Lighting Challenge #16: The Lighthouse

[BlenderFan]

Here is another version of my image, with some things added in Photoshop.

[HOOJK]

Hei

I made a quck camera animation on my tower
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YDjDwN0tME

[tassel]

Hi,

Thanks for feedback. I've tried to do "something" with my picture, but i am not sure about the changes ;)

http://home.no.net/ringebr/temp/CG_Tak_LC16_Raymond2.jpg

[CHRiTTeR]

Thanks for the feedback Jeremy, its funny but i've gotten that comment a few times before, that my work looks a bit like ancient asian painting (even on photographs).
Dont really know if its a good thing or a bad thing...

Its a good morale boost to see you find the style intresting. :beer:

[Cabbage82]

Well, I thought I would give this a try. This is my first challenge I'v entered so go easy on me :)

Heres my render... done in Maya and Photoshop...

[darkviews]

I think I might be coming into this a bit late but I'm going to work on it none the less. I have alot on my plate right now, but this looks like a vary good challenge to do, This would be my first challenge.

My idea is more of night, time, Im going to see if I can get some sort of drama in the scene.

Good luck to all that have done it so far.

[BlenderFan]

I have decided to rework my image and start anew. I have learned a lot since I started this project, so much so that I realized I could serve myself better by simply starting from scratch. Here is my new image in which I am mainly trying to nail down the lighting. Once more it was created with Blender and Photoshop. Enjoy.

[Cabbage82]

Another render... I think its an improvement over the last one? :)

[jeremybirn]

Cabbage82 - Welcome! That's a nice image. I guess you just made the grass a lot brighter, you might go back half way to where it was in the prev. image. The ground texture is better. I think the shadow on the little house is too hard-edged and prominant. Make that a little softer. But choose just 1 angle through the whole scene for your sunlight, and make the shadowing from the sun consistent. The fence or sign on the far left looks overlit and flat. There's a strange shadow in the middle of the fence on the right, as if there's some hard-edged thing blocking light from the middle of the fence? I don't know what that's about. Your fill light, what you see where there's no sunlight, should be a deeper blue/purple color, so your shadows should be deeply saturated with fill light from the sky. If you want, you could also post 2 images: an image of just the sunlight (with other lights hidden), and an image of your sky fill light, so we can see how your lighting is broken down.

BlenderFan - Good start. The deep rich red would make a nice basic fill layer, just soften the shadows a lot so we can't see the hard-edged lines on the ground. You left the right side of the tower dark, which could be a great place to start with your key light, maybe your key could be a bold yellow light from the right? (P.S. - I'm glad you started over. When people start into too much post-processing, it's usually because they didn't like the lighting and colors on their original work.)

darkviews - Welcome!

tassel - Looks good! I think the changes are OK. You see to have added a good bit of fill light to the center part of the rocks facing us, but not much fill light on the two rocks sitting out on the right. Maybe you could leave some of the center darker, just to build up contrast there, but fill light on the two right rocks where they sit out above the water.

HOOJK - Looks good. Maybe you could slide your sunlight/keylight to the right, so that the tower keeps some sunlight on it longer as the camera moves?

-jeremy

[nelokoStuDios]

hello everybody this is my offer of illumination for the lighthouse and this is my first post

i hope you liked, thanks




http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g74/335474/335474_1224271528_large.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g74/335474/335474_1224271528_large.jpg)

[bitWeaver]

Hello all, it's inspiring to see all the great work everyone is posting here.

Jeremy, thank you so much for these lighting challenges! It has been an invaluable resource for my lighting class. A couple of my students have already posted and I'm trying to persuade the others to do the same. It looked like fun so I decided to do this challenge along with my students. Any and all comments welcome.

http://www.bluemandrake.com/download/visitors.jpg

[swag]

lightbeam was done in maya with a spotlight
lightfog, intensity curve, color ramp, quadratic decay
all rendert with mental ray
main light is a physical sky light (linear workflow)

http://www.swag3d.com/cgtalk/lighthouse.jpg

[jeremybirn]

nelokoStuDios - Welcome! If you're having trouble getting an image on-line, try posting it at imageshack.com and linking to it here. The option to attach images will come with an account that's been used for more posts, but most of us aren't even using that, most people on the forum upload a picture to another site and use include the URL here so people can see it. Looking forwards to seeing your work.

