt at lighting a whole sene and it really took the life out of me trying to get the water. any way this scene has been done entirely on maya without any passes and no post prod work done on it. i wud like your feed back on it as i have no idea what mistakes i have made. i am having a problem attaching the image on to this post. sry am new to the forums. can anyone tell me how to do tht. sry

[jeremybirn]

kunwarnikhil - For help with posting your artwork, please see this thread (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=267104). If you have an established account on cgtalk, and have made enough posts already, then you can post an image attachment. If you have a website, then upload your image there and just link to it here. If you don’t have a website, you can put it on sites such as http://www.imageshack.us/ or http://photobucket.com/.

-jeremy

[Aldarion]

Just felt like playing with light a bit, here's the fruits image.
Any C&C welcome.

EDIT : Removed old image. Here's the new one, straight out of max's mental ray.

http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/8494/fruitsnew7nn4.jpg

[kunwarnikhil]

Thanks jeremy'
i can finally post my work now. i still want to do a lil change with the beach texture but here it is do give me the feed back bye the way this render is completely maya software without mental ray
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc318/kunwarnikhil/finally.jpg

[behrooz]

http://xs221.xs.to/xs221/07444/cgbottle1.jpg

[VirtualDragon]

Here's MY take on challenge 9

http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs19/f/2007/305/0/d/0d367f0b453d57a1.jpg

[GiarcNamwob]

Here is a new one... finally had some time to work on some things....

[jeremybirn]

It's great to see these submissions from new members, I hope they are the first of many.

Aldarion - Welcome! That's a nice scene overall. I guess the lighting seems a little too frontal and uniform to me, it might look better if you swing the brightest light off to the side a bit more. The plums (askdan) in the back could use some rim or kick from the left where they are almost going black. Some of your shadows could be softer, right now they all look very hard-edged.

kunwarnikhil - Welcome! It looks very strange with the lowered water level, and the water lillies floating on air like that. Some refraction (real or faked) could set the underwater part of the scene to a different location than the above-water scene. Materials on the boat and ground above water look very bump mapped. See if you can use softer shadows underwater.

behrooz - Welcome! That's a nice bottle scene. The feeling of the glass is good. The windowsill under the glass needs some shadowing (and probably occlusion and caustics) to represent the soft shadowing of the glass objects sitting on it. It should all blur with distance but be very pronounced right at the point of contact between the glass and the painted wood.

VirtualDragon - Welcome! First post and already you have a terrific scene! Congratulations on that! I think the water and the chrome of the truck have a bit too much of a diffuse look, you want really reflective things to start out very dark (especially at night) and only get brighter where there is something bright to reflect. The carpaint probably has too much diffuse too. Maybe after you darken the base color on those things, you could add some little specular lights to put colored kicks into the reflections. The garage could use more of a glow from the inside, and light from the truck's tail lights.

GiarcNamwob - That's a nice scene. I like all the things you added to make it more complex. It seems as if the lighting is a little uniform, and more dark corners and dark shadows and contrast would add to the mood.

-jeremy

[ErshadRahbar]

nobody calls me "dear" except my girlfriend. :)


:banghead: :blush: :cry:




oooooooooooooooooooo
so sorry for my mistake
because always i do 3 or 4 tasks together i make this mistake some times

sorry

:sad:

[CGmm]

Hi Jeremy and all.

I might be the only one still doing this, but here is my (almost)final update
for the Sphagetti monster. http://www.seijimm.com/FSM_Comp3.jpg
Thanks Jeremy for your last advice, which I followed and I believe it looks way better now.
Still I can spot some area to be fixed, but I think I spent too much time on this already...

Any comments are welcome, thank you.

[TMS]

This was my first try at a challenge from a few months back. I didn't realize I could post it after the next challenge started. This was my first attempt at using your technique to get the glow effect.

As usualy the 3ds model was imported to AutoCad 14 and rendered in AccuRender 3.

[lauras]

Hi All!

I took a break from editng my fruit to work on the Bottles challenge. Please let me know what you think! Special thanks again to Jeremy for all his help. :thumbsup:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v140/laura0666/Work/Bottles.jpg

[epochapex]

http://www.epochapex.com/dynamic/files/images/composite_final0000.preview.jpg

Hi!

Here's my second attempt at the fruit bowl. I know it's not perfect, but I'd like to maybe put it on my reel. Any advice, crits etc.?

Thanks

[VirtualDragon]

Thank you so much for your review last time...i'm still working on it following your advise. Here is another one I did, this is the Lighting Challenge #2...
http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs22/f/2007/313/9/d/9df6052573b905d4.jpg

[jeremybirn]

CGmm - Hello! That is a nice looking FSM scene. I like the vegetation and cheerful colors and waterfall and mist. I think the lighting could be improved if there were less fill light on the creatures themselves. Right now, apart from the sun light, it appears they have too much fill light, light coming uniformly from all directions. If that appearance is not caused by fill light then it may come from translucency, but either way they would look better if the bottoms and interior and shadow parts went much darker, more like the cliffs. It appears that the back cliff should get some sun light on it. The poses are nice, but my eye is fooled by the little one, he looks like a more distant monster in the background, but then you see that he is in front of a part of its parent. Maybe you could give him different proportions (bigger eyes) so it is more clear that he is a child?

TMS - Good start. I think the glass needs to cast darker shadows, and you need to get rid of the white "frosty" edges. The bottles will need smoothing to get rid of the angles from the polygon control cages. To save development time, you can do tests with just 1 or 2 bottles until you really nail the glass look, and only make the bottles visible later.

epochapex - Welcome, that's a nice scene. I like the textures. The lighting could be better if there were more clear direction to the illumination, and shadows cast under the fruits. It looks like the light comes from the left, but I don't see the right side of the fruits getting much darker, and the shadows on the plate are very faint. That kind of plate might be more reflective, too. I don't think the background blurring looks like DOF, you can leave that out if you can't get something more like real DOF.

VirtualDragon - Welcome! Looking good. I can't really see wher ethe light is coming from in that one. If light is supposed to come through the window, then you should work on that. Look at shading in the corners where two walls meet, and make sure they look like they contact as well.

-jeremy

[jeremybirn]

hi,i shaded lit & rendered the scence using maya software
i am grateful and thankful to 3drender.com - jeremy birn & cgsociety for providing a great platform,my seniors especially amjad desai & the entire maximus team
http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff165/vihang_photo/HH.jpg

That's a nice scene! Glad you're still working on the fingers. They could go darker in places, into a deep red to show transparency. The candle flame would look more believable if it aimed upwards. I think a little bit of blue specularity in the foreground hallway, especially a blue highlight on the floor, could really help tie together the blue background with the foreground, and some specular would help give a creepy presence to the walls as well.

-jeremy

PS - Please don't start new threads in this forum, only reply to existing threads!

[CGmm]

Thank you for the feedback, Jeremy.

Yes, there is a fill light but not so strong,
so I guess I'll have to tweak with the sss settings too.

That little one is actually behind the others
and those kids have different propotion already (bigger eyes),
but maybe I can do little more. since he could be the youngest.
I'll try with some different position/pose and figure out.

Thanks again!

[epochapex]

Thanks Jeremy! I' glad you like the textures - they're all hand painted aside from the plate and cloth.

I find lighting very tough and unintuitive for some reason. I think it's because the lights are quantities in a program and not qualities like colours & tones in a painting.

The depth of field done with zdepth using Fusion to composite, so maybe I'll look at adjusting the cam setting in Maya.

[karma9]

thank you jeremy,
your suggestion and comments are invalueble,thanks for you support!

[lauras]

Hello All,

Script #2

NICK staggers into THE KITCHEN, squinting to shield his eyes from the morning sun.
NICK
THE ONLY REAL CURE FOR A HANG-OVER IS ANOTHER BOTTLE
OF BOOZE. THE TRICK IS TO PASS OUT AGAIN BEFORE YOU
PUKE IT UP.

I haven't had time to render this with better sampling and I think it may look more like sunset than sunrise but let me know what you think.

Thanks to everyone here for all the critiques and help, I learn so much just from looking at other peoples work.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v140/laura0666/Work/Kitchen.jpg

[jeremybirn]

lauras - Hello! Those are nice colors and textures on the room, that adds a lot and would fit well with early morning light. I think the wall with the window in it could be darker, to make it look more back-lit. Right now it seems even brighter than the side walls that would get light from the sky. Light from the sky should be the main source of fill light, and that light should be cool, with soft shadows, and all should come through the window. The sunbeam looks a little broad, although I guess the width is plausible, but it could use slightly softer shadows. (The sun is an area light in the sky, not a point light, and gets to be bigger area light when shining through some clouds.) The view through the window could be brighter, compared to how bright things look inside the room, and also to convey the idea that the sun is blindingly bright.

-jeremy

[lauras]

Hi All!

Jeremy - Thank you so much for the critique! It's so awesome to have fresh eyes look at my projects. I've revised my kitchen and had a bit of a hard time softening the shadows but I think I got the back wall correct. I also cooled down the sky light.

Let me know what you think. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v140/laura0666/Work/KitchenRevisedForum.jpg

[srm5436]

This is my first post here! I'm kind of a noob in the lighting/texturing world, so go easy on me :P Any advice, however, will be greatly appreciated!

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/6105/meehansumnerhwk3textureya2.th.jpg (http://img152.imageshack.us/my.php?image=meehansumnerhwk3textureya2.jpg)

[srm5436]

Me again! Obviously I wasn't really able to get the chrome quite right here... any ideas?

(P.S. I know the cats are silly, but I just couldn't think of anything else to put there! xD)

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/213/meehansumnerhwk4testeh8.th.jpg (http://img513.imageshack.us/my.php?image=meehansumnerhwk4testeh8.jpg)

[CGmm]

Hi, Jeremy and all.
I uploaded the latest version of my FSM. http://www.seijimm.com/FSM_Comp4.jpg

I think I got it right. Now they fit in the background better.
Though I realized my monitor shows color/contrast in a different way
than my notePC, so I had to try match it.
Still more correction may be needed. What do you think?

Any comments are welcome, thank you.

[OrganisedChaos]

I worked on this one over the past week, and have realised the most annoying thing here is texturing. seriously i hate it. if someone could do my UV mapping for me that would be awesome :P i didnt light the upper levels because they arent mapped. infact half the building is just a lambert without a file texture. and i think pretty much everything in this image is made of chrome/metal haha.
wasnt sure how to do a glare/glow in maya except for the post effect on most standard shaders. i dont know of any glow filters in mental ray, i suppose using a volume filter i could give it that sort of look...but render times would be insane. the biggest thing this image is lacking is any sort of ambience. theres no condensation/mist, no smoke, nothing. at that time of night the air should be saturated. but again, volume is the only way i could think of. unless i do a maya render and composit, but i like to keep it all on one clean render.
render stats:
maya, mental ray
lighting is heavily object based. standard maya shader with incandesence, glow at some tiny number and final gather on. standard point lights used to do brake lights, and one to light the garage where object lights dont reach, with 2 spotlights on the headlights, one blue point light for moon.
final gather, multibouncex2, 1000 rays. no gi.
terrible use of shaders and textures -5 marks. for some reason my environment isnt showing on that metal pole thing by the car either...and the filesize restrictions mean theres alot of artifacts, the original render was clean and not splotchy, and the exit light didnt look like crap...i swear :P
again not colour corrected, dark and red monitor, apologies if it looks crap on a normal screen.
and yes, its quite tongue in cheek. i really dont like 4wds :P

[MinaRagaie]

if someone could do my UV mapping for me that would be awesome :P i
google RoadKill UV tools.. it's available as a Maya plugin and a stand alone software.
hope that helps
edit- on another thought architectural enviroments are easier to do with projections sometimes. consider your options :)
-Mina

[OrganisedChaos]

ok, this is killing me...
or atleast slightly irking me.
ok im not that phased by it, but, im trying to light the bottles scene, and im having a terrible time getting the damn things to light up. everywhere around the scene is kind of lit, but the bottles act like theyre sucking all the light out, and just making it really dark.
they basically are completely black, i dont know why, i tried replacing the shaders with basic lamberts to see if light wasnt hitting them, it is, it has strong shadows, but thats to be expected, its meant to be sunrise.
its like the light cant pass through the surface, but it shouldnt have any trouble, ive put raytrace depth on it.
any ideas?

[OrganisedChaos]

google RoadKill UV tools.. it's available as a Maya plugin and a stand alone software.
hope that helps
edit- on another thought architectural enviroments are easier to do with projections sometimes. consider your options :)
-Mina

ive downloaded the UV tools for maya, but theres still tedious work to do with it, im longing for the day when i can click a surface and it will just map it for me :P rather than fiddling with planar mapping etc to get it all perfect.
until that day, i suppose my lazyness and lack of motivation for texturing will haunt me :)

[Aldarion]

Got a little while, added some rim lights, changed the cloth material and made some minor changes. I'm thinking of putting this into my portfolio, so please crit, I want it to be better than good.

http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/5268/fruitslatestmk7.jpg

[jeremybirn]

lauras - That's great! When I squint at it, I'm still not entirely sold on the window being the bright light source. If you look at the top cube of the window frame, there are two faces of that cube visible. The one that's towards us is brighter, and the one of the bottom, facing out towards the exterior ground, is darker. It feels as if the light from outside should be much brighter than the bounce on the interior wall. I think a little more light could get caught inside that wine bottle, maybe just a point light in the middle of it if you don't want to bother with caustics?

srm5436 - Welcome! Try to stick to one project, like the fruit bowl, and work on it until you are done before you do another. That's a good start on the fruit bowl. To get going with shadows, try lighting the scene with just one light, adjust the light to cast shadows, and get as much shaping and definition, nice bright and dark areas, as you can with just one light. Then add raytraced reflections to the reflective surfaces like the plate and fruits. Then, only as a last step, add some fill light and give the fill light shadows or occlusion. But really, start with a one-light rendering to make sure you have your key light illumination and shadows set as well as possible.

CGmm - Nice! it still looks very bright, but in an engaging, intentional way, like a storybook picture for little children. I like how some of them have some expression, the big one in front still looks kindof blank like he hasn't noticed us yet. It looks as if some of the lights don't cast shadows, and maybe in some places there could be better definition with more shadows or occlusion, but this isn't strictly always needed in a stylized render.

OrganisedChaos - I usually use a lot of projection mapping instead of UV for this kind of thing, just because UVs can be so much trouble. If you're working on chrome, make sure it has something to reflect, even if you need a big textured polygon out in front of the truck. The camera angle is nice, and you're getting the neon working. The flourescent tubes don't look as convincing yet, maybe because the entire fixtures including the metal reflectors are all glowing?

OrganisedChaos - Make sure you have enough raytrace depth (enough reflection bounces and especially enough refraction steps) for light to make it all the way through the bottles. In Maya this is set both in your Render Settings, and also on the shaders. Also, make sure there's an environment to reflect or refract running all the way around the models, they could be picking up darkness from any angle around them.

