CgTalk Daily Sketch 1037 : NTL: "Light" -HYPER REVIEW

[Wexter]

ok, seems like im the first one, here is mine, around 50 minutes, maybe 45 minutes photoshop cs.
http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/2598/lightcgtalkhh5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Robertt]

Wexter: Well done! The falloff on the illumination works great and gives both depth to the illumination itself as well as the surrounding objects it touches.


Here's mine, a feathery approach to the topic of light. Here I tried to capture the lightness of a feather as well as its interplay with illumination (somewhat self-illuminated even) and the darkness:


http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r311/rtsketches/cgtalk-light-web-byrjt2007.jpg

Photoshop / 1 hour


Edit:

Second image added - "Phoenix Feather":

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r311/rtsketches/cgtalk-light3-web-byrjt2007.jpg


RobertT

[RedStarInk3D]

Great pics Robertt and Wexter! I love the idea of a white light feather! I get cross eyed when I work on black/white balances on the screen. Beautifully done:) I love the style and idea of wexters sketch. I personally have only seen footage of the northern lighs, and I was amazed by this amazing natural occurence. I use tons of layers, and quite a few colors, fun stuff....about 2 hours, Thanks!
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/redstarink/Northern-lights.jpg
update..Thanks for the suggestion, I still dont think I have it right..more suggestions welcome!
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/redstarink/Northern-lights-update-1.gif

Reference photos
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/redstarink/nlref3.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/redstarink/nl2.jpg

[NathanielWest]

http://nathanielwest.net/images/light.jpg

Just messed around with some different lighting that I don't do too often. I wasn't too sure where I was going with it for quite awhile. I just let it evolve on it's own. Not too sure how long it took...maybe an hour or so.

Wexter-Looks nice, and it's a fun spin on the topic. The reflection on the lighbulb is nicely done, and the forms are reading.I would love to see more light hitting the figure's back as well as the ground. It seems that the bulb is brighter than the light you've indicated. Good job overall!!

Robertt-Wonderful idea! I'm getting the light coming through. I'm not too sure exactly how to push it further, but I've noticed in photos how things with soft edges like a feather, they tend to have a soft rim light around them. Just a thought to help sell the softness of the subject. Great effort!

Inked3DGirl-Looks good! I'd love to see it pushed further, with some adjustment of levels to really make the light glow against a darker sky. Maybe pull a few of the stars out from the pack as well. Very nice work!

[embryotic]

I was looking forward to your post NathanielWest - when I think of light, I think of your style - I definitely see your different approach here - nothing to crit really - detailing, composition and colour is working - light conveys really well

nice crits too!

[burpy]

NathanielWest - Beautiful lighting! Foreground looks perfectly painterly, maybe if you just spent a couple of mins cleaning up some of the more obvious brushstrokes near the edges. But it's really amazing.

Inked3DGirl - Nice composition and colours! It does look like the aurora, although some sections maybe some areas where it looks more transparent and wispy would help? Yours looks a little solid.

Robertt - Looks nice. If you made it a little more fuzzy it might be more effective. The black lines in the middle are a bit harsh. I do like the white edges which trail off.

Wexter - Awesome lighting, especially on the bulb. The light bulb could look a little heavier by making the man's pose more hunched over and carrying it on his back, but this could be just your preference. The lines outlining the man could be a little cleaner as well. I really like the lightbulb.

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/347/lightfe2.jpg
PS CS, 45 min

Slight update - 10 more mins
http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/1641/light2uh1.jpg

[Wexter]

hi, thanks for the comments all of u!Robert: thanks for the comment, i think your feather is fine, maybee is to dificult to make the sensation of light without some kind of background tones,,, well here is my attemp , i think is not much better, but maybee it will help u, i worked with the color dodge tool.
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/2858/plumacgtalked1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Inked 3d girl: i think u image look fine, it could make sense to add a little color variation in the lightest tones of the image.