bitWeaver - Welcome! That's great! I love the spaceship concept! I wonder if some interaction could be created between the beam from the lighthouse and the light from the ship? The fog is nice. If the fog were more concentrated low-down over the water, then we could see the variation in the fog changing scale with distance as it moved away from us, and the fog would look less 2D. The left side of the tower could use some fill lighting matching the cooler sky colors, especially at the top. The tree is getting a lot of light on the front, reducing that and adding rim-light could tie it into the scene better. The Welcome sign could use a sense of back-lighting; if the sides or upper surfaces got brighter from all the light behind it, that would help differentiate the planes of those posts. The text has the same bright and dark tones as the water behind it, so visually it looks like a transparent cut-out in the sign, you might change the values there. The fence needs a little more of a rim or kick along the top, and the ground could use some of that edge lighting that the tower has.

swag - That's great! I love it! The sky and the contrast really create a sense of wonder. I think the main beam from the lighthouse is great, maybe it just needs a softer beam outside of it that spreads out at a wider angle, so the light doesn't look too concentrated. Especially near the lighthouse, there should be at least a little more light leaking out in other directions to cause a glow or softer fog beam outside of the focused beam. The ground at the bottom needs a little work. The fence could use a rim light along the top.

-jeremy

[crystalpiggy]

There is my post for the Lighting Challenge #16. The image is based on the bright yellow and dark green colour. I hope you like it and any comments are welcome. :applause:

http://static.zooomr.com/images/6095586_02d8d60166_o.jpg

[BlenderFan]

I have worked on my image some more, and I have tried to take into account some of your suggestions, Jeremy. Here it is.

[BinaryRay]

This is another try in higher resolution.


http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/742/santoriniwi2.jpg (http://imageshack.us/)

[schmoron13]

crystalpiggy,

i love your image. It's got a very cinematic feel to it. A couple of suggestions:


the light hitting the roof of the shack seems to be at a different angle than the light over the water, which matches up with the sun in the background plate.
the scale of the wood bump on the roof and the concrete where the lighthouse sits seems out of sync with the rest of the image. It's almost 'model-esque.' The rest of the image, especially the water has a matte-painting feel to it.
otherwise, TOP NOTCH!

[vjaramillo]

Starting kind of late...but here are some angles I plan to work on.

Thanks,

Vince

[vjaramillo]

Starting to add some textures. MAX and FR.

Thanks,

Vince

[Robbit]

Hello all. Awesome work. I've been a huge fan of cgsociety for a while just never been able to post work. Thanks to this lighting class, and the awesomeness of cgtalk I finally have something to post. Im still in the learning process so C&C are very welcome.

Render in Maya 2008 (mental ray + final gatherer + G.I.) some post Photoshop work.
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr87/robbit81/comp3.jpg

[pipjor]

http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp166/pipjor01/lighthouse_012.jpg
bought Jeremy's book, got a ref photo,here's my image.
3ds 2009, Brazil RS, PS CS3, AE CS3

[sundialsvc4]

Robbit...

I'm not entirely sure of the scale of this piece ... seems like a pretty-small lighthouse ... but I'd say, never-mind that! :thumbsup: It's a very inventive piece...

The lighting is very moody and subtle. The light is not pointing in our direction; it's pointing out to sea. A highly detailed profile of the lighthouse structure is being shown to us as a stencil, against the light of the moon. You used the naturally-lighter features of the lunar landscape to subtly frame the top of the lighthouse, naturally leading our eyes back to that point. The end result is a very pleasing, artistic, composition that makes good use of "mist" as a compositional device. It seems to have good tonal range and would be easy to print.

[Robbit]

Thanks for the comments. This one i've fixed the light fog from the lighthouse, glass reflecting the light and scaled up the stars with a curve's adjustment. Then did a levels adjustment for the overall light.

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/rr87/robbit81/comp4.jpg

[f3rd5]

Hi All!
Lots of awesome artworks in here. Here's my own post for this lighting challenge.
After tinkering with it in between work schedule, I finally came up with something.:p
The process of lighting, texturing and rendering are all done in Maya while some post works and compositing are done with Combustion.
Your comments and suggestion are always welcome!
Thanks!
http://i439.photobucket.com/albums/qq113/tangnanyo_lahat/lighthouse_comp_Final_C.jpg

[dboydesign]

Here is my final result.
Thank you Jeremy for all your help :)

http://www.3dhue.com/files/final_lighthouse_916.jpg

[Chrisdc]

Thanks for the critique, here's my latest attempt:
http://chrisdc.com/forums/storm2.jpg
As before this is rendered in Lightwave using local illumination.

dboydesign: I really like the colours in your image.