Aldarion - Welcome! That's looking great, really lush feeling. I think there's too much contrast in some of the shader/texture brightness levels: the stems and the tips of the bananas go almost black. But then you could have a little more contrast in the lighting, so that the apple gets some really darker tones in the places where it's shadowed by other fruits. I like the feeling of the purple fruits in the background, maybe they need just a hint of rim on the left side as well, but they are looking really rich already. The amount of contrast and darkness under the plate is good already.

-jeremy

[TMS]

Anybody got the fruit in 3ds format. I would like to try it but can't load anything else.
Thanks if you can help.

[sendanilhi]

Here is my first try on lighting after starting reading your 2nd edition of Digital lighting and Rendering ...........
this one (fruit bowl) might be old but still is a challenging one.....
kindly....do give me your comments on this one..
i will be most thankful....

thanks..
Anil Verma
India
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc61/sendanilhi/fruitbowl.jpg

[Rico3k]

Below are lighting scene's that i've been working on for a Lighting Techniques module at University some on still work in progress and i'd like some feedback on them cheers.

Thanks to jeremy birn for his awesome book, pete draper and his scenes from his tutorials and the guys that created the scene for the lighting challenges.

Basically for this module we could source the scene's from anywhere aslong as they didnt have a lighting solution complete in them.

HDRI LIGHTING (Complete) i know not part of this lighting challenge but i still like feedback cheers.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/Rico3k/hdri_800x600_Beauty.jpg

Light Tracer Calm sea (an example of what i want to do with the scene, as this was done by a friend of mine)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/Rico3k/lighttracer.jpg


Candles (WIP)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/Rico3k/Candles_800x600_Beauty.jpg

Haunted Hallway(WIP)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/Rico3k/wip_hallway2.jpg


Cheers

[RoVeR]

It's been a while since I rendered anything. Not all of us work in the CG industry ya know! For me it's a hobby. I thought I'd give it a try on lighting the haunted hallway. Just a quick clean WIP. I'm already happy as is but I'm tweeking things if I see something I don't like.

http://www.d9gaming.com/rove/nighttime_hallway.jpg

[jeremybirn]

sendanilhi - Welcome! That's a good start on the fruit bowl. The shadow from the apple onto the pear looks too bright, that's not your key light (the brightest light comes from the right) so it shouldn't be your darkest, boldest shadow. Some reflections on the plate and the shinier fruits would add to this. You might do some more texture work, on the tips of the bananas and the stem of the pear as well.



Rico3k - Welcome! It might be too early to critique the candles, the flames need to be brighter and added on as a separate layer, the shadows need to be softer, but I'll see what you have when you've put more time into it. Maybe try to get the candles working before you start the haunted hallway.



RoVeR - Welcome! The fill light looks very uniform, as if the fill doesn't have any occlusion or shadows. It would be nice if the light from the ceiling were a different color from the fill, cast softer shadows, and decayed with distance in a more realistic way. Some specular or reflections could also help your hallway. Think about what the back stairs should look like - maybe they should be darker with just little kicks or glints of light?

-jeremy

[sendanilhi]

this is Anil again frm India........
u remember the fruit bowl i had posted ..recently...

this time i had done this hounted hallway challenge( this is really one good composition) thanks 4 such challenges....
....................
in this i had stimulated light at morning time.....
i had rendered them with depth-map shadows.....and raytracing both.....

sir, pls tell me what more can i do in them to make them more eye-catching.....

i will be highly thankful.......
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc61/sendanilhi/hallwaymorninngraytraced3.jpg


http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc61/sendanilhi/hallwaymorninng.jpg

here is one i stimulated in night time........

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc61/sendanilhi/hallwaynightraytraced2.jpg
Anil Verma
India

[Rico3k]

here is an update on the candles

i cant get the lens effects to work for the glow of the flame, as i get this the following message during the rendering from the mental ray.

MSG 0.0 error: "Lens Effects" effect expected unsupported GBuffer channel "transparency"

I believe this is down to a material that mental ray does not likehttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/Rico3k/candle_latest.jpg

[Rico3k]

finally got the glow effects to work as mental ray does not support lens effects, so it was done via video post.

here is an update, i'm just trying to get the SSS correct with the candles, i have a material that was made to fake the SSS and i also have the mental ray SSS also and it just aint turning out right.

i have 3 omni's to every flame i did have 6 but i was making things to exposed, i tried brightness and contrast effects, and nothing was working out right and thats why i have just left it at three omni's per flame.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/Rico3k/candles_latest.jpg

just tried something else so will post the results.

Cheers

[jeremybirn]

sendanilhi - You could use some texture mapping, reflectivity, and specularity on the walls and floor. Also, more contrast between light and dark could add to your scenes, especially if you could use occlusion to darken some of the cracks and corners.

Rico3k - Looking good! The new framing is a little broad - it leaves much of the frame black, maybe you could zoom in on the subjects more? It would help the candle-light look if the shadows were softer. Some of the surfaces could use more reflections or highlights, especially the plates and tabletop.

-jeremy

[lighthunder]

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



[/QUOTE]

[jeremybirn]

lighthunder -

I'm a little confused. Is that image you just posted yours, or a copy of someone else's from another post?

If you're going to quote someone, please leave their name in the quote so everyone can tell who said something originally and who you are quoting.

-jeremy

[Paddi82]

Hi,

that's my very first post. I did the lighting of the candle scene in 3ds max with some Arch&Design Materials. I hope u like the picture.

Critics are welcome! :)
Regards

[OrganisedChaos]

OrganisedChaos - I usually use a lot of projection mapping instead of UV for this kind of thing, just because UVs can be so much trouble. If you're working on chrome, make sure it has something to reflect, even if you need a big textured polygon out in front of the truck. The camera angle is nice, and you're getting the neon working. The flourescent tubes don't look as convincing yet, maybe because the entire fixtures including the metal reflectors are all glowing?

OrganisedChaos - Make sure you have enough raytrace depth (enough reflection bounces and especially enough refraction steps) for light to make it all the way through the bottles. In Maya this is set both in your Render Settings, and also on the shaders. Also, make sure there's an environment to reflect or refract running all the way around the models, they could be picking up darkness from any angle around them.



i never got the hang of projection mapping, i should probably look into it cos it seems everyone uses it alot. all the chrome has something to reflect. i put planes with surface shaders on them of a cityscape at night around the entire scene. as for the fluros, i kinda put full chrome on the metal fixtures, so they would appear to be glowing yeah :)

i put depth on everything to 20+ to be sure it was getting through, but nope. there is an IBL surrounding the scene so there should be zero black, however the camera environment would still be black. perhaps ill change that when i get home and see what happens. it may just be something weird that the mia shader does where it picks up the black camera environment over the IBL...didnt have any trouble when replaced it with the DGS shader either, but it doesnt look as good. prob throw some multibounce in there, see if i can get the light to reach it that way.
thanks for the help.

[Chiaroscuro]

Hello all,

Here is my take on the Haunted Hallway Challenge. Lighting, texturing and rendering with formZ, using the new final gather and ambient occlusion features. I also used glow for the volumetric effect. This is rendered in one pass and not exposure corrected or adjusted in Photoshop. (I like my renders raw, whenever possible). I did change the model a bit, I hope it's not too much.

Thanks for looking, and comments always welcome!

[tuffmutt1]

hi all....my take on the Leet stuff....comped up in pshop...max and MR. like the Pied piper !!!:)
[/url]
(http://imageshack.us/)

[url="http://imageshack.us/"]http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/6871/leetpiperukadkadepq9.jpg (http://imageshack.us/)

[tuffmutt1]

heres the candle scene....also max and MR.

[/url]
[url="http://imageshack.us/"]http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/733/candlesukadkadeio2.jpg (http://imageshack.us/)

[tuffmutt1]

finally got the glow effects to work as mental ray does not support lens effects, so it was done via video post.

here is an update, i'm just trying to get the SSS correct with the candles, i have a material that was made to fake the SSS and i also have the mental ray SSS also and it just aint turning out right.

i have 3 omni's to every flame i did have 6 but i was making things to exposed, i tried brightness and contrast effects, and nothing was working out right and thats why i have just left it at three omni's per flame.



just tried something else so will post the results.

Cheers

Hi Rico...I am assuming that you are using Max/MR for your renders. try using the Glare shader that MR does as a post effect , same as mental Ray.you dont have to use the post thing.
use one omni for each one (thats like six spot lights in one) use either decay...(inverse preferable) or use the attenuation perameter to make things bright (hot) or dim.

another look at your image shows multiple shadows ...almost like all the candles are lit from an external source. have you tried area shadows in Max/Mr? if your are using standard with
lights shadow mapped or raytrace in max they will not behave the same as in the default scanline renderer.
I hope this helps...and have a happy new year....

[FistOfGod]

Hi everyone!

I have been lurking around the lighting forums and decided to start participating in some of these challenges. The first one I'm going to try is the eye lighting exercise. To up the challenge, and so I learn more, I'm trying to paint the textures by hand. So far this is about a day worth of work. I still need to tweak a few things, like the shiny, wet spots that appear between the eyeball and lid. I have not worked at all on the eyelashes yet or creating any texture maps for the forward or back scattering. I made a lot of changes to the eyeball, if that is ok? The modeling was fine, having the eyeball setup in this new way was easier for me to work on. The head and lashes are the same. I think I might add some thick makeup later on....we will see. I'm using xsi 6.5 and Photoshop.

Thanks for any feedback!

Waylon

http://www.waylonwinn.com/lightingchallenges/eye/eyerender12_30_07.jpg

[FistOfGod]

Worked on it a little more today. Mainly worked on removing the hard transition between the sclera and cornea. Also started on the eyebrows and a few other things.

Waylon

http://www.waylonwinn.com/lightingchallenges/eye/eyerender12_31_07.jpg

[lighthunder]

[QUOTE=jeremybirn]lighthunder -

i posted my image but it is not showing on pls can u help thnks

[animatoor]

Hi there,,,just been intorduced to 3drendr.com,,,studying up lighting and caustics...this is my first try @ underwater,,,have been trying two versions,one a very mirky greenish watery appearance

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/2066/boardwalk5pu9.th.jpg (http://img91.imageshack.us/my.php?image=boardwalk5pu9.jpg)

and an another a clear water tropical one

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/6821/undertheboardwalk3ra4.th.jpg (http://img87.imageshack.us/my.php?image=undertheboardwalk3ra4.jpg)

C&C would be very useful ,thanks,,and could someone direct me to some nice caustics tutorials.

[jeremybirn]

paddi - Welcome! Sorry for my slow response. The flames look a little dim to me, one looks dimmer than the candle wax behind it, they need to be brighter, to have glows around them, and to light-up the candle wax beneath them a bit.

Chiaroscuro - Welcome! Sorry for my slow response. I think the areas outside the sunbeam need more contrast, with darker shadows or occlusion in the cracks and corners, only getting that light where surfaces face the window. Surfaces that are back-lit, like the back wall, could go a lot darker. The black parts of the staircase and lampshade and some of the boards could use a little more variety though, maybe with reflection on the lampshade?

tuffmutt1 - Great job on the Leet! Looks great!

FistOfGod - Nice job on the eye! I think it could use more of a reflection of the environment, and a little less bump mapping on the outer surface. The skin could use some redness in the wrinkles to simulate scattering, instead of going gray where it darkens at the fold of the eyelid for example. The edge of the tearduct should overlap seamlessly on top of the eyeball, with a soft edge so there's no real line between them.

lighthunder - It looks from the other thread as if you figured out how to post images.

animatoor - Good job. I like the first one better. If you add reflection and refraction, then you won't see as much of the dock above water, but it would look more realistic. For caustics, this situation would work best to fake them, and just project a pattern as a cookie (a color map on the light's color) to put caustic patterns on the ground.

-jeremy

[animatoor]

:wise: will try that,,thanks

[jacqu]

:)
Here is mine!I use maya + mr+ ps！
http://features.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/47482/47482_1195523179_large.jpg

[animatoor]

hers my haunted hallway challenge.

C&C would be useful, thanks.

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/5163/hauntdhallway7se6.th.jpghttp://img216.imageshack.us/img216/7052/hauntdhallway71po8.th.jpg (http://img211.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hauntdhallway7se6.jpg)

[casesensative]

My first try at lighting this scene,

default material...
5-6 areas outside windows
1 directional
1 spot for bulb
1 point for bulb

software render

hoping to get some crits..

once i have the lighting the way i want it ill texture it

also, im trying to figure out what a good resolution/aspect ratio is for rendering out a longer, thinner image...any suggestions?

[noouch]

Thought I'd tackle the fruit bowl... Three spotlights, one bounce of GI in VRay, DOF in unregistered LensCare (hence the cross across the image). I might render a nicer version when I get to my other computer at home.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e252/noouch/fruit03.jpg

[lighthunder]

check this little corrections :rolleyes: http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/1629/chrimas4forpostsq7.jpg

[Ultrasonic]

Hey Guys....

...here is my frist lighting approach....no textures and shading yet....
http://home.arcor.de/ultra_sonic/cgtalk/hh_v001.jpg

hope u like it....c&c very welcome!!!

OLi

[FistOfGod]

Was able to work on the eye some more. Have been really busy lately with work and having no power....uggh. Thanks for the comments Jeremy! :) I have made some new changes based on your comments and some ideas I had floating around in my head. Still need to work on some things. So tired.....must sleep.

Waylon

http://www.waylonwinn.com/lightingchallenges/eye/eyerender01_16_08.jpg

[jasvant]

hi guys, in this scene i am showing monster like a alien.i did it in 3ds max. http://forums.cgsociety.org/images/icons/icon6.gif http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii257/jassi782477/finalmars3.jpg

[jmBoekestein]

Here's my go at the Haunted Hallway, I'm learning maxwell on these goes and I gotta say it's an awesome renderer eventhough it's slow.

I noticed some problems opening the scene myself in max, so I'll clean it up a bit and upload a max file and a softimage file to my website(you can just link them from my site mr. Birn). I'll post the links with the next wip.

I used the Maxwell daylight system after exporting it through the render plug-in from max. Materials are for the better part 2 layered bsdf's to give a diffuse with added eerie reflection.
I loved how the light worked when I left the sun on, so it's not so creepy looking but I like it, it's only step one though lol.

8h on pentium D 805 at 3.3 Ghz 2Gb ram.

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/5323/hauntedhallwaycorrectunak3.th.jpg (http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hauntedhallwaycorrectunak3.jpg)

editand here's one without sunlight, looks more creepy I think.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/6613/hauntedhallway4wx4.th.jpg (http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hauntedhallway4wx4.jpg)

link to max file in rar format: >>click here<< (http://www.eidolos.net/archives/hauntedhallway.rar)

[CGmm]

Hi jeremy and all.
I should have posted here, before I started the xmas challenge.
Anyway, this is my latest version of FSM.

http://www.seijimm.com/FSM_Comp5.jpg
(Maya MentalRay Aftereffects)
I can maybe still go darker, but as you kindly give an excuse,
I will keep them brighter like those characters in a picturebook.
Thanks again for the comment.