Nathaniel: well thanks for u usefull critiques.I like what u did, it has a touch of realismus in there that make the picture look great!. well i know that u are a great artist, i looked at your portfolio yesterday, and im impressed, u style reminds me of the style of Penemen ? do u know him, he is great to, specially like u newest image on the gallery, great concepts , great worlds and atmospheres!

burpy: thanks for u critics to, for 45 minutes a good piece, nothing important about it to critic. Maybee more tones , not to much, on the negative side of the image, (blueish?) , so there is more contrast between light and dark,, well thats all, in general, like all the images of this thread.

[Robertt]

Inked3DGirl: Thank you so much for the kind words! I really love what you've done there in your images. Such beautifully unique colors arching dreamily upward in enchanted and enjoyable ways!


Wexter: Thanks for the reply and the example! I did some more work tonight on the feather and updated my original post with a second image, which really became more of a second rendition of my original concept. I think it's great there are these kinds of sessions where everyone gets to focus on some key concepts and discuss approaches. So many ways to go about our creations :)


NathanielWest: Thanks! I especially like the shadows on the floor in your image. They really help convey the direction and intensity of the light you are portraying. Well done!


burpy: Thank you! The gold light in yours really gives a special feeling and a warmth to your image that fits quite nicely with the setting and overall tone of the piece.



Update:

My first post at the top of this thread now has my second image called "Phoenix Feather" :)

RobertT

[burpy]

Thanks for the crits robertt and wexter.:) I've updated my original post with a few of the bluish tones in the shadows to try and set off the warmth a bit more. It could be too subtle though.

Robertt - The new feather is really good! It looks really soft now with a better sense of form. The colour is also great and really sets it off.

Inked3Dgirl - Now the whole aurora might be a little too dim. Notice how in the ref pictures there are bright parts close to more translucent areas. I did a paintover, but it kinda sucks.:p Hope it's at least a bit of use though.:)
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/4377/aurorapaintovertx3.jpg

[NathanielWest]

http://nathanielwest.net/images/lightstudy.jpg

I think burpy is on the right track with the transparency. This is a really good subject to study, because it's a good example one of the more challenging lighting situations that you'll come across.

I took your original (I hope you don't mind!), and I made it more transparent by showing a few more stars, and I also evened out some of the colors in the sky. You can see how your sky was getting different levels of saturation throughout as you worked on the light. The purples are just a little too overpowering for my eye.

Most importantly, I added the dark silhouetted ground, and I think that really helps to give that feeling of darkness.

You're on the right track. You really picked a challenging one!

[bupaje]

Here is my effort. About 4 hours with PS CS2.

http://www.stormvisions.com/awn/cg_light_031107_1.jpg

I'll preface my comments with a 'I'm still relatively new at this' statement so take all crits with a grain of salt. I also have an aging monitor and think things may look darker on it that for most.

@NathanielWest - I really like the balance of light in your image so far. I'm guessing it is still a wip? Otherwise the back left corner of the room seems to need some darkness. Really nice, you've given me some ideas about lighting.

@burpy - I really like the cathederal. My only question is did you envision a cataclysmic event outside -fire perhaps? I ask because it seems the light comes very bright from top and side as if two light sources. Perhaps the windows also need some depth? Right now (on my monitor) they look as if cut in a thin board rather than stone. Very dramatic nonetheless and reminds me of some of my favored RPG game games environments. :)

03-11-07 Revision
-----------------

Thanks for the feedback. Tried to make it look a little more 'underwater' and made some minor changes to the lighting and color values.

http://www.stormvisions.com/awn/cg_light_031107_2.jpg

[Ivy00]

very cool subject you have taken on for light Emily. The last solar flare we had put the Northern Lights right over my head. Swirling and pulsing and the coyotes were howling like mad at the same time, spooky and looked like an alien invasion was here. So awesome. Nathaniel did a great paintover really captured the soft milky veiled look of them, can't wait to see your update using the tips he gave.