Thanks,

Chris

[jeremybirn]

f3rd5 - Welcome! That's a great scene! I think the buildings could use more contrast, maybe the sun could be a tiny bit brighter, but also pulled back to the left rear of the scene more, and the full light could be a little darker. The trees and fence seem to get a lot less fill light than the buildings, that could be evened out, tree leaves especially are so translucent that they can get a little fill light running deep into the tree. The right side of the image could use more vegetation to hide the flat surfaces. The roof of the little building is looking a little flat, maybe a few of the roof shingles could be moved or rotated out a little? Nice job on the texturing, too!

Robbit - Welcome! Great job! Terrific image! I think the stars look a little bit big and blurry now. Is a lower part of the moon getting blurred in the comp somehow? If so, try to fix that. The fog over the ocean is pretty good, if you could get some noise or variation in it to help it look more dimensional that could be even better. This is just a thought, but the fog might get a little light and color from the moon when the moon is right behind it.

pipjor - Nice scene. You might try the trick of rendering each major light source out as a separate pass, so it's just the contribution of that light source, with everything else black, and then adding together those passes as a composite, which you could even do in Phtoshop. That way you could think through the brightness of each light, tweaking them all until they look convincing together. It seems like there are a few ligths on the right of the ligthhouse and on the ground that are much brighter than the sun, and brighter than the beam from the ligthhouse, if you could isolate them you might tone them down. If the fence and building on the right are getting the same sunlight as the tower, then similar rims of bright sunlight along the edges could help them look back-lit.

vjaramillo - Welcome! Keep going!

PakosM - Welcome! The scene could use some occlusion or shadows, something to give more darkness to enclosed surfaces or surfaces facing away from the brightest part of the sky. The light from the lighthouse looks pretty good, I'd just like to see some of the hard-edged lines softened a bit. The uniform lighting and beam all look like the scene should be foggy, so you should add some fog, making more distant objects fade into grayness.

BlenderFan - I'm not sure where all the light is coming from. For example, the right side of the tower is dark, but the right side of the little house is bright. Is there supposed to be sunlight on one of them but not the other? I can't tell. Some shadows would help, if you could create a more solid sense of contact between the house and the ground.

crystalpiggy - "Like" it? I love it! That's great work! Your color scheme and the integration of the sky and sea are really painterly. If you're looking for feedback, I think the ground to the right of the lighthouse is a little bit flat and seems to be covered by just one stretched-out texture, if you could cover it with more vegetation or rocks or something it could better match the richness of much of the rest of the image. You could probably bounce a little light into the dark side of the house, just to fill in that area a bit. There doesn't seem to be much reflectivity with the metal or glass reflecting the environment.

-jeremy

[pipjor]

http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp166/pipjor01/lighthouse_016.jpg

pipjor - Nice scene. You might try the trick of rendering each major light source out as a separate pass, so it's just the contribution of that light source, with everything else black, and then adding together those passes as a composite, which you could even do in Phtoshop. That way you could think through the brightness of each light, tweaking them all until they look convincing together. It seems like there are a few ligths on the right of the ligthhouse and on the ground that are much brighter than the sun, and brighter than the beam from the ligthhouse, if you could isolate them you might tone them down. If the fence and building on the right are getting the same sunlight as the tower, then similar rims of bright sunlight along the edges could help them look back-lit.
-jeremy
thanks for the comments Jeremy, here's a update with a few boulders added for composition and rework of the light rig. If i have time i'll add some vegetation to break up the grass..

[BlenderFan]

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share the kind of lighting setup they are using. Do you use spotlights, omnis, GI/FG, or a combination?

Thanks.

[dboydesign]

Hi BlenderFan!

I guess you use Mental Ray? I cant help you with MR, when my primary rendering engine is Vray.

But about how to use light I woud suggest to buy Jeremy Birn book about lightning.

About my scene for example. I used 1 omni, some lightning materials, GI lightning with Dark blue to black map. Also i used something called Vray Sphere that is a vray light but almost the same functions as Omni lights.
And of course I used Vray GI.

It all depends on what kind of scene your looking for?
If you have a bright sunshine day then you will need something for the sun like Daylight system or Directlight..
Also if you have parts of a scene that need more lights you can "example" add some fill light.

Its just about experiement and tweeking to you get the result you want.
Im sorry to say that there is no " Ultimate Lightning set up" as i know.
You have min.3 lights set up for studios and etc..