>noouch
Wow, nice work. I'm looking forward to see your next version!

[GailBlitzy]

Hello, This is my first try at 3D lighting. I used standard lighting and radiosity. All comments are welcome

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j136/Gail_Blitzy/art%20and%203D/Inside_Dayradiosity.jpg?t=1201019385

[neil09]

After long time I am posting in this thread. Jeremy's lighting and rendering book helped me lots. Thanks Jeremy :). C&C are welcome.

[Chiaroscuro]

Hello Jeremy,

Thanks for the feedback! I sure appreciate you taking time to do this. I have had a chance to make changes to my Hallway image.

Best Regards,

Chiaroscuro

[seminalsoul]

hey guys. this is my first attemp at lighting in Maya. im a hardcore max user and max lighting artist. well, situation demanded that i start practicing lighting in maya, so i purposely took the mb for this one :)

there are 2 lights in the scene.

have a look at it. hope u will find it interesting atleast :P

PS: lighting in Max is SOOO EASY AND FUN! :P

[saks27]

lol

can u erase posts?

[SpAiK]

Hi folks! Here are two renders I did few days ago just learning to use Fryrender. They are from Lightning Challenges 4: Bottle Collection. C&C welcome.

[faithw]

hi,

please comment. Thanks! :)http://faithwong.deviantart.com/art/fruit-bowl-76912632

[faithw]

Sorry, I think i didn't post properly just now.

Please comment. Thank you.

fruit bowl

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs27/f/2008/041/e/c/ecd68adadd8903e0.jpg

room

http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs22/f/2008/030/7/2/72060bb5d5683957.jpg
http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs22/f/2008/030/0/5/05c160653d27ff0c.jpg

[saks27]

faithw (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=313402):
Hey!

I really like the fruitbowl. :)
The napkin Looks pretty amazing.

Now i'm definately not close to being good enough to critique but i'll give it a try. :P

I think the grapes could use some translucency, that'll give'em more of a grape feel.
THe other thing was that it looks like the shadows look pretty constrasty for the amount of light going into the scene, but i mean if that's what looks good to you that's cool.

Tell me if it helped or if i'm really wrong because i'm just trying to learn through crits here.

Thanks,
Jose Contreras
vbmenu_register("postmenu_4936822", true);

[faithw]

hi saks27,

thanks for the crits. I'm a newbie in lighting and rendering.

Will try to improve on the translucency.Using sss for grapes, and first time using, so still need some tweaking.

I agree on the shadow. Look very strange. Will probably do two occlusion passes to try to make it better.

Thanks :>

faithw (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=313402):
Hey!

I really like the fruitbowl. :)
The napkin Looks pretty amazing.

Now i'm definately not close to being good enough to critique but i'll give it a try. :P

I think the grapes could use some translucency, that'll give'em more of a grape feel.
THe other thing was that it looks like the shadows look pretty constrasty for the amount of light going into the scene, but i mean if that's what looks good to you that's cool.

Tell me if it helped or if i'm really wrong because i'm just trying to learn through crits here.

Thanks,
Jose Contreras
vbmenu_register("postmenu_4936822", true);

[sendanilhi]

file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/deepak/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpgfile:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/deepak/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpgHi..
This is my another attempt on this challenge.........
file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/deepak/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-2.jpghttp://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc61/sendanilhi/try1.jpg

Comments are WELCOME.........:wavey:

file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/deepak/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-3.jpgfile:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/deepak/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-4.jpg

[Aldarion]

You have to link to images on the internet not on your local harddrive. Try uploading them to imageshack or some similar. Hope that helps.

[bugzor]

edit: double post

[bugzor]

hello,

just registered to the forums, i see some excellent renders in here, very well done all!

here is mine, crits and comments welcome!

i used mental ray / maya for rendering and photoshop for postprocessing

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9366/nr3postprocessedbt7.jpg

[saks27]

Hey!

Well no one's anything here in a while, so i guess i'll break the ice. :)

bugzor, I like your render...
I'll try to be nitpicky about it so I can help you, but I'm no TD or anything so don't take my crits if they sound wrong. :)

colorwise I think it comes together pretty good. you used GI right? I think the green blead a little too much onto the table... the green light makes me feel kinda sick on the table, on the other hand i think it makes the table and chairs come toghether with the overall comop. Same thing with the bottle, the caustics look a little exagerated. but it's coolI still like it. Your floor looks pretty good. nice pattern.

The only thing that kinda bothers me is that the houses outside look like they are at a different perspective to the room, almost as if the street floor started a few inches below the window.
You know what i mean?
besides that, Awesome render.

please tell me if that helped

Jose Contreras

[bugzor]

Hi

The street outside was added later in photoshop, didn't really think about perspective hehe.
Thanks for pointing that out, I'll keep that in mind for other work. :)

I agree on you with the table, I probably should've made more caustic rays and less intensity.

And yeap, I used GI, love it for indoor renders :D
I also used FG

Thanks for your crits and compliments!

[animatoor]

Hey guz,,this is my haunted hallway rendered video...put in a lil modeling of my own,,hopw thats okay.:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB9lkLqk6d0

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/5247/hallwayhaunted4zi2.th.jpg (http://img165.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hallwayhaunted4zi2.jpg)

[animatoor]

This is my underwater Simulation Project,,c&c Welcome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9KXQPx6L10

[bugzor]

Hi animatoor,

I think your hallway is a bit too dark, try making it a bit brighter, perhaps blue for a nightfeel
I do like how you play with the half-broken light, but also it's intensity might be a bit higher so we can actually see the scene. You could also try to get a picture of some streetlights or some stars, perhaps some clouds, behind the window in the back.

Your underwater scene gives me the feeling I am actually under water, but the huge bright caustic seems a bit unrealistic, I don't know what you wanted to achieve with your scene - it might be handy to explain. :D
There are some other things that might be unrealistic, but I'm not a real underwater-knower:)

good luck!

[digitalworkshop]

Hi All,

I am a noob but I am learning a lot from the post of other artists and C&C done by Jeremy Birn and others. I visit almost everyday and I plan to post soon with some of my attempts. This section of forum is a boon for any new artist. I also have bought the Digital lighting & rendering book by Jerem birn. I will start posting my versions of each challenge starting out from the first one(fruit bowl). Meanwhile, I have a request. Is it possible for some of you guys to post screenshots actually showing the placement of your lights or what kind of approach you first start with when you start working on a shot. this will help noobs like me a lot and it would be interesting to know the breakdown on the techniques applied to finsih a shot.

regards,
Digi
:)

[digitalworkshop]

Here is my first attempt to challenge#2 (four scripts)

http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t231/digitalworkshop/?action=view&current=TEST_01.jpg
http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t231/digitalworkshop/?action=view&current=TEST_01.jpghttp://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t231/digitalworkshop/?action=view&current=TEST_01.jpg
Here is the link:
http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t231/digitalworkshop/?action=view&current=TEST_01.jpg

awaiting for C&C.

[bugzor]

@ digitalworkshop

what renderer did you use?
you might want to add some lights - your scene looks a bit dark
you also might want to look for things like final gather or raytracing, on the long run global illumination, and look up how some materials work. Knowing these things will make your renders look way better with little effort.
if you want i can post my light setup in maya tomorrow

[digitalworkshop]

hi bugzor,

thanks for your inputs. i used maya software renderer. i am woking now on a newer version with GI, raytracing + final gather. will show that in some time soon. only thing is that GI with FG cranks up the render times.
thanks again.

digi
:)

[saks27]

digitalworkshop...

hey dude, since you aren't working with textures, can you render with whiter shaders next time, cuz it makes it easier to see your lighting. :)

[saks27]

Hey!

Well this is my render... Just Kidding. :)

I did most of it while I waited for my fruit to render. It's on scratchboard. For those that don't know scratch board is this think with a black layer of stuff that you scratch off... I used an exacto knife. I was going for a kinda inverted look. (Kinda looks like a GI pass) :)

I don't know if this is off topic, Hope it's not... I'm sorry if it is.

Jose Contreras

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj17/contrejo27/fruit_scratch.jpg

[animatoor]

hi bugzor,
i do have a blue version of the haunted hallway,,,but it is as bright as the the green one...I'll try to work on the intensity a bit more.
as for the caustics,, i guess i shda used a better map.:)
thanks for the C&C ,

[wadefuh]

Hi all, this is my first CG forums post. Since I'm an architect, I'm a pretty casual max user, and I usually default to mental ray with arch and design materials and follow lighting setups that I find in reality.

In this scene I decided to put the fruit bowl in a generic room. The room was modeled in SketchUp, and I used a cloth modifier for the table cloth. I'm using an MR sun and sky for my lighting. Comments are more than welcome.

Here's the render:

http://features-temp.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/316703/316703_1204522110_large.jpg

[wadefuh]

sorry about the redundant post...

[bugzor]

Wadefuh,

your room is looking very good, really like how the ceiling looks :)

regarding the fruitbowl:
apple - i think your apple need a higher reflectivity
orange - increase the cosine power(make the specular highlight smaller)
grapes - your grapes look a bit too dark, perhaps a bit too reflective/shiny and some translucency would make them more realistic
cherries - they're not visible very well, add some reflectivity to those as well(for visibility you might want to change camera angle, although i don't think you should see all fruits, it would make a nicer image) :)

the other fruit looks fine to me.

and you might want to make your teapot darker or just remove it, it draws all the attention:p

as for lights only i think it looks like a nice daylight scene

hope that helps;)

[wadefuh]

bugzor, thanks for the crit! As you can imagine, I haven't done much work with softer objects. Do you know what shader I should use for that? My knowledge is limited mostly to A&D materials. <- I started getting into this stuff last summer.

[bugzor]

shaders like phong and blinn have reflectivity and a standard specular color, as for mental ray shaders, if you got the new mental ray i suggest you take a look at the mia material, it's really lovely.
if you got an older mental ray you can also use DGS materials, although they are slow, but very easy to use
i think this goes for stuff like the apple.

i take it for softer objects you mean stuff like the pear and the table cloth

if so i'd try using a fine grainy bump map with for example a phong with 0.05 reflectivity and cosine power of 5

in maya you'd get something like this :

[saks27]

Wadefuh,
Dude some MR SSS shader would help the grapes a whole lot.
That's the thing that's most plastic in ur render. i think.

Ligthing is nice though. :)

[saks27]

Hey!

Here's my fruit render. I'm still gonna work on reflections and I'm thinking of making the bowl glass. :) Also I worked on Banana, Apple and plum textures but haven't rendered.
Btw... I'm using Maya, Mental ray, and raytrace shadows.

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj17/contrejo27/fruit_almost_there.png
Any tips on how to take that square pattern artifact out of the sheet shadows?
Also... What do you guys recommend for a cloth patern?

CRITS WOULD BE WONDERFUL! Anyone interested in passes or lighting setup just let me know/
THANKS!

[punytjoshi]

Hi I am new to this section and site I just downloaded this four script work and did my lighting for morning environment so I am here posting it and will be waiting for any critics and comments from your side

the url link to my work is
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o168/modelerpunit/Kitchen2.jpg

and you can send me your reply at
punytjoshi@gmail.com (http://forums.cgsociety.org/punytjoshi@gmail.com)

[Leonikou]

Any tips on how to take that square pattern artifact out of the sheet shadows?
Also...

CRITS WOULD BE WONDERFUL! Anyone interested in passes or lighting setup just let me know/
THANKS!


Hello saks27! That is a great start. The Grapes - Orange - and Pear look fantastic. Very nice shading. I think the cherries and plums need more work, but if you setup proper reflections then you have more to work with, shading wise. The bowl glass is a cool idea (especially if you enable caustics as well.)

As for the square shadowing, which program/renderer did you use? And what type of shadows> Raytracing/Depthmaps? etc.

[saks27]

Leonikou:

Oh! I forgot to write all that stuff...

Well I used Maya, Mental Ray, Ratrace Shadows. I used a little bit of FG except on the sheet in the back because it was turning all white.

Well here's an update:

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj17/contrejo27/fruit_glass_bowl2copy.jpg

I'm having trouble with the reflections. I can't turn them down. I changed the key and fill light colors a bit.
For the glass I just used no diffuse, high transparancy, refractions and reflections. Anything else i can do to make it more glass like?

How bout the textures? do they lok better now? still no change to charries though. :S

No fg.No caustics right now, didn't have time.

Thanks...
Jose Contreras

[saks27]

punytjoshi:


Hey!

I like your lighting. The shadows on the wall add a pretty nice touch.
Are you using ratrace shadows? If so I think you should turn up the rays because the end of the shadows look a little grainy. What program are you using?

[punytjoshi]

Yes

I am using ray trace shadows and this lighting is done in maya 8.00,thanks for your reply and I will soon work on shadows and will send my new post

[jeremybirn]

Sorry I haven't been posting here much recently. Some people like bugzor and sendanilhi and faithw posted some nice work while I was gone, too, but since it's been a month I won't attempt feedback if they might not be around anymore to see it. I'm trying to get caught-up here on the more recent posts:

saks27 - Nice job. I think the idea of the glass plate isn't working because it has that metallic reflection on it, play with the Fresnel Effect. It looks like shadows don't appear in reflections in your scene, that's why the place the apple touches the pear the apple goes too bright. Set ray depth limit to 2 or higher on the light, allow more shadow steps in render settings if needed. You need some bounce light in the scene, either add some light coming the opposite direction from the key, or else use final gather with a bright enough final gather scale, or else render an ambient pass as an occlusion pass - you have many choices, but something is needed there.

punytjoshi - Good start on the kitchen. I think some of the shaders are too reflective, especially on the table legs and the paper towels. The floor could use a little reflectivity though. The bounce light above the window gets too bright, try to smooth that out so it is broader and much dimmer.

wadefuh - Nice scene. I can tell you are an architect. :) That floor seems to lose all color and fill light as you approach the back wall on the left, it could be better attached to the wall if they got the same level of fill light. The fruits need their shaders adjusted to add real reflections and reduce the broad, dusty highlights.

-jeremy

[saks27]

Jeremy
Thanks for the feedback. :) Well I can't work on it till monday, but I'll definately work on those fill lights. I think if i just bump them all up a little, it'll show more. I have played a lot with the fill lights until I was happy with them, but now that I see it I think they can be a little less sutil. I'll post a breakdown of the scene so people can critique my setup.
The reflections are confusing me a lot. If I lower the reflectivity of the plate to 0, why does it still reflect? same thing with the specular rolloff.
I'm thinking of just doing a reflection pass. That way I can blur them and everything.
btw. This is my first time ever really ligthing anything and I have learned so much.
Thanks for the scene Jeremy.