[RedStarInk3D]

Thanks Y'all!!
Bupaje: Great Creatures! Lots'o'fun! Nice lighting, they look like mud fish in a forest...are they on the ground or underwater? Some more texture would be fun! Nice work
Ivy: Thanks, I'm more of a realist with my pencil drawings, so it is hard for me when things dont look truly realistic. But I feel the northens lights have a infinite color range with varying brightness and opacity every second, so it is a little easier to play toward the imaginitive side.
Nathaniel:Sweet! I love having feedback and the ability to have other artists take what I make, and improve upon. You can take my artwork anyday!:) Thanks!
Burpy: I love the mysterious cathedral, it does look like the city is burning, maybe it the texture you have in the light source itself, maybe tomne down the brightest parts? I still love it the way it is! The blues added in really give it...pop.
Nathaniel: Your pic reminds me of a treehouse in an amazon forest, very cool. I was a little confused as to the light source because there is a very strong light coming almost directly down on the..chopping block?..and a light source that looks like it is behind the camera. Great light study overall!:)

[bupaje]

http://www.stormvisions.com/awn/cg_light_031207_1.jpg

I decided to try one more, but at the end had no clue about how to handle the lighting. Crit or paintover would be helpful.

@Inked3DGirl - thanks for the crit and kind words. I think you picked a beautiful and dramatic subject for the topic 'light.' Not sure what I can add as NathanielWest covered all the bases except to say that from looking at the reference images these lights seem to be more like the bottom of curtains or drapery in form so maybe looking at those will also help.

@Ivy - thanks very much for the feedback and excellent paintover -really helped me to see what you meant. One more try. Still wip but I'm trying block in the basic values based on your feedback. Have to do something about the monitor though as it looks much brighter and less contrast than on my old monitor at home. Still haven't quite got the depth.

http://stormvisions.com/awn/cg_light_031207_2.jpg

@Igor - thanks for the feedback. Very useful. I like your entry, dramatic lighting based on on dramatic set for that movie. The only thing that looks a little off to me is the left corner of the wall on the lower half. I think the left and right of the corner are too even in lighting and color so it looks more like a line drawn through one wall than two seperate ones -if that makes sense?

[Ivy00]

ok bupaje I attempted to help you a bit with a paintover. I am not the best person for this , that is for sure , so don't hurt me ha ha. Maybe someone that really knows what they are doing can help more.

Your river went right up the middle of the picture cutting it in half, so I moved that a bit. The horizon didn't really drop back to give you the depth you needed, I attempted to drop that back a bit. The sky looked like a storm was coming so I tried to emphasize that, not sure if I accomplished any of this , because some dramatic lighting happens when storms are moving in. I attempted to give the image some backlight by making the front of things darker.

Anyway here it is.


http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s200/Ivy10101/cg_light_031207_1po.jpg



http://www.stormvisions.com/awn/cg_light_031207_1.jpg

[igorsandman]

http://www.igorsandman.net/sketch/bladerunner2.jpg

The topic evoked me a scene in Bladerunner.
20 minutes in PS with photo reference.
-IS-

EDIT: I just noticed it's a hyper review thread. i'll have a close look on the pictures and post a comment soon. Sorry :shrug:

[igorsandman]

Wexter:
Great picture. I especialy like the way yo rendered the metal bottom of the bulb. Good reflection.

Robertt:
I prefer teh second one even if the first one was good too. The first one was a bit too flat. Anyways, great attention to details.

Inked3dgirl:
The aurora borealis is a great idea and you rendered it quite well. I think there is a problem with perspective though. It looks like smoke coming from the right of the picture. Notce how on both you references, it goes from bottom to top without much going left an right (especialy at the distance. Also, maybe you could try to make the ground appear backlit to accentuate the fact that it's night time. Just tossing ideas, here :)

NathanielWest:
Very realistic lighting. I dig those saturated colors against shadow.

burpy:
cool mood. Maybe a tad too saturated. The second one looks great with the blue light.

bupaje:
funny picture :p To give more depth maybe you could try to vary the size of the three forground characters.
I prefer your second entry, as far as I am concerned. To improve depth in your environement, render lesss saturated and less contrasty the further away it is from the view point.

Take all these critiques with a grain of salt. I'm still learing :wise:
Bye bye.
-IS-

[Ivy00]

finally got time to do a pic for this thread. I tried to get this kind of fetus cocoon type of thing. 2 hrs ps 7

bleh realized I uploaded the wrong one :) here it is

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-11/1230395/light2.jpg

[bupaje]

@Ivy - Looks great. Creates an eerie mood for me, the membrane has good texture and the light enhances that semi-transparent feel.

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