I woud just try to add a light, then another and another and just try..

Im not sure how much this turn out to be helpful for you but I hope so :)

[BlenderFan]

Actually, I use Blender for my work. I was just looking for some inspiration. I have read Jeremy's book, and I love it. Thank you for sharing.

[tassel]

Fantastic work everyone. Lots of respect :)

Here is probably my final picture (due to time lap)
Anyway, big thanks to everyone.
i will for sure participate in the next challenge. This is pure fun :D

http://home.no.net/ringebr/temp/CG_Tak_LC16_Raymond3.jpg

[nelokoStuDios]

http://img370.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lighthousefinalrendernp7.jpg

[crystalpiggy]

The other one with the problems fixed, hopefully :) . I added the definition on the right side of the cliff, and a fill light on the dark shadow area. Thanks for Jeremy and everybody suggestion. I suppose this time you probably love it more. :bounce:

http://static.zooomr.com/images/6125807_59e40c2f22_o.jpg

[radianssi]

Here's a (hopefully) improved version of what I posted a few weeks ago. Fixed some errors, added a bit of vegetation to the rock shader, some particles to the water, added some definition to the tower itself, etc...

http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/6331/lighthouse25mk5.jpg

[f3rd5]

Thanks jeremy for the critique. I took note of every suggestion and comment and made
the necessary changes. I wanted to have a warmer look and feel to it this time.:p


http://i439.photobucket.com/albums/qq113/tangnanyo_lahat/lighthouse_ferdz.jpg

[nelokoStuDios]

hello everybody this is my offer of illumination for the lighthouse and this is my first post

i hope you liked, thank

[MartinRomero]

This is work in progress, I need to add lights on the Ship as well as some fog but for now here it is. The lighthouse will not have any lights.
file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/ADMINI%7E2.COM/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg
http://forums.cgsociety.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=134197&stc=1

Martin

[punytjoshi]

Here I am posting my work on this challange, It is lit (also modeled and textured) Using maya 2008, I will be looking forward for your c&c and questions.http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o168/modelerpunit/Comping_-1.jpg

[wilcox]

hi Jeremy,thank's Juan Carlos Silva,
That's my challenge,i'm new on this thread,that what i was able to do,i just finshed to read
Digital Lighting & Rendering, Second Edition,please be critic and suggest me everythigs.thanks Wilhttp://J:%5CLightHome%5CComposites%5Clighthome.jpg

[raylistic]

Hi all, some updates.

I wonder why i still can't bring out the best look out of my flowers and grasses. Anyone can give some hints?

ferdz guevarra - i like how your grass and tress turn out! nice! Care to share how you lit them?
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f93/raylistic/Final_scopy.jpg

[sklioness]

hello jeremy ...

this is probably my final work for the challege ...hope u like it ... did all the necessary changes as per ur suggestions... any c&c's r more then welcome as i would like it improve it, even if the deadline for challenge ends ..



http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/7180/finallighthouselargenamzo2.th.jpg (http://img372.imageshack.us/my.php?image=finallighthouselargenamzo2.jpg)http://img372.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

http://img404.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

[dpendzich]

Hey everyone! This is my latest lighthouse scene render. Thank you Jeremy for your very helpful feedback!
I've taken your comments as well as my lighting and layout teacher's comments into consideration and this is what I've come up with so far. I hope you like it!

Software Used: Maya 2008
Rendered Using: Mental Ray + Final Gathering

http://fc14.deviantart.com/fs35/f/2008/296/1/7/171935408004ef2249b724c596a877c6.jpg

[f3rd5]

@ Raymond Chua (raylistic)

Hi Raymond! The grass that I used in my scene is a texture from an actual photo that I mapped on the ground geometry. I find it the easiest way to get a more realistic-looking grass. Well, I could have opted for Maya Paint Effects grass and trees, which was my initial approach actually, but personally found it so time-consuming to tweak, hard to light and not easy on rendering time. But I guess once you really have learned the nitty-gritty of paint effects, it will serve you well in your scenes. As for the trees, I just made lighting passes for its key light, fill light and occlusion so I would have more control of how much of each layer appears in compositing stage.

You have a nice looking scene there! But you might want to vary the size and shades of your grass and scale down the size of those flowers a bit. If you could make them into a separate layer and have each pass for the key light , fill light, etc. you'll have a better control of its lighting. You may even want to add a grass texture in ground that blends gradually into the soil to hide those bald areas not covered with grass. I hope this helps. ;)

[sundialsvc4]

I wonder why i still can't bring out the best look out of my flowers and grasses. Anyone can give some hints?
I think that if you put a histogram on just that area of the frame, you'd find that it is underexposed.