[jeremybirn]

If you lower the reflectivity to 0 on a regular Maya shader, it won't show any relfections. It might still have specular highlights, but shouldn't have any reflections.

-jeremy

[punytjoshi]

Thanks for your comments saks and jeremy,it really helps&encourages. I will soon be back with improvisation in this work and work that I am doing with other challange bgs.




punyt joshi

[punytjoshi]

I am back again with Improvisation on my Four script work.your comments and critics are wel come and soon I will be posting my work on other challange as well
Jeremy and saks I will be Expecting comments from you.

I am not able to upload my Image here so you can view it from following Link

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o168/modelerpunit/New_post.jpg

Thank you
Punyt joshi

[saks27]

punytjoshi (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=318441) Hey man. I like the new render better.
It seems a lot brighter and warmer, make sure you don't lose contrast though. The crome material is less distracting now. But I still don't understand why the roll on the counter is the same material, I mean I guess you are trying to use the same materials but, same thing with the trash can, it seems to be a little distracting.
Besides that I think it's pretty much done!
I like it. :)

[punytjoshi]

Hi all,
Here I am posting My work on candles I wil be looking forward for your comments and critics and let me tell something abt this work that in photo frame ,I wanted face not to be visible And lighting is done keeping that in mind, and with your comments pls also let me know what impact on your minds does this image creates.

View My Work At
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o168/modelerpunit/Hires_COmp_2.jpg

also comment on my previous post

Thank You
Punyt Joshi

[ArtisticDreams]

Hello, This is my first post. I read through the four scripts and I like the night time with moon scenario, but as I worked on it more and more, I found that I liked a more warm feeling. Almost like you could feel the love between the woman and the man mentioned in the script, so I went with a sunset time look instead. Tell me what you think, I'm only been texturing and lighting for about 4-5 weeks. I did this one in two of those weeks. :)


view my work at:
http://slick051.deviantart.com/art/Fun-with-lights-and-glass-81189032

Done in Maya 8.5, Color and bump maps in Photoshop CS3.

[apc12]

Hey all,
This is my first post and my first attempt at a lighting challenge, anyway, ive spent a fair bit of time on this one mainly as I used it as a learning exercise for myself. Its the haunted hallway rendered in 3delight for maya 8.

All feedback is welcome, Cheers!
http://fc05.deviantart.com/fs27/f/2008/088/7/e/hauntedHallway_by_apc12.jpg

[saks27]

Apc12:

Wow... I like it. Specially the fealing of dustyness you gave it. The air almost makes me want to cough. Very convincing.
Well I'm just being picky for the sake of critiques, but I think that the wall texture is a little distracting, specially on the left column. maybe the color map should be turned down a little.
The other thing is that the ceiling light doesn't look too good. It's a little simple compared to the rest of the scene. Maybe an incandescence ramp on the bulb?
when I looked at the image my window wasn't big enough and I didn't see the ceiling light. I was like "Wow this is good", but then when I scrolled up and saw the light I was like "Oh...mmm"

what's 3delight?

[saks27]

Hey Guys!

Here's an update on my fruit.

I couldn't fix the reflection problem on the plate so I just did a separate reflection pass and fixed it on photoshop. I also decided to do reflection passes for each fruit separately and photoshop them in. I blured them while compositing and I masked it a little in the center to give it a little fresnel effect.
I put a little GI in 1 key light and a very little in one of the fills. I made a Key, fill and Rim pass of the foreground layer and I did a background beauty pass. I changed the color of the light just a little, and also brightened the banana texture a little.
I think there's a little too much color bleed on the banana from the apple but I think it adds a nice touch, I don't know why.
I also painted the shadow of the leaf a hint of green so I didn't have to mess with the raytracing to get a translucent effect on the leaf.

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj17/contrejo27/comp_fixed_reflJPEG.jpg

Here's My lighting breakdown in the scene.

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj17/contrejo27/Lighting_breakdowncopy.jpg


Comments and CRITS PLEASE. :)

Thanks

[jeremybirn]

punytjoshi - Good start with the candles. The flames don't seem to be lighting much of the rest of the set, it would be nice if more of the picture, the plates, etc. became visible, maybe with more rims and highlights and reflections, not all diffuse. The composition could be better if you didn't crop the tips of the top flames. The left-side candle looks like it has a glow around it that gets cut off by the edge of the table, continuing the glose around all the candles would look nicer - the candle closest to the center has a glow that looks circular, instead of being the shape of the flame, too.

ArtisticDreams - Welcome - that's a nice image. I think the lighting could use more of a sense of directionality (the idea that you look at any object, and you can tell there's a bright side and dark side and which way the light is coming from.) If you look at objects near the window like the paper towel roll, you expect to see it getting brighter where it faces the window. The trash can lid seems to have a highlight coming from the right wall instead of the window, but the right wall looks very dark. Make sure things near the window like the plate cast shadows that aim away from the window. The fill light looks inconsistent on the right side, with the top of the molding going bright red, but then no light on the wall or the side of the molding. The floor looks very flat, see if you can get a gradient where the floor is darker where it meets the cabinets, and gets lighter further down.

apc12 - Welcome. Nice dusty feel there! I think the lighting underneath the dust still needs a little more work on the shadows or occlusion. THe back wall is a give-away: you'd expect the lower part under the landing to be darker than the upper part near the windows. You also expect walls to get a little darker near corners. Corners in the foreground right and left need the gradient into darkness near the corner to make them feel solid. I'd like a little more sense on the wooden stairs and railings that the back-lit railings went darker than the steps under the left window. Maybe the light fixture needs more brightness and highlights in the interior, more fill or texture on top, and more subdivision too?

saks27 - Good start! I think the fruits and plate really need shadows. Right now, the plate doesn't seem to cast any shadows onto the table, the fruit doesn't seem to shadow the table or plate, and some of the fruit lighting doesn't seem to shadow well. There are highlights on the grapes right where you'd expect a shadow from the pear, and highlights even in the middle of the bunch. The fill lighting looks a little too bright in some areas, especially in the crack in between the two bananas, but the bottom of the left-side grapes and bottom of the banana does need some bounce light, especially if they are over the bright sun-lit plate. You're using a lot of lights, and that makes things less consistent and harder to control. Probably the next step would be to simplify things as much as possible: without using any separate passes, light linking, etc. set up the scene lit by one main light, and make sure the shadows work and the shadows are visible through the glass, etc. so you know where you expect all the shadows to be. Then add more fill and bounce if you need it, but make sure the extra lights are consistent and well shadowed or used with occlusion. Add rim selectively and make sure rim lights only add a rim of light, not extra highlights somewhere else. It's OK to have slightly sharper reflections on the apple or pear, they don't all have to be heavily blurred.

-jeremy

[saks27]

Hey Here's my final piece for now. I'm not going to work on it anymore. I'll wait till I learn a little more. But I would still like crits. Btw Thanks for the crits Jeremy Birn.

I could never get shadows to work so I just did them on photoshop. The transparancy made the plate not recieve shadows, so I just put another material and selected the shadows on photoshop and color burned it on the bg. I also color burned some of the back grapes, because I never understood how mental ray materials light link, so I had to make it look like it had shadows.
I added a bit more reflection to the apple and pear. I turned down the fill light pass to about 80% opacity.

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj17/contrejo27/comp_final-1.jpg

I still want crits though thanks.

[mra062000]

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u7/markthestal/MARKlights.jpg..............................

[waikar3d]

hi,
this is the first try i did for lighting challenges. did this with maya, scanline rendering.
used only 3 lights. didn't used any bounce light in this.
second one is with colored lights.

[jeremybirn]

sak27 - You're using Maya, right? There are controls in standard Maya shaders for Shadow Attenuation and other things that makes transparent materials cast darker raytraced shadows. Your image is still nice, it still needs work on the shadowing and fill light fi you find time. This is one of the cases where "Keep It Simple" is best, try to avoid light linking.

mra062000 - Welcome! That's a good start. The lighting and shadows seems to come from a point behind the candles, being cast forwards. Some backlight could be appropriate there, but it should be very dim and soft, since it would be diffused through the cloth. Try to get more light and shadows coming from the candle flames themselves. The table and metals could use a little more reflections and highlights, and maybe a little less diffuse illumination.

waikar3d - Welcome! The first one is more clear and better defined. You might add some materials and textures, slide that light a little lower and a little more to the side for more contrast and shaping, and then add a little bit of dimmer fill light from the other direction.

-jeremy

[waikar3d]

thx jeremy,
I'll do the way you told and upload the newer version soon. but in this image will you pls comment about the overall lighting and shadows. one thing i found difficult is to control the depthmap shadows, and also have one question in mind, i.e. how to set the depthmap resolution for my renders. is there any way by which it can be calculated to get the proper depthmap resolutions according to the render resolution?
thx and regards.
bhushan p. waikar

[punytjoshi]

Well Hi waikar3d
This is just regarding question you asked regarding depth maps well I also have felt that depth maps gives you lot of artifacts So I prefer to use mental rays but as far as settting resolution for your render is concerned well depth map is an image created from Lights pointof view to define areas where light reached and where it doesn't It is defined as Shadows
When you want Softer shadows you can set your dmap resolution to some what around 256 or 512 (Which will give you pixelated Shadows) and then you can use filter to blur it eg 5 or even higher and when you wand sharp edge shadows you can Hi-res for depth map eg 1028 and use lower filter rate.


I hope I answered Your question Punyt Joshi

[jpiette]

Ok, I'm pretty nervous posting this one, but here's the kitchen challenge:

http://www.jacpiette.com/FourPMFinal_Comp.jpg

Textured and positioned in Maya 2008. Later imported, tweaked, and lit in 3D Studio Max 9 (via FBX plugin). Final render was composited in Photoshop CS3. Final render uses mental ray materials, photometric lights, and ambient occlusion.

[waikar3d]

thx for your reply, this is the same i am doing, but my question was, "is there any defined way to calculate the shadow map resolution best fit for the render resolution, e.g. my render resolution is 5K than what shadow map resolution shld i use?"

[jeremybirn]

thx for your reply, this is the same i am doing, but my question was, "is there any defined way to calculate the shadow map resolution best fit for the render resolution, e.g. my render resolution is 5K than what shadow map resolution shld i use?"

No, not really. The biggest issues with shadow maps is determining how they are framed (what area is covered by them). A 512 resolution shadow map could be crisp and detailed when the spotlight's cone is focused tightly around a small area, but would become softer and less accurate if you widened the spotlight's cone or moved the light further away from the subject.

If your map is framed well to cover the area it needs to, then a quick test render is all it takes to see if it is sharp enough or if it needs more resolution.

I sometimes see students boosting the resolution higher than they need to. For example, if you have a map with a resolution of 1024 and a filter size of 8, and you want the shadow to be softer, then turning the resolution down to 512 would probably be a better way to make the map a little softer than turning the filter size up to 16. Or if you have too low a dmap bias and are getting artifacts in the shadows, increasing the bias is a better step than raising the resolution.

-jeremy

[waikar3d]

Hi jeremy,
thx for the reply :). i was looking for the answer for the same,after this question was asked to me in an interview. So it means that it'll differ from scene to scene; as per the requirements and light settings.
thanks again.
Bhushan P.Waikar
weblink (http://waikar3d.deviantart.com/gallery/)

[punytjoshi]

Ya Thats true

Agreed with you geremy but I have some question here What I have learned from my reserch is that in depth map you have feature called auto focus, and what it does is when it is on your depth map size will be counted only for the area where there are shadow casting objects(So, I had this thing in mind that if that feature is on you need not worry abt your cone angle size)

So,just reply me that Am I right or not and if not How actually does it work?

(I am just questioning and not arguing )

[punytjoshi]

Sorry got your name wrong there

[saks27]

Jeremy:
Yeah I read about the shadow attenuation a while after I did the render. I'll be sure to play with it if I find the time to do one final render of the fruit. But how do I get the shadows of the fruit to be on the plate? I worked with the shadows when the plate wasn't glass and I liked them, but now I can't get them to show up on the glass. I don't understand what I need to fix with the fill lights. Are they too bright? I'll post a pic of my fill pass to see how I can make it better.
Well I started simple, and then I just kept adding lights with different links. Is that bad?
This fruit is the first thing I have ever lit and I have learned so much from it. Before I started on the fruit I barely understood most lighting and rendering concepts. Thanks for the opportunity to light this model and thanks for your feedback.
Jeremy, I was wondering if wou worked or are working on wall e... just curious.

Btw... Sorry for the off topic post back there. :)

[jeremybirn]

punytjoshi - In Maya, Dmap Autofocus is what you get by default if you use shadow maps from a directional light. In larger scenes, this is a disaster. It tries to frame the entire scene in one shadow map, so even if what you care about is a specific character in the middle of the terrain, the shadow map is framed to cover the entire terrain. This can mean that even high resolution shadow maps (by high resolution I mean 2048 or 4096) can give blocky results in shadowing a specific character within a large environment. Other software is set-up differently, in Renderman-based projects shadow maps are commonly framed based on a bounding box of the character or subject of the shadow, so that gives a control independant from the light's cone, but in Maya the spotlight cone is the main way to frame your shadow maps. You can also specify a radius in units around the light and do a few other things, but those other options aren't always stable, reliable solutions. You can write Dmap files to disk and view them to see how the shadows are actually framed in a scene.

saks27 - Too much light-linking can be bad, especially if a "keep it simple" approach would be better, and especially if you have shadows following light-linking so some objects are missing from some shadows. The fruits would barely cast any visible shadow onto the glass itself, unless the glass were dirty or dusty, but would be in reflections on the glass, and the fruit shadows could go through the glass and appear on the table. Fill light is needed in the dark bottom of the lower banana, where it's going almost black, but other parts have too much fill light, except between the grapes needs to go darker where they'd be occluded.


-jeremy

[saks27]

Jeremy
Ok, Gotcha! so right now the shadows on the plate are probably too dark. I should just turn up the raytrace reflections up until I could see the reflections of the shadows on the plate. Right? I'll probably just photoshop it in though because I have to start on another project soon. I'll render the table cloth without the plate and fruit but with the fruit casting shadows.
Now I understand more what I should do with the fill lights. Could the dark part of the banana be too dark because most of my fill lights are only on 1 side? Should fill lights light all over the models or just one side? Well I don't think the light linking is messing with the shadows because I only have 2 keys; a key for the orange and a key for the rest, but the main key light is also linked to a model inside the orange of the same shape, so all the shadows should be there. As for the grapes I'm pretty sure it's the light linking for MR materials that's messing me up. I'll try to fix that.

Thx jeremy. Sorry for the long answer.

