Vehicle shading and Composition Help?

[Facial Deluxe]

...can't believe anyone answered since this morning
I have no experience lighting car, so here is my point of view.
I think hdri is the right way. I mean what's important is what is reflected more than the lighting itself.
So I would go for a basic lighting with clean area lights, and focus on the reflection part.
I'm not sure what you're after, but for an interior lighting, show room type, I would simulate the spots and neons using wide luminous squares that will reflect on the car body. ie I would try to "paint" reflections on the car.

Not sure I help, let me know,

Cheers,
Facial.
Ps: I recommand having a look at this http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64723
Nice pics only, may be inspirationnal.

[Halsu]

Yeppers, reflection is the key... use incidence angle gradients to control it.

In real studio car shoots, there's rarely any direct light on the car - everything is done with "light boxes". An equivivalent in 3D would be a white box to reflect (give it an image map with slightly brighter center for extra reality), plus an area light.

Very cool model, btw -

[Arte]

Originally posted by Halsu
Yeppers, reflection is the key... use incidence angle gradients to control it.

In real studio car shoots, there's rarely any direct light on the car - everything is done with "light boxes". An equivivalent in 3D would be a white box to reflect (give it an image map with slightly brighter center for extra reality), plus an area light.

Very cool model, btw -

Just back from my honeymoon so I have lots of smiles and am in the mood to help out too:)

Halsu you point out one of my pet wishes for LW. I don't like the fact that LW needs to fake a studio set up along with the bits of cardboard, polystyrene etc... Would be nice if that could be done quicker, your plug pak is good for studios btw:)

Another thing to add to Halsu's post is as well as a white box like reflection, you can also create excellent highlights if you use a gradient next to a white source to bring the white out and increase it's contrast. If you can get this on curves it can look amazing. Things like perfume ads are a good reference of this trick fyi.

X

[Halsu]

Here's a quickie shot: The two cars are identical renders, except for the reflections. You can see my LightBoxes there too... The reflection is controlled with incidence angle gradient, 100% start, 15% end. Could use some tweaking - this was just a quick hack, but should get you going.

[Halsu]

Originally posted by Arte
Halsu you point out one of my pet wishes for LW. I don't like the fact that LW needs to fake a studio set up along with the bits of cardboard, polystyrene etc... Would be nice if that could be done quicker, your plug pak is good for studios btw:)

Another thing to add to Halsu's post is as well as a white box like reflection, you can also create excellent highlights if you use a gradient next to a white source to bring the white out and increase it's contrast. If you can get this on curves it can look amazing. Things like perfume ads are a good reference of this trick fyi.

X

I actually LIKE the fact that you can more or less build stuff like in the real world in LW ;-)

The white boxes can be faked with either reflection maps, or textured environment.

Oh, ant the gradient thingy works well too -

[Mwai Kasamale]

Het thanks for the comments they really helped I worked on a studio setup for a while then decided to do a comp, The textures aren't finished yet but on their way Hope you like it, any crits would be mucho appreciated
http://benkas.homestead.com/files/Shaded_001.jpg
http://benkas.homestead.com/files/Wire_001.jpg

[Halsu]

VERY nice!!

[wgreenlee1]

Looking good....seems like its kinda small though isnt it?
I dunno how big this car is......maybe its the right size....

[Facial Deluxe]

Excellent ! Congrats !

[Mwai Kasamale]

thanx alot folks, I did have another question though, does LW recognize both PICT and PIC files with alpha channels and are these two the same format just abreviated differently? I was having problems with Targa's as I learned from a recent Maya 5.0 demo here in Vancouver that Targa's do not have the anti-aliasing resilience of PICT/PIC files, which I found to be true, I was having problems with the dirt maps alpha channel, had to use PSD's which made rendering hefty.

Wondered if there is any truth to this and whether the PICT files in LW support Aplha channels, maybe I was layering wrong but they didn't seem to show up.

Again thanx for the Crits, come to think of it I think that the Car is a bit small. Its for an TV show I can't name which, but the car is supposed to a Police aid vehicle, stocking munitions and weapons for law enforcers.


I'll finish it this afternoon.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.