"The beacon" is a huge light-source and this can distort a histogram. Turn off the light (or de-select the area in Photoshop) and take a histogram of whatever remains. I think you'll find that it's underexposed more-or-less across the frame.

Think about it: el Sol is huge. Every bit of that cliff-face, that outbuilding and so-forth should be well-lit. Even though the faces that point directly east or directly west (as the case may be...) receive more illumination than the sides, it's not that much, light-value-wise. (Grab a light meter tomorrow morning and see for yourself.) There will be a crisp contrast between the two faces, but not a huge difference in value.

A photo should be lit for the midtones. Features like grass kick have their color from those midtones, and they kick a little bit of specularity "just to get noticed." Perception of "light vs. dark" keys more from contrast than from actual-light because in real life your eyes "scan" a scene to construct an image in your mind. That contrast may be, numerically speaking, just an f-stop or so.

[wilcox]

hi Jeremy,
that's my render,i'm new on this thread,that is what i was able to do,i just finshed to read
Digital Lighting & Rendering book,please be critic and suggest me everythings.
thank's Juan Carlos Silva.



http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr66/WILCOXLOR/Challenge16Lighthome.jpg

[wilcox]

Sorry,i had to fix the windows reflection ...
here the correct one.

http://i470.photobucket.com/albums/rr66/WILCOXLOR/Challenge16LighthomeFix.jpg

[tassel]

Hi,

Minor changes, because of time..
.
http://home.no.net/ringebr/temp/CG_Tak_LC16_Raymond4.jpg

[BlenderFan]

This will be my final entry. Due to time I had to add and correct some things in Photoshop. It's been a great time, I have learned a lot, and I look forward to the next challenge. You are great Jeremy. Thank you so much for doing these challenges.

[jeremybirn]

BlenderFan - The colors overall could work. The black edges running
around the tower and under the roof are just from a lack of bounce
light. If you filled-in all the black areas, then people might interpret
the washed-out yellow image for something seen through dust. I think
you'll still need some shadows and occlusion and a little more shaping
to sell the image, though.

tassel - Great job, congratulations!

wilcox - Nice job!

dpendzich - The image is still great! I think the translucency effect on
the tree leaves isn't working because even though the leaves themselves
have thin-surface translucency, they are blocking the light completely
to cast an opaque shadow. This means that 1 layer of leaves will show
correct translucency, but where 2 or more leaves overlap the light
cuts-off completely. If you're using raytraced shadows, then just go
into the shading group (not the shader, the shading group) for the
leaves, and under Mental Ray Custom Shaders assign an
mib_shadow_transparency as the Shadow Shader. A transp of about 50%
won't make the leaves transparent at all, but will just make them
transparent to the shadows. Softening the shadows would help also. The
rim on the left side of the tower looks like it's having shadow problems
(probably just shadows turned off?), and creates frosty white dots
around the tower where it leaks through. The glow of light coming out
the window onto the tower and ground doesn't need to be that bright, but
it could be softened a lot, and perhaps saturated a bit so there's some
really warm light around that area to contrast with the cool tones.

sklioness - Great job! I love the overall feel and colors. The ground
under the lighthouse is looking a little flat, I think it needs real
grass sticking up more from it, and the places where it gets
texture-mapped darker along the outer edge look unrealistic because I'd
expect it to be lit mostly where it faces the moon.

raylistic - Nice job! I think there's too much contrast in the diffuse
color values of the flowers (too bright) compared to the grass (too
dark), right in the shader settings. The flowers are too bright, but
also they match the yellow of the tower and house too closely so they
still don't pop out of the scene much. The grass just needs more diffuse
overall and it'd read better.

wilcox - Welcome! I can't see your image. If you're having trouble
putting an image on the Internet, you might try uploading to
www.imageshack.com (http://www.imageshack.com/) and just posting the link here. Once you've posted
here more you'll also be able to attach images directly, but you'll
notice that most of the images in this thread are really just links to
.jpg files hosted somewhere else. I look forwards to seeing your work.

punytjoshi - Wonderfully stylized image! I like the ocean, but it's a
bit hard to tell the ocean from the mountains, they both look like
similar hard blue things. The lights illuminating the tower itself could
use some shadows or occlusion, just to make it a little more solid
looking. At the top of the lighthouse, the ladder looks completely
white, but parts of the lamp reflector look black. If there's a lot of
light bouncing around up there, I'd expect some illumination hitting all
the black parts, but maybe a little less pure white.