Here's my different light passes:
Key Pass.
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj17/contrejo27/Key_pass.jpg

Rim Pass.
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj17/contrejo27/fillcopy.jpg

Rim Pass.
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj17/contrejo27/Rim.jpg

The Grapes only show up in the Key pass because even if I turn off the fill lights, the grapes still show them all on. Any explanations?
Thanks! I hope Jeremy isn't the only to comment this time. You guys are making him do all the work. :S

[Daggie]

Oky im a bit late on the timezone, this is the christmas scne.
used v ray to light.I wanted it to look not too cheerful.


http://features.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/206018/206018_1207546540_submedium.jpg

[saks27]

Hey Daggie.

Wow nice textures. I'm trying to learn to texture. Can you write a little about how you made them? That would be great! And some pics of diferent maps maybe?
Nice Lighting!
I was trying to think of some constructive criticism, but I can't find anything that could be better.
Beautiful! :)

[Daggie]

Hey saks 27,
thanks for the nice comments.
The texture i didn't actually make, there from total textures and this great site called
cgtextures.com.
I use a lot of mix mapping and the colour correction tool in the map slots in max when i texture,
I want to learn how to make my own textures using photoshop or something too.
cause thats where the power is.
if ya want i can send you a matlib and you can see how i'ev done the texture.
Thanks.

[punytjoshi]

Ya daggie I agree with saks nice work and textures reallly Nice work one think I will say is that the greenish effect of the tree is showing only in left side wall why is that so? When an object is immediately near the window in morning time it should give more effect than this.

[punytjoshi]

daggie anyways thanx for that site name it will be agr8 help me because thats common prob with me whenever I am doing lighting I usually run out of textures (and thats why in my first work there were same textures for different objects saks)

[Daggie]

I also agree on the greenish effect thigy you mention punytjoshi,
Thanks for pointing it out,
and that site is awesome for textures,
if your good with photoshop and know how to create textures,
you can find all the stuff you need for your texture creation in that site.
thanks for the nice comments.

[jpiette]

Jeremy - what did you think of the kitchen challenge I posted? I'll repost the link:
http://www.jacpiette.com/FourPMFinal_Comp.jpg

[saks27]

Daggie.

Yeah thanks for the texture site.
This is another good texture site... Although it's down right now.
mayang.com/textures/

I've come to realize that texturing in photoshop is a very self learning process. You just have to practice to learn how to see the textures in the world around you. And work in layers. Start with the material as if it were new and then add the weatherdness as if it were happening in real life.

Hey don't turn up the christmas tree color bleeding too much! I personally think it's enough right now. :)

[jeremybirn]

jpiette - Nice job! The inside light looks a little bright compared to the outside, it seems as if the direct sunlight outside should be as bright as the paper towels inside. You might add a window glass surface (not casting shadows, just a transparent plane) to the window frame, so seeing that surface there gives people the idea it could be blocking some of the light, to explain why the sublight outside looks darker. Surfaces inside are nicely lit and textured, but the clean wood and floor surfaces could use a little reflectivity. The shadow on the corner of the cabinet, by the upper right of the window, looks a little dark and sharp, maybe that could be replaced by a more subtle gradient.

Daggie - Good start on the Chrismas scene. Making the needles a little translucent is good, but that looks like too much of a glow passing through the tree, as if the light weren't getting shadowed as much as it would. See if you can get the brick texture to look less stretched out where the chimney changes shape, and hide the seam where it repeats near the top. It would be nice if a little more light bounced onto the dark side of the tree, since there's so much bounce light hitting other surfaces.

saks27 - It would be great to add the plate and table to those passes, to test the shadows. If the grapes are glowing in all the passes it's probably something in their shader like ambient color, incandescence, or translucency? Key pass looks good, just needs the plate and table. Fill light layer looks good, maybe it could use more green fill light under the apple leaf so it'll look a little translucent. Rim layer looks fine. You'll need to focus on highlights and reflections, too, maybe added to the existing passes, maybe needing another pass.

-jeremy

[prabodha]

first of all...I want to thankyou jeremybirn...i'm reading Digital Lighting & Rendering book these days.. it's a brilliant book..

I did this with max 2008 and vray 1.5

I used a target direct for my sun light...v ray planner lights at windows for fill lights..
and vray indirect illumination..vray dirt.. total textures for textures..

Tried to get a haunted look.. :p

[speco]

Modeled by Dan Wade and thank to Jeremy Birn for the lighting challenge.

i used vray 1.5 and max 9. one planner light env light as a fill light
c & c welcome

[punytjoshi]

I have done some improvements keeping comments in mind and here is my new work I will be looking forward for your comments and critics
The Link Is
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o168/modelerpunit/Comping.jpg

and also I will be looking for comments for my previous post on four script here is the link again
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o168/modelerpunit/New_post.jpg



Thanks
Punyt Joshi

[waikar3d]

Uploading the fruitbowl render again,as per your previous comment. moved the light little bit down and sideways. and also added one more rim light on the other side. what i've found after this changes is, the scene is more properly lit than the previous one.
thx.
regards.
bhushan p. waikar
weblink (http://waikar3d.deviantart.com/gallery/#3D-Art)

[jpiette]

jpiette - Nice job! The inside light looks a little bright compared to the outside, it seems as if the direct sunlight outside should be as bright as the paper towels inside. You might add a window glass surface (not casting shadows, just a transparent plane) to the window frame, so seeing that surface there gives people the idea it could be blocking some of the light, to explain why the sublight outside looks darker. Surfaces inside are nicely lit and textured, but the clean wood and floor surfaces could use a little reflectivity. The shadow on the corner of the cabinet, by the upper right of the window, looks a little dark and sharp, maybe that could be replaced by a more subtle gradient.


Haven't gotten to the glass surface yet, but I did fix the reflectivity on the table and floor. I also blurred that SR problematic shadow: http://www.jacpiette.com/FourPMFinal_Comp2.jpg

[jeremybirn]

prabodha - Wonderful work! You've got a lot of things working well. I think some specular glints or kicks or rims could extend into the darker areas of the image, to help add variety and contrast to the left side and the floor, and maybe the ceiling arches and light fixture. It's OK for some parts to go really dark, too, darkness adds mystery, but some highlights and glints could add variety to what otherwise might be a dull area. The noose could slide a little to the right so it has purely bright areas behind it.

speco - Nice job! The grapes look nice and translucent on the right. Maybe there could be more darkness between the banana and the plate, I don't know if the key light needs to come from the further back. You might add a bit to the sense of directionality if there were more of a kick or rim on the right side of some of the fruits, espeially the orange. The apple could have more contrast if there were less bounce from the banana and the key came more from the side. There's some noise where the shadows need more samples, and those fruits behind the apples have reflections that are too sharp and bright.

punytjoshi - Nice job! I think there could be more highlights, especially the two reflections of candle flames seen in the sides of the picture frame need soft warm highlights around them, and in the vase. The table could be more believable if it had some reflections or maybe a different texture, just because I don't know what it's supposed to be made of. (Good start on the room, too, I think most of the floor looks a little too blank in terms of not having shadows or reflections. Maybe there could be more fill light coming from the window, lighting up the inside of the window frame.)

waikar3d - If you're going to leave the image in black and white, then maybe you should go for more contrast, highlights on the right, rim light on the right, more darkness on the left, more defined shadows?

jpiette - Looking good! I think the reflections need 2 tweaks: The reflections don't include shadows or occlusion. (On the kitchen cabinets, the wood between the cabinet doors looks darker than the cabinet doors. That wood looks lighter in the reflection on the floor. Maybe a shadow has a ray depth limit of 1 when it needs 2, or the reflection steps aren't high enough in render settings?) And the reflections need more samples or rays to smooth out the noise. The area to the left of the window with the wine bottle looks terrific. The paper towels on the right look good but the tangency betwen the towel rod and the continued bright edge of the cabinet doors hurts the image, maybe the towels could be shifted left or right to break the tangency?

-jeremy

[Yes3d]

Well I'd like to say I'm completeley mezmerized by some of the renders you guys are able to do.

Got a question, How long does it take on average for you guys(or gals) to light and texture a scene like the fruit bowl?

[speco]

Well I'd like to say I'm completeley mezmerized by some of the renders you guys are able to do.

Got a question, How long does it take on average for you guys(or gals) to light and texture a scene like the fruit bowl?



the fruit bowl shot took abt 2 days maximum
http://www.pixila.com/portfolios/portfolio/?artist=1150

(http://forums.cgsociety.org/nuwan_rr@yahoo.com)

[jpiette]

Kitchen took me a month in terms of time to get it done, probably took more like seven full days in actual elapsed time.

[prabodha]

Well I'd like to say I'm completeley mezmerized by some of the renders you guys are able to do.

Got a question, How long does it take on average for you guys(or gals) to light and texture a scene like the fruit bowl?


I spent 4 days on my scene.. the thing is when u r getting good results..it's more u like to tweak ... :arteest:

[prabodha]

thankyou very much for ur advice on my scene..

I'd like to know more about specular glints tht u mentioned..do i have to add reflective objects on the darker areas or should i make the same surfaces more reflective which are allready there..?
thx.

[jeremybirn]

thankyou very much for ur advice on my scene..

I'd like to know more about specular glints tht u mentioned..do i have to add reflective objects on the darker areas or should i make the same surfaces more reflective which are allready there..?
thx.

Most shaders already support specularity (if there's a specular color in the shader, other specular controls) so maybe all you need to add are new spotlights set to emit specularity but not emit diffuse. They could be near the stairs, aimed forewards towards the darker walls. You might need to adjust the materials a little if you don't like the highlights (for example, if the highlights are too big and round, add a bump map to the surface to break highlights up into smaller dots.)

Only add reflectivity to a material if you really want a reflection, like if you want a reflection of the window on the floor you could add reflectivity to the floor, but then you'd need to be careful to make sure the reflections weren't too sharp and perfect, and have the right glossy soft look for your scene. Sticking with specular highlights often makes it easier to get some glints of light onto a surface than adding raytraced reflections.

-jeremy

[bugzor]

Here is my fruitbowl for now, i will probably change it, all done in mental ray

I've posted one with AO and one without, i can't get a shadow under the orange, because of my bowl material i think. With AO i can but then my grapes lose all their SSS.
Used 1 mental ray physical light and 2 maya spotlights, also used FG and GI.

[jeremybirn]

bugzor -

You need to simplify your scene. Stop using GI and FG (you aren't getting much out of those anyway), don't use light linking, and assign a default PhongE shader to the plate. Then you'll be able to start with regular shadows and reflections on the plate, and get closer to a normal looking scene. Check the Render Stats on the Orange object as well to make sure it's visible in shadows and reflections.

If you use ambient occlusion, render it as a separate pass, and only use it to darken the fill light illumination, don't let the AO interfere with your reflections or key illumination. You might need more fill light in some of the shadow areas, like under the apple leaf, but I wouldn't want to comment too much on lighting when things are still broken or inconsistent in their shadowing and reflections.

-jeremy

[bugzor]

Thanks for the crits jeremy,

this is what I've got now, no AO, no GI, no FG.

edit: ye the problem with the orange was in the render stats, it wasn't visible in reflections. :p

[juansilva]

Bugzor. Good Start. Your base textures ain't bad, but you need to watch your bump levels and the bump map itself. The banana for example, seems kinda grainy.

Lightingwise, I think it's all too flat at the moment. You could use more contrast and definitely some more color in your lights and shadows. If you're going for a daylight scene, you need to make the fruit look more alive, bring out the colors, you know?

Hope this helps.
Cheers.
Juan

[godzik]

hello Jeremy, nice meeting you...
i`m new here and would like to participate in lighting challenge...
here is my first work...http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/5729/fruitwebhq0.th.jpg (http://img229.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fruitwebhq0.jpg)
thanx for reply... :)

[Leonikou]

Godzik - nice image! I like the lighting a lot and most of the texturing/shading.

I think the banana needs some more texturing, like black spots because it looks like plastic, and perhaps lower the bump on the apple a bit. I love how the grapes look and the orange.

Keep it up!

[godzik]

thanx for reply...
will make some changes and post new image tomorrow...

[juansilva]

Godzik. Nice work. The lighting has a nice feel to it and the fabric looks great.

As far the fruit, the orange is my favorite..it looks pretty real. However, some of the textures could use more work :
1. The Banana looks very plastic like Leoniku just said.
2. The apple and the pear look very unrealistic, especially the pear since it's pretty much red.
3. Watch out for tiling on the apple's leaf. You can see how the texture tiles both vertically and horizontally, and the leaf's veins seem to flow in the opposite direction.
4. The texture you used on the purple grapes works for them but not for the other round fruit.
5. Watch out for the placement of objects. Some of the spare grapes on the left side of the dish are cutting into the dish itself.

Hope this helps.
Cheers.

[bugzor]

Thanks for the crits Juan,

here's an update - 1 spotlight with mr area light
2 fill lights (spotlights)
no GI FG or IBL
http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/985/fruitbowlupdateay9.jpg

[juansilva]

Bugzor. You're Welcome.

This new render is a little better than the other one, but there's still something not quite right about the image.

The round fruit in the back are now in shadows and yet they still seem like they're made out some shiny, flabby substance. The pear is now too green..almost avocado-like.
Might I also suggest that you try a different angle for your render? A closer take, perhaps? Right now you seem to have too much dead space on your scene.

Just a thought. Give it a quick try and see if you like the results.

Cheers. Keep up the good work.

[godzik]

morning everybody... :)
there is some update...

[bugzor]

Thanks for the crits again Juan,

This is what I have now, this will probably be my last update since i got exams in 3 weeks.
The fruits had some ambience because they weren't really visible, which took away the "correctness" of the image.
Now I have changed camera angle, increased the SSS on the apple leaf, and darkened the fruits in the back, I've also changed the pear colour.

This would be it for now, I've learned quite alot about lighting on this one, I think i underestimated the difficuly of lighting a scene like this(or simplicity?).
Anyway thanks for the scene and crits, here's the final.

No GI, FG, IBL. Spotlight with mental ray area light(sphere) as main light, also used 2 spotlights as fill light.
Rendered in mental ray for Maya.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/9096/fruitbowlfinalxg9.jpg

[bugzor]

Godzik - I think apples usually aren't that bumpy
The bump on the apple leaf also looks to deep
A little more translucency on the grapes would also be nice.

I do like how you lighted your scene though, even though I am not an expert, I think the overall image looks nice.

[godzik]

bugzorThanks for the crits :)
there is some new renders...
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7819/fruitcopypostuv4.th.jpg (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fruitcopypostuv4.jpg)
and render of hallway...
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/1060/hhcopywebid6.th.jpg (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hhcopywebid6.jpg)

[jeremybirn]

godzik -

The Fruitbowl looks good overall, you've got nice shaping on the orange and grapes and plums in back. The apple and pear are looking flat, they don't clearly have a bright side and a dark side. The bananas are too bright, maybe one could go that bright in a thin rim or kick, but the whole side looks electric now.

The hallway looks like it has too much frontal light from behind the camera, it's flattening out the shading in most of the shot.


bugzor -

I think you need more shadows or occlusion, to get a solid sense of contact below the banana or under the bunch of grapes. There are very dark spots on the cherries and the bottom of the orange and side of the pear where there should at least be a little fill or bounce light. Of the two you posted most recently, the post #662 looks more natural, maybe because the lower one has that ambience added to the fruits.


-jeremy

[stewpotty]

Here is my first attempt at the Fruit Bowl Lighting chellenge on 3D Render.com. Using Maya 8.5 and Mental Ray. Tried sss on the grapes otherwise image maps. Basic 3 point lighting with the rim light behind the grapes and the key and fill either side of camera.



http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm34/stewpotty/fruit13.jpg





Link here

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm34/stewpotty/fruit13.jpg

[juansilva]

Stuart. That's a good start, but it needs far more work still.

The apple texture map is pretty good, but the other fruits look really plastic and fake. Try to take some time to paint the maps yourself so they have more realism to them.
As far as the lighting, I really don't see the 3-point array here, since there is not a defined key-light..everything is pretty flat at the moment...and there is no rim light whatsoever.

Also, the SSS on the grapes is just not working right now. Try to get your overall lighting scheme to work first, and then worry about blending the SSS bit into the whole thing.

Cheers.
Juan

[jmBoekestein]

Hey guys, I thought I'd have a go at the fruitbowl as well, took a while to set this up but I'm happy with the shaders so far, now onto texturing :/ .

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/7040/fruitbowl02ta2.jpg

[amitkc]

hello every one this my rendered image. 3ds max and vray has been used.
comments required
thanks.
amit

[kiko77]

Hi, this and my study I used tecnicas of procedurais illumination fake and texture.
http://www.kiko3dmania.com/ImageGalleryHandler.ashx?imageId=bc8e402a-6dbb-46a6-b673-405b028797ce&width=100&prefix=fullscrean&oldWidth=100

[anupkumardas]

Great one kiko

[juansilva]

kiko 77. Nice render.

I like the apple and the bananas the most. The rest of the fruits look too plastic (especially the orange) and the grapes are, I think, too bright.

The leaf on the apple also looks rather odd.
I think you're overall lighting scheme works, particularly the effect you're getting on the cloth..that's pretty neat. Just be careful with that light-blue back light since it seems to be washing the color off some of the wood stems on the fruits.

Oh and um, maybe tone down the reflections on the apple? They pop right out, especially since none of the other fruits have 'em.


Anupkumardas. You've got the base for a good start. The lighting scheme seems a little too simple right now..kinda unidirectional. The textures need much more work, and there seems to be some sort of fractal-noise bump map on the apple and the pear, which isn't really working...they look like they're deteriorating from the inside or something.

I like the texture map you used on the cloth...but I don't think it's really appropriate for the scene. Kinda looks like you just covered up your couch with nice Egyptian cotton, Ralph Lauren sheets and turned on a lamp in the living room.

Hope this is any help to you guys. I know you're really interested in Jeremy's feedback, and not mine...I just can't seem to keep my mouth shut these days, hehe, just kidding.

Cheers.
Juan

[kiko77]

Hi Juansilva thanks a lot for its comentario, I go to give one looked in these details soon and rank one upgrade.

[jmBoekestein]

another go with some quick textures slapped on and a different HDRI setting.

Would love some feedback on why I'm getting green artifacts on my grapes. I'm using Brazil RS v1.66.

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/5158/fruitbowl03ff8.jpg

[kiko77]

I am ordering a correction

http://www.kiko3dmania.com/ImageGalleryHandler.ashx?imageId=a996e34c-7405-4d2e-8f74-9d5bc85e1338&width=100&prefix=fullscrean&oldWidth=100

[kiko77]

Hi,Jeremy ai goes plus a study, thanks
http://www.kiko3dmania.com/ImageGalleryHandler.ashx?imageId=d04518ef-8c94-4f04-b2e3-b33f13d9fffd&width=100&prefix=fullscrean&oldWidth=100

[Leotril]

Hi
the train challenge was so great !! but i didn got a change to participate in it :sad: .. heres my try on the original scene before starting on the bogota scene im planning to make .. default shaders with fresnel effect also blur reflections and abit of color correction in after effects to make it pretty the rest is straigh from render including DoF. the lighting setup is simple this time around only two lights one directional and a Volume light with light fog , GI spherical mapping Hdr with color bleeding , the rendertime about and hour with Intel Quadcore Q6600 DDR3 2 GB ;)

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm255/Leotril/Local%20Train/Train1d2.jpg

[punytjoshi]

Leotril
Hey Your modelling and massing is too good .but as far as lighting is concerned as you said its basic but if you work on it it will be cool.


cheers

[Yes3d]

Well I'm really not good at texturing so I just decided to apply a simple ceramic procedural for the plate and metal for all the fruit. I have a directional light and an omni light,I'm looking to get that warm sunny feeling.


http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u130/maybe3d/1.jpg?t=1209944803

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u130/maybe3d/2.jpg?t=1209944825

[punytjoshi]

Leotril
Hey your this work is good my previous comment was regarding the work that is in that link you have given of colaba project

[Leotril]

thank u for ur comments punytjoshi .. theres a lot to improve in modeling and rendering , is cool that u like the models i did for omicron unfortanly the proyect is on hold and project wachosky also.. but i got big hopes :drool: .. about the train scene in bogota hope to develop that abit more than teh original scene render or develop both of them, maybe ..

[thescorpion]

Hi! This is my first post on the lighting challenge and my first attempt at lighting as well. Looking forward to your critique! I've used a couple of spotlights and a point light. I've done the foggy bit in post.
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn276/benazm/Lighting/hallway_09.jpg

[punytjoshi]

Hi all
I saw really nice work been posted in recent times I have been busy with my work so could not work on this challange work but as I have managed some time I am here posting my improvisation on my candle work and I will be looking forward for critics,comments from your side

the link to this image is
http://s120.photobucket.com/albums/o168/modelerpunit/?action=view&current=Comping_3.jpg

Thank You
Punit Joshi

[Fex]

this is my first quick try lighting this beautiful fruitbowl.
Using Xsi with three area lights, fg and fast sss on the grapes and peaches.
A bit of postwork was done in Shake.
This is not final..
Hope u like it

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/fexa/fruitbowl_a.jpg

[Leotril]

this is what i got so far on the fruitbowl scene.. i need to fix some problems with the banana texture on the nurbs banana surface k.. some free maya shaders on the apple , on the sheet and orange ..hope to mention the autors on the final image when is ready ..im using sss on the grapes only for now :arteest:

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm255/Leotril/FruitBowl/FruitQuad2.jpg

[punytjoshi]

Leotrill
nice work but some thing needs to be worked on like there is too much of reflection on apple almost like metalic. and highlights are also creating some what burn out..................

Keep Lighting
Punyt

[frimoose]

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3097/renduclairyl0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3097/renduclairyl0.004579758c.jpg (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=89&i=renduclairyl0.jpg)

Here is my first entry in the lighting challenges.

Since I always do creepy night lightings i thought doing this project by day would be a great test for me.

I have 2 directional lights with GI and one point light as a small fill light in the back.
I'm intending on doing all the lighting challenges in order to enhance my lighting/texture abbilities since I am trying to find a job as a texture and light artist.
Cheers!

[devank]

Hi all!
It's my first time posting here. Been missing out a lot.
This is my first take on the Haunted Hallway Scene.
It is part of my assignment at my university so i had to have that character in there. If needed i will be happy to post the scene without him in there.

I really enjoyed working on this scene.
Just waiting on the new challenge!

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9400/pateldevankhauntedhallwnc4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[bugzor]

really liking your image devank, although the character looks a tad too clean for the scene, but the mood of the scene is really nice.

here is my take on the christmas challenge, the tree was too many polygons for my humble pc so i had to reduce it by 300k polygons or something, don't know if you see the difference:)
rendering took 10 hours because of the high amount of glossy samples on mia material.
mental ray, physical sun/sky with a portal light and final gather with secondary diffuse bounces. All mia material except for tree which is simple_sss
i did a test render with ambient occlusion, which looks way better, but i can't be arsed to rerender since it takes ages.
hope you like! :)
http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/3332/xmasbeatycopylh7.jpg

oh ye, postprocessed in photoshop.

[jeremybirn]

Sorry I fell so far behind on giving feedback about these. Here are some comments about recent ones:

bugzor - Nice job. The room looks very bright, but the tree itself seems really dark. Would be nice to darken parts of the room where there isn't direct light, but get some light on the tree.

devank - Welcome! Looking good! There's a lot of light coming from behind the camera, hitting the front of the archway and back of the kid. I'd like to see you get rid of that, and add some more kick and rim light on the kid, and maybe a little more bounce around the back area where it'd be receiving some bounce and fill from the windows. The combination of moon and sky light should allow some nice colors, would be great to see some warmer key and specularity on the set, with cooler fill.

frimoose - Welcome! Your image looks really bright, maybe some more shadows and occlusion, or limiting the light to specific areas, would help a lot with the haunted look. Also, if light is supposed to be coming through those windows, then the immediate window frames and things right around them should get a lot of fill light from the outside.

Leotril - Nice fruit. Your shading in some areas looks great, a few other areas are too blown-out (the orange or banana top) or metalic (apple leaf, apple, lower banana) The lighting is off to a good start, would love to see the key a bit less frontal and more work with colored bounce light on the fill side.

Fex - Looks good! The big bright blank area of the plate kindof drowneds-out the dark fruit, especially the pear and grapes, I hope the plate can have reflections or something making it interesting, and the fruit can catch some more light.

punytjoshi - Nice candle scene. The candlesticks are bright enough, but everything else could go brighter. The flames could go closer to white at the core, and the set should get lit-up by the candle light, so that you can see the picture and other things more clearly.

thescorpion - Welcome! Might be a bit too early to comment, but good start!

Yes3d - If you're going to do lighting without the textures, at least use a neutral shader with enough diffuse that you can see the diffuse shading. Here I only see highlights and some reflections, and it's hard to tell where you're going with the lighting.

Leotril (looking back further at the train) - Nice train scene. It looks like a miniature with the DOF you're using. The brightness of that window on the little hut is distracting, I guess it's supposed to be a mirror reflection of another place? The glass on the train windshield could just be dark and a bit reflective instead of clear. Actually, the whole train could use some reflection.

kiko77 - Great work! I love it! That's a really nice kitchen scene! The ouside seems a bit grayed-out, with the trees a lighter shade of gray than the shadows inside. I guess it could be fog or a dusty window, but it still looks strange to me. Maybe some of that blue fill light could be coming in through the window from the outside, so it would be more around the window frame, coming in from outside?

kiko77 - Really nice fruit bowl, too! You probably could frame it a little tighter, I think the interesting part is more the fruit and the cloth above the fruit.

-jeremy

[devank]

Thanks for the reply jeremy, ill make changes and post an updated version later.

[hiva61]

Hi Mr Birn or if you dont mind jeremy . this is my first trip in the challenges , but i wanna continue , your book was and is excellent , that always help me , thank you alot , i wanna know your critics , those help me very much that one day be a professional lighting artist which is my wish. thanks a lothttp://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg28/hiva61/Book%20challenges/Fruit_Complete_Contrast_JPEG.jpg

[Leotril]

@Jeremy .. thanks as always for ur suggestions .. i will make new renders and take everything into account :)

i been testing the neon scene back again this last couple of days and i got some results ..
i basically start from scratch this time focusing on getting the neon effect using incadescense adn the color values in conjuction with gi and final gather.. heres my progress so far :hmm:

http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm255/Leotril/Neon/?albumview=grid&mediafilter=images

Note: Use the get links option to show full image size :lightbulb

Thanks

[jasvant]

hi everyone,i used maya software for render this.this images has occulusion pass also.critique and comments are welcomed.:bounce:

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii257/jassi782477/neonnchromefinal1.jpg

[Rogier]

My first challenge ever, the haunted hallway scene. Was a great fun to do. :cool:

It's maybe not the most creative one, but I'm already happy how it turned out technically.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd283/rogiervogels/HauntedHallwayFinalJPG.jpg

Great practice.
Critiques and comments are most welcome!

Made with Cinema 4D, Vray for C4d and photoshop for post processing and texture work. Render time was 3 and a half hours, with the cinema AO shader on.

[anupkumardas]

Hey
Jeremy, I am pretty late in participating in lighting challenges.
I am starting with Fruit Bowl.
I am pretty bad at texturing.
Done in Maya Software render, no raytracing and procedural maps.

Please critique and advice how can i improve.

Thank you very much.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2990/compositejk5.jpg

[hiva61]

Hi jeremy . this is my second challenge, i'm waiting for your critics, i thought that you wanna me to create night romantic shot , i dont know how much i could mean that but i wanted to know how can i make it better, thanks a lot
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg28/hiva61/NightShot.jpg

[jeremybirn]

hiva61 - Nice job overall. If you're trying to make it romantic, I think boosting the amount of blue moonlight would help make it less gloomy. What you see out the window could get more blue also. The light on the cabinets looks a little strange, it almost looks like there's light in the cracks between the drawers (where it should be) but not on the doors and drawers themselves (this might just be because the shaders or textures are too dark on the doors.) See if you can get more of a rim-lit look on the wine bottle, and maybe a blue rim from the left on parts of the sink, paper towels, trash can, or left edge of the table.

hiva61 (now about your fruit scene) - Nice job overall. I think some objects like the orange seem to be glowing with an internal light, somehow looking brighter than the lighting around them could create. Balancing out the brightness of the different shaders, you might brighten the grapes a bit and tone down the apple. You are getting some shading from the light on the left, but look at each piece of fruit and see if you can see the contrast between the bright side and the dark side, and use the light to define the shape of each fruit so they don't look flat.

anupkumardas - Good start. I think the lighting looks very frontal, almost like a camera flash in a snapshot, and you could get more shaping if it came more from the side. A little bit of reflectivity could help a lot. Once the main light is moved to the side more, you'll need to set up bounce or fill light to appear in the shadow areas.

Rogier - Welcome! That's a good start. You seem to have a lot of fill light, including a lot of light coming from behind the camera, and I think that could be reduced. Right now the back wall and side wall and stair railings all have a very similar brightness. Maybe the back wall could be less bright than the side, certainly the part of the back wall that's under the landing would get a lot less light than the part above the landing, and the bottom of the stairs on the right should be darker, with only a little bounce light. It seems as if you should do some more tests with the occlusion, it sounds like a very slow render time you could probably speed up with different settings, and the occlusion doesn't seem to be sampling a big enough distance to make a nice gradient where surfaces contact one another.

jasvant - Good start! One of the big challenges in the parking garage scene are making the light sources look like they are really light sources. Think, if a flourescent tube were actually lit up, what would happen to the reflector housing the tubes? It would probably get very brightly lit, and cast a shadow up onto the ceiling above it. The truck headlights could have some glow on the and illuminat the ground in front of the truck. I can't tell if the neon tubes are supposed to be on or off, but if they are on make sure they really look like they are lighting the area around them. Another big challenge in that scene is the very mixed lighting environment: the area inside the garage, the street outside, and the area right near that huge illuminated sign would each get different colors and tones of light, looking like different lighting environments within the scene.

Leotril - Looks good! You could probably go further with the issues I was just posting about above, the bright interior light from inside garage spilling out and contrasting with the exterior night lighting, the sense of headlights and such as real light sources.

-jeremy

[Rogier]

Thanks for the comment. :cool:

I had a backlight from behind the camera, to act it like there came light from the backside of the hallway. But now I see it's over-done, and it's flatten the image out.

I'll change it. :)

[jasvant]

Thanks jeremy sir,i will follow your comments.:cool:

[shyamanka]

http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/mm221/shyamanka/

Dear Freinds....this is my first image which I am posting here....your suggestins are welcome so I will improve my lighting

Thank you

Shyamanka

[jeremybirn]

Shyamanka - Welcome! That looks good. I'd like to see the light travel a little more, so that the green light from the stairwell overlaps somewhat with the warmer light from the hallway. You might consider using some specularity, to get nice broken-up little highlights bringing out the wall texture, or broader highlights that look like soft reflections on the floor. For surfaces that are back-lit (like the vertical boards running up into the stairwell) maybe a little bit of rim light might help bring them out, or at least some rim along the top of the stair railing.

-jeremy

[Z.O.V]

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/2918/diffpsfcheckhk0.jpg
By null (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/null) at 2008-06-02

Here is my Xmas Challenge.
I set up everything which I think could yield a reality result.
I use mia_material_x ,FG/GI and mia_exposure_simple shader (default setting,gamma=2.2). All textures link to gamma correction node which set to 0.455. All lights are pointlights and with quadratic decay. Raytrace shadow with lightRadius=0 shadowRays=1. The photonIntensity = 12.56*lightIntensity. Output in 8bit iff format.

But it seems far from realisty. I see other people here use mia_shader with FGGI produce an excellent picture.

Which setting do I omit? And why the picture looks different between CS3 and Fcheck?

[Mike D-Lux]

I'm so glad I found this thread! There is some great work from everyone here.

Here is my first WIP post. Any crits on the overall lighting is appreciated! I plan on adding DOF, Exposure/Gamma correction and most likely compositing real flames on the candles.

http://www.parkerfx.com/images/candles_wip01.jpg

Thanks,
Mike

[jeremybirn]

Mike D-Lux - Welcome! That scene's coming along nicely, parts of it are already believable looking. The candle flames should should probably be bright enough that they start going white to fit into that scene. Keep going with the little highlights and reflections like you have on the vase, you need some more to give some presence to the wood of the background screen, and maybe to the glass in front of the picture. The flames look very hard-edged, they could be more transparent especially at the bottom center around the wick, and should have a little glow around them. The framed picture could get a little brighter so you can see it.

Z.O.V - Check this thread for Photoshop help: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=14&t=123320 Turning on lots of functions won't necessarily help the quality of your lighting. (I guess you've learned that for yourself...) Why not turn that stuff off, and focus on basics first of controlling the illumination and shadows from your lights. Try to get the light from one candle flame looking good, and use reference if you have to, comparing the colors and illumination and shadows to a real candle or photo reference. Then move on to the tree.

-jeremy

[wasimattar]

hi i am participating in a challenge for the first time and i have lit the candle light scene from the challenge.

Please click on the link below to see the image as i tried uploading but due to some problem i wasn't able to:

http://www.orkut.co.in/AlbumZoom.aspx?uid=5355264010909284626&pid=1212665225720&aid=1



waZim

[hiva61]

Hi Jeremy.
I tried to apply your tips into these scenes , i dont know how much i could get it .
in the third image i wanted to light " the morning sun" .
as a reminder i had sent "fruit" and "kitchen at night " before and try to apply your tips.so i re-sent them again .
at night shot i used HSV color mapping and lost burning window frame , but at morning shot i kept this to ask you which one is correct in CG , because human eyes see every thing clear but i'm not sure about this into the photographs?
Thanks jeremy a lot
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg28/hiva61/fruitsComplete.jpg
the second scene
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg28/hiva61/night.jpg
the third scene , morning sun
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg28/hiva61/Morningsun.jpg

[Mike D-Lux]

Mike D-Lux - Welcome! That scene's coming along nicely, parts of it are already believable looking. The candle flames should should probably be bright enough that they start going white to fit into that scene. Keep going with the little highlights and reflections like you have on the vase, you need some more to give some presence to the wood of the background screen, and maybe to the glass in front of the picture. The flames look very hard-edged, they could be more transparent especially at the bottom center around the wick, and should have a little glow around them. The framed picture could get a little brighter so you can see it.

-jeremy

Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for the feedback. I was a student of yours a few years back and really appreciate what your doing here.

I'm looking for a solution for the flames that will work in an animation. I may end up projecting real flames on cards and comping them in.

What's a good way to control the shape of the specular reflections from the candle lights? I'm currently using spherical area lights with a non-uniform scale to match the size of a flame. The reflections seem to be round like a point light:

http://www.parkerfx.com/images/candles_wip02.jpg

Thanks!
Mike

[bugzor]

Mike, i don't know what your renderer is, but if it's mental ray may i suggest mia_light_surface, you connect it to the "additional color" of mia_material
the documentation can help you further with that shader:)

i've found some time to play around with the christmas scene again.
maya mental ray. physical sky/sun, portal light and FG. post processed in PS.
the first one was rendered accidently, i had rendered the wrong camera, so i cancelled it.
i blurred the part which wasn't done yet. i kinda liked the image so i kept it :)
http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/9926/xmasfoutcare2bx3.jpg

And here is the image as i meant it to be

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/130/xmasboom2yp2.jpg

[Mike D-Lux]

Bugzor,
Nice x-mas image, I like the color temp from the PSun. It looks very realistic. Textures are great too.

Yes I am using maya 2008, mental ray, FG, mia_x, sss_fast_simple with area and point lights.

I will try the mia_light_surface.

Thanks!
Mike

[jasvant]

Hi everyone,i used 3ds max scanline for rendering.i rendered 11 passes for this images.for compositing i used combustion.CsC are welcome.:rolleyes:http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii257/jassi782477/fakesubsurfacescatering.jpg

[wasimattar]

Hi
I am entering the challenge for the first time and this is what i have attempted to create the candle scene with indirect light.

http://www.geocities.com/wasim_at/candle.jpg

wazim

[jeremybirn]

hiva61 - Nice job! On the fruit, it seems like the shot could be zoomed-in more to focus on the plate, with less empty space around it. The textures are nice overall, the lower banana has a very believable texture, although the upper banana has textures that look like a projection got too stretched-out. The plate could use reflections of the fruit. The plate looks a little too bright in places where it could be more solidly based on shadowing and reflecting the fruit above it. Shading on the orange is great, but maybe it could use a little bounce light from the bowl.

Good job on the kitchen images! On the second one, the tops of the cabinet doors and drawers seem to be brightly lit, probably that comes from a light that should be casting shadows but isn't. Maybe you could get a little bit of light to the wine in the wine bottle as well?

Mike D-Lux - I must be getting senile (in my 30's?) to keep forgetting my students. Maybe use raytraced reflections of the flames for the reflections. If you are trying to keep the flames themselves in a separate render layer, then just override the primary visiblity of the flames in other passes so they only appear in reflections. The plant leaves and flower petals should have some translucency to them.

bugzor - Hello! I think the tree itself needs some light, to show that it is lit from the window, and to give it enough fill and translucency to fit into the scene. Some other parts of the scene, like the blue stocking, could use more contrast.

jasvant - Welcome! I think your scene looks great. Right now it is lit largely by fill light, I'd like to see it lit more by the candle flames.

wasimattar - Welcome! See if you can get the candles lit, and show a scene lit mostly by candle light!

-jeremy

[Leotril]

hi .. i did some minor color corrections in AE and glow , hope to render out some passes and do some composition for my next update.. this is just the beauty pass tweaked .. hope u like ..

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm255/Leotril/neon%20update/comp.jpg

some concerns : got some sharp alias artifacts on the edges of sign and building probably related to DoF aperture controls need to check geometry also .. is kinda easy to spot them :banghead: .. wanna try film noir challenge :wise:

[Z.O.V]

jeremy, thx for your reply.
I rendered it again with tradiontal lighting technique. No FG/GI. No OCC.
Add dof in AfterEffect.

http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/7449/finalchrismas20080614mw8.jpg
C&C are welcome.

[kanooshka]

Critique

Leotril: Great image so far! I especially like the overall blue feeling you have on everything. It makes the scene mesh together very well. The truck seems to really pop out of the image as it is right now, I'm not sure if this is on purpose but compared to everything else it has a very defined edge. Maybe try tonight the DOF a little? One other thing I noticed is that the red light on the front of the truck looks very flat. if you looks at an image of red lights on cars http://www.hillbankmotorsports.com/images/classicdesignconcepts/CDC-110621-PIC1.jpg
you'll notice that there's a very bright orange color for the light itself then around it is the red glow. Hope this helps some!

Challenge!

Hey everyone, I came to the conclusion that I need to do all of the past challenges! Since I actually started doing the challenges starting back with the Halloween one, I have a lot of catching up to do. I also decided that I'm really going to try to push myself with this. I want to see how quickly and efficiently I can make the lighting setups with fairly short render times. So on to the fruit!

From the time I opened the scene to when I rendered took about 7 hours. The render time took about 4 hours total, but I also only have a single duel core 2.0 GHZ processor. All textures are procedural (except for the sky) and only native maya shaders were used.

Full Resolution 2048x1366 (http://dockay.com/CGTalk/LightingChallenges/01_fruit/fruit_composite_01.jpg)
http://dockay.com/CGTalk/LightingChallenges/01_fruit/fruit_composite_01_scaled.jpg


Lights and Passes:

http://dockay.com/CGTalk/LightingChallenges/01_fruit/render_passes.jpg

Reflection Pass: This pass I used a hemisphere outside the window for reflection and a hemisphere inside (much darker because of exposure) for reflections. No lights for this pass. The hemispheres shine through the window behind the fruit and one off camera to the left.

Fill Indoors: This is all the bounce light from indoors lighting the fruit. I took some creative freedom and had the light angled from the right side to show more form to the
fruit.

Luminance Depth: This was rendered for a very very slight DOF effect in the near foreground.

Red Cloth Bounce on Fruit: This was a spot light with quadratic decay from sunlight casting red light from the cloth onto the fruit. I just light linked the fruit and bowl to this.

Red Cloth Bounce on Fruit: This is the red light being cast from the sun lighting the cloth onto the wall. I used two spotlights for this to get the dropoff I liked on the wall. I also just light linked the wall to this.

Sky Fill Light: for this I created a ray of spotlights with MR area lights to cast light onto the fruit through the window. The close one has 9 lights but the window to the left only uses one because it doesn't need the same amount of detail.

Sunlight: The sunlight was created with a simple directional light with some light radius to give a softer shadow.

Here's a little closeup of what the render looks like full res. Notice everything has a slight bump on it for imperfect reflections, to give the object some texture and to create some more play with the light:

http://dockay.com/CGTalk/LightingChallenges/01_fruit/closeup.jpg

[Leotril]

@kanooshka .. Thank u.. i keep forgetting to add the glow effect and lens flare on the front lights .. i need to render those in maya software and composite in render layers or AE the actually look pretty good :twisted: ..

I like what ur doing with fruit scene i specially like the details on the hd version on the sheet u actualy say the fur elements or hair i wonder how u did taht ? it looks good .. the shader are great for procedurals with a bit of tweakin could look much better specialy on the grappes needs more sss or translucency effect..

[kanooshka]

Leotril: thanks for the compliment! That's a perfect point about the SSS, I guess that should be my next step in this image.

As for the sheet, actually what I did was very simple. I did not use any fur, I used a noise procedural with a very low bump value and high frequency. I then tweaked the shader and made it so as the fabric bends away from the camera the value gets multiplied by about 1.5.
Explaining it a little further. White has a value of 1 and Black 0 as I'm sure you know. So if there's a bright part facing completely away from the camera it would get multiplied by 1.5. 1.5x1=1.5 making the diffuse brighter. If there were a black part of the cloth facing away from the camera it would be 1.5x0=0, keeping the value black. This whole setup creates a velvet like shader, and gives some illusion of hairs being illuminated on the rim of the object. Hope this jibberish makes sense =)

[bstandard]

Hey everyone! Just wanted to post my take on the haunted hallway and maybe get some C&C. Used render layers in Maya and comped in Photoshop. Thanks for looking:D
http://www.killerbros.com/CGTALK/hauntedHallway.tgahttp://www.killerbros.com/CGTALK/hauntedHallway.jpg

B

[kanooshka]

Me again :p

Update for the fruit, I added 2 more passes and did a little tweaking in PS.
Full Res 2048x1366 (http://dockay.com/CGTalk/LightingChallenges/01_fruit/fruit_composite_02.jpg)
http://dockay.com/CGTalk/LightingChallenges/01_fruit/fruit_composite_02_scaled.jpg (http://dockay.com/CGTalk/LightingChallenges/01_fruit/fruit_composite_02.jpg)

Passes Added:

1.Bounce light from inside on the sheet. I realized that in my inside bounce pass that the sheet was almost black from the angle of the light, so I added another pass just to cast light on the sheet.
2.SSS for the grapes
http://dockay.com/CGTalk/LightingChallenges/01_fruit/render_passes_02.jpg

[TanyaSandhu]

Hi Guys! I rendered this scene with scanline renderer using 3ds max. Suggestions to improve the work are most welcome.

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn279/tanyasandhu/pz.jpg

[TanyaSandhu]

Hello EveryOne!

I rendered this scene with Scanline Renderer using 3ds max. Hope u like it! Plz give suggestions to improve this more.

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn279/tanyasandhu/christmastree.jpg

[schmoron13]

My first attempt at this challenge. Modeled in max2009, and rendered with MR. Used a daylight system, and 1 portal light on the side window. PS afterwards

it's a ton of fun. Having serious problems with the light bulb. Can never seem to get a decent material for it.

http://media.tumblr.com/9N2HNVSw6agq1a66WfCU0JT0_r1_500.png

-doron

[jasvant]

hi everyone, here is my new try.i used maya software for rendering.CsC are welcome.:bounce:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii257/jassi782477/fourscripts.jpg

[TanyaSandhu]

Here is a bit improved version.

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn279/tanyasandhu/pz.jpg

Tanya Sandhu

[TanyaSandhu]

Hi Doron

Itz looking cool. Just work out for The bulb material.

Tanya



My first attempt at this challenge. Modeled in max2009, and rendered with MR. Used a daylight system, and 1 portal light on the side window. PS afterwards

it's a ton of fun. Having serious problems with the light bulb. Can never seem to get a decent material for it.

http://media.tumblr.com/9N2HNVSw6agq1a66WfCU0JT0_r1_500.png

-doron

[jpiette]

Hey jeremy, quick question for you. You mention a couple months ago that a way to beat light leaks was to create shadow geometry. Do you know how to do this in Maya?

[guivAg]

Hey jeremy, quick question for you. You mention a couple months ago that a way to beat light leaks was to create shadow geometry. Do you know how to do this in Maya?


are u talking about a shadow pass or to keep shadow on ur fog ?
if u want a shadow pass simply make a new reder layer and aply the shadow preset..
if it's the fog thing u must assign a physical light in the shader of ur light who creat the fog..

i hope understand ur question..

[bugzor]

hmm here's a new go on the fruitbowl, now i used portal lights with physical sky/sun, final gather goes with that ofcourse. all materials are miss_fast shaders except for the bowl and the cloth, which are mia_x materials.
maya, mental ray, photoshop

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/1980/fruitjpguq6.jpg

[juansilva]

bugzor. This still needs waaaay too much work. Personally, I'd say don't bother with physical sun and sky. This is a studio piece and it should be lit as such. Not to mention you have more control and get better results.

Also, why are you using SSS materials on all the fruits? It's render expensive and it doesn't really make sense. Basically you'd want to have that kind of material only on the grapes and maybe the bananas too. It's odd htat you say you're rendering with mental ray because it doesn't look like it at all. Even software render could do a better job if you work your lights carefully.

Highlihgts are also pretty uniform and plastic-like at the moment. And watch out for the bump on the fabric. That maya cloth procedural texture ain't really the best when it comes to making actual fabric.

Hope this helps ya.
Cheers.

[bugzor]

Thanks juansilve for your crits.

I disagree with you on quite some parts, this might also be because your post seems a little harsh, although meant as helpful.
I don't see why the this model should be a studioshot, I think a fruitbowl usually is an interior shot, unless it is photographed. I think you can go both ways here and you don't have to stick to one of the two.
Regarding the SSS, I don't really mind about rendertimes for now, and SSS shaders do give something extra, they also scatter light on the surface, they aren't only for translucency.
Light scatters in a different way on a SSS material than on a mia_material.
Also I think there is no way software render can achieve these results.

One thing I do agree with you about are the highlights, they indeed could use some work, I also think I kind of messed up the image a bit in photoshop, instead of making it look better. And ya, the fabric bump looks aweful, I'll change that as well. :)

Don't get me wrong though, I do apreciate (your) critisism, I'm just trying to make my intentions a bit clearer.

[hiva61]

Hi jeremy . thanks for your tips . in this scene i added some grain to look more natural . i focused on lighting not Mtl , Mtls are very simple . thanks a lot
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg28/hiva61/neon.jpg

[lossenct]

bugzor: I'll admit that juansilva's comments were a bit harsh, but I'd agree that you don't need a physical sky and sun for this. You can easily get faster and tweakable results with normal lights. Also, it's true that miass_fast on all of the fruit is a bit of overkill. You can get similar effects by simply tweaking light settings and light linking. In fact, you don't even need to use mia_material for the other objects. I think what juansilva was trying to say was that you're throwing in every bell and whistle from the get-go and jumping to huge render times. It might be better if you went step by step, tweaking smaller things until you like them. For example, your textures to me seem close, but they're not quite believable yet. I'd work with the color and bump maps of every object and give them some more life. They seem to have the same bump over the entire surface when, for example, the stems would each be completly different from their fruit.

[jeremybirn]

hiva61 - Looking good! I don't really get the impression that a lot of the light sources are really light sources yet. For the Enter sign, I can't tell if it is supposed to be translucenct plastic with lights inside it, or just painted wood that happens to be brightly lit. Some of the neon barely looks as if it's on, and the side arrows don't look like much of a light source. The purple light bulbs don't seem to illuminate anything at all. These are the main issues to address. I'd love to see some color and variety in the reflections and illumination on the truck, given that he's right underneath those colored signs. On the environment itself, see how much of a sense of change you can get moving between the interior lighting environment and the exterior, and moving between the areas lit by the bright colored sign and the areas of darkness.

bugzor - See if you can work on a nice reflection environment for your fruit, the cherries look very bright but would be more believable if they went darker on the shadow side, had less diffuse but more reflectivity, and we could see the environment in them. The orange has a bright side and dark side, but the terminator could help it more if it were curved to convey roundness, maybe slid a bit to the left to do that. The fruit on the left side of the frame all looks very flat to me, as if it got too much ambient/diffuse illumination and doesn't have a clearly defined key side vs. fill side. The banana could have a better sense of contact with the plate, I think you need some shadow or occlusion there.

Hey jeremy, quick question for you. You mention a couple months ago that a way to beat light leaks was to create shadow geometry. Do you know how to do this in Maya?
Shadow geometry (or blocker geometry) could just be primitive cubes. In the attribute editor, render stats, turn off primary visibility, and also turn off visible in reflections, so the geometry will just cast shadows.

TanyaSandhu - Welcome! That's a good start on the parking garage! The larger image is very evenly lit and looks distractingly more noticeable than the rest of the scene. You might let the brightest parts of some of the light sources go less saturated, getting more white at their brightest points. The color comes in with a bit of distance from the overexposed part. Give the truck something to reflect in front of the truck, maybe just a plane off to the left with an image on it, so you can get nice reflections in the front chrome and windshield. The windows don't need to be transparent if there are good reflections. I'd like to see the interior tone of the parking garage differentiated more from the outside, maybe with the cooler light spilling out the doorways a bit. The reflections in the hubcaps look too white, as if they weren't self-reflecting and reflecting the colored lights.

jasvant - Welcome! Good start on the kitchen! I think it looks very evenly lit now, maybe the cabinets and the wall around the window could go darker except where there'd clearly be light coming through the window, and you could get more clear shadowing or occlusion into the shading. The shadow above the upper cabinet looks like an over-filtered shadow map that doesn't fit the cabinet well. Try getting more cool fill light from the sky coming through the window, from all possible angles.

schmoron13 - Welcome! That looks good! For a very wide-angle lens like that, some lens distortion (barrel distortion) would add to the realism, even if you have to fake it in post. You'll have to choose whether the bulb is clear or frosted, right now it looks like a compromise between them that didn't work. You might reduce the amount of light on that fixture coming from behind the camera, and light it just with a rim or kick or reflection from behind. Make sure that shadows appear in reflections, the landing on the lower left edge is mostly in shadow, but its reflection on the wall looks like the whole top of it is lit. The glow from the bright areas can bleed a little into the dark edge of the stairs, etc. if it's a little dusty in there.

TanyaSandhu - Nice Christmas scene! I think you need more shadows or occlusion, especially shadows under the gifts and on other surfaces that should fall into shadow. The wall on the left edge should not be as bright as the wall facing the window. I'm not sure what the vertical white bands on the windows are but try to get rid of those.

kanooshka - Nice fruit scene! The lower banana looks distractingly bright, it appears to be in an interior position that should be darker than that. I'd like to see more translucency in the apple leaf, and more of a color difference in the pear stem from the pear. On the pear, the left side towards the window feels as if it should be brighter, maybe without as much light on the right side, certainly you don't need the rim on the lower right of the pear. Some of the grapes and background plums around that area seem to blend into the cloth a bit too much. The orange has such a rough surface that I don't see any reflections in it, maybe that could be smoother? I'd love to see some more fruit reflections on the plate.

bstandard - Welcome! That's a good start. Maybe you could frame the shot more tightly so it has more interest through the frame, and get some light from that bright window to illuminate parts of the set?

Z.O.V - Good start on that Christmas scene. I think the shadows from the fire should be much softer, so they don't appear focused across the room. The candle flames could be more transparent have a glow around them, so they don't look like solid objects. Some parts of the scene seem to need shadows or occlusion, such as where the gift is next to the wall.

-jeremy

[juansilva]

bugzor. Hey dude,
I do apologize if my crit seemed harsh...I really only meant to be helpful. I bug people all the time for input on my work so I tend to do the same with others. I'll refrain from posting feedback at 5 am in the morning from now on though, hehe.

Cheers. :)
Juan

[doodlerboy]

Hey I'm working in the Train scene and I wanted to know, how the heck to add vegetation? Should it be rendered seperatley? Anyways, that's one concern, second concern, how should I map out the rocks on the ground? should I just add one main color to it and add a touch of noise? Those are my questions. I'll try to post what I've got so far.

[doodlerboy]

Jeremy
I have a project done, but I want to render it in Animation Form, using Mental Ray, and rendering it out in several passes. Ok one, How do I go about rendering an Animation in Mental Ray? 2 How do I go about getting all my rendered animated passes composited over each other? It's all so easy with still images.

BTW if anyone has AWESOME tutorial sites, for both those problems, or you know the answer, please help me out. :) Thanks guy, I'm sorry I keep asking for help, im trying to do this on my own, but get stuck, it helps to have other views and ideas. and help.

thanks

[guivAg]

@dodlerboy:

to render animation on maya you must go in render setting--> common --> image file output
in that panel give a name to the images, select an extention for the image and now start and end frame appears... so give to maya the start and end frame u want and set the frame padding to 3 minimum...
in rederable camera select the camera u want. now you just have to go on the rendering-->render panel and click on the batch render button, animation rendering is now lauch : )


for creat passes u must use the rendered layer, for classic passes there some preset for other u must create ur shaders and assign it at all the object on ur layer. DONT APPLY CHANGE TO UR MASTER !!! i'm not going to make a tutorial for u here but if u have some other question (more precise ?) ask and i will answer..
i'm sure if type "render layer maya" in google u will find a lot of tutorial..

hope i've help u..



hum... in fact there is not the good thread for this kind of things...

go on the maya thread for more: here (http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=87)

[doodlerboy]

Wow thank you so much, I'll go, give it a try and come back and report. Thanks again for the advice.

[godzik]

hi everybody, there is new probe of hallway...
3Dmax 2009D, Mental ray, PS.

[lost-in-3d]

Hi everyone,

I know a lot of water has flown under the bridge since the announcement of the famous Haunted Hallway challenge . So here's my take on the hallway challenge


http://i318.photobucket.com/albums/mm412/lost_in_3d/Hallwaycopy.jpg


Like always i have some doubts and i hope jeremy would be kind enough to clear those doubts . I believe that, a great image always succeed in creating a mood or a particular feeling .I think that's the main difference btw a great image and a good image. I always fail in that department . I always fail to create the mood . If u look at the above image , it doesn't create a mood . It fails to evoke any kind of feelings. I don't know where iam missing the trick . Is it about lighting or choosing a specific color scheme???. One thing worth mentioning is that i never start a scene with a particular mood in mind, I just go with the flow . anyone has any suggestion????


About the image : I know light is coming through the area under the staircase where two geometries meet. frankly i don't know how to fix that .One of my friends told me that tweaking the light settings would help . but as u can see i don't know where to tweak . so any solution?? . One thing i notice is that, in real world the side of the wall through which the sunlight comes in tends to be darker compares to other sides of the wall ( iam adding a reference image ) . but when i try to do that in my scene, it looks unrealistic . any suggestions???

http://i318.photobucket.com/albums/mm412/lost_in_3d/sunthrwindw.jpg

Sorry for the long post . suggestions and criticism are always welcome .
Bye 4 Now
Mathew

[TanyaSandhu]

Thanks Jeremy for ur suggestions. i will rework on the scene as per your suggestions and will submit again.

-Tanya Sandhu

[pmegele]

hy,

here is my go at the fruitbowl-scene. I thought this was a good scene to get to grips with the misss fastskin shader. rendered with mental ray two arealights and fg.
please let me know what you think!

http://www.pmegele.de/lighting_challenges/fruit_bowl_v01.jpg

[hiva61]

Hi Jeremy , my new challenge , i should tell something : the noise is because of the low samples in reflection , and the other thing is i wanted to create the poorly christmas so the balls are very glossy,

about the second image , i tried to fix create some contrast between dark area and light area , i dont know howmuch i could meet that.
thanks Jeremy alot
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg28/hiva61/Xmas.jpg



http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg28/hiva61/neon5copy.jpg

[jeremybirn]

hiva61 - Looking good! For the Christmas one, I think the view we see through the window should be much brighter, to motivate all the light coming from there. A little work on wrapping the texture around the brightest gift would help the realism too. For the garage, the truck and the lights on the truck are working really well! Right now the image on the sign seems to dominate the shot, and that texture is cropped strangely. You might even conside a new composition more focused on the truck, the left side of the frame looks kindof blank to me now. Maybe some difference between the tones of the outdoor light (if there is any) and the indoor light within the garage (there should be some, right?) would add variety to the scene. The Enter exit signs aren't easy to read, maybe just the front should glow, or the letters should be pushed into the wall so you don't see the side of them so much?

pete1974 - Nice job on the shading and set-up! Some fruits like a cherry could have more of a real reflection on it instead of just blurred highlights. You have a working scene, and just need to focus on the lighting and composition. I think the lighting looks a little too flat and frontal. Maybe you could move the key more to one side, and make that one side brighter than the other. You can turn off FG for your quick test renders, move the key around, and pay attention to where the terminator is to bring out the roundness of the fruit. If you can make the background more interesting that would justify the composition, otherwise I think the bowl could be framed better.

lost-in-3d - Welcome! That's a good start. To fix the light leaking through the corners around the back wall, place some primitive cubes outside the wall (about half a meter thick) to block that light. You also might focus the spot light into a smaller cone so it doesn't hit those corners at all, and only hits the window. That's a nice reference image, you could try again with lighting inspired by it. I like the contrast there, the specular reflection on the wall, the rim light on the figure in front of the window, the subtle amount of bounce light brightening some parts of the window frame. Work on some of these things one light at a time.

godzik - Welcome! Good start with the shading and texture! I think you could have more contrast in your scene, most of the image is a very similar tone of orange. Maybe there could be more interplace between the two colors of light, one color from the window and another from the bulb, lighting surfaces from different angles. The light from the bulb should decay with distance so it's brighter near the bulb. The light from the window needs work, so it's clear that the window itself is a source of light. You might need a little fill light coming from the window, and maybe some rim or kick light on objects in front of the window.

-jeremy

[pmegele]

Cheers Jeremy(if you don't mind). I really enjoy these Challenges and the chance to get professional feedback from you and the other people taking part.

[Leotril]

here's a new try at the neon challenge .. tweak the lights a bit on this one not much really.. added some post effects like glow, noise, diffuse glow and film grain in PS an AE like in my latest render.. hope u like

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm255/Leotril/neon%20update/Comp1Post4.jpg