MartinRomero - Nice idea, with the container ship spilling it's contents
as it runs towards the lighthouse!

nelokoStuDios - Welcome! Nice work! That's an interesting, colorful
image. I feel sorry for the little gray guy. The shallow DOF makes the
whole scene look a bit like a miniature.

f3rd5 - Nice work! It's much more consistent now with the fill light,
that's good. I miss having the blue sky on the right, though! It looks
like a somewhat bright day, and a little cool color to balance against
the warm colors might add something nice to the scene. I like the way
the front window of the little house reflects blue sky, maybe if you
added blue in the upper right sky you could add some blue reflection to
the other window as well?

radianssi - Terrific work! Congratulations!

crystalpiggy - Amazing! I love it even more!

pipjor - Terrific scene! Clean and elegant. Big improvement over last time. I agree about the grass, right now it looks like just one thin layer under the fence in some areas, a little more could be good. On the ground, I like that nice warm yellow tone that happens in the lower right of the image, maybe grading towards that ground color on the side of the ground towards the sea and sun would add to the image. Just a hair more warm bounce light from the ground on the lighthouse, only running a third of the way up the right side or so, could add to it, but that would be very subtle if you did it at all.

-jeremy

[pipjor]

http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp166/pipjor01/lighthouse_017.jpg
here's some minor changes,


pipjor - Terrific scene! Clean and elegant. Big improvement over last time. I agree about the grass, right now it looks like just one thin layer under the fence in some areas, a little more could be good. On the ground, I like that nice warm yellow tone that happens in the lower right of the image, maybe grading towards that ground color on the side of the ground towards the sea and sun would add to the image. Just a hair more warm bounce light from the ground on the lighthouse, only running a third of the way up the right side or so, could add to it, but that would be very subtle if you did it at all.

-jeremy
I tested the Brazil2 "domelight" for the first time for this challenge
http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp166/pipjor01/skylightdomelight.jpg

[ScallyFox]

Wow! Terrific entries here:bowdown:
Jeremy,
what about deadline? Is there any date that this challenge will be closed?

[jeremybirn]

ScallyFox - This challenge deadline is this Monday October 27. I'll try to get a gallery up soon after that. Then the next Challenge will start on Friday October 31. We still have an on-going challenge thread for people to post work on any previous challenges, and next year we're going to start doing more focused flashback challenge threads using some of the previous challenges also, so there will be opportunities to keep working on the lighthouse in the future if you want.

pipjor - Nice comparison. Dome light is much better. In your comparison the dome light looked brighter on the ground, some occlusion near the rocks would help there. If there's occlusion associated with the dome, that should add some subtle shaping to the house so it doesn't look as flat, also. If the dome light supports gradients you might angle it so the gradient starts near the sun angle with brighter, less saturated tones. Your whole scene is really nice, if you could just stagger the hard edges to where the grass grows...

-jeremy

[punytjoshi]

Thanx for your Comments, as always really helpful ,Appriciate that . I will surely Improve on that but I suppose it will after some time, as we have diwali coming up here(You might not know about this festival but you can say it's indian christmas).

I had been busy for last few weeks so today I went through all the works on this challange
There are really some nice works those are inspiring.but one thing I am really missing is a post by TuffMutt.I couldn't find his post if he did post for this challange pls send me path to his work.


Thank YOu
PunytJoshi

[BlenderFan]

@jeremy: Thanks for the critique. I was a bit confused about the deadline, so now I will work some more.


In the process of improving my image, I have run into some weird shadow artifacts. I get these when I use ray-traced shadows or AO in Blender. I have tried deleting objects, but to no avail. I am attaching an image of the problem. Hopefully someone can help. I would be very grateful.

[rameshganga]

HI, JERMY thanks for giving replay, this is my second upload and i hope will get good replay from you


http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/559/lighthouse1nu7.jpg

[f3rd5]

My final scene with some little touch up. It's been a great exercise on creativity!...looking forward to the next lighting challenge...thanks! :)

http://i439.photobucket.com/albums/qq113/tangnanyo_lahat/lighthouse_final_ferdz.jpg

[GearHead128]

Little winter scene for mine, focused on cold colors.

http://fc60.deviantart.com/fs35/f/2008/299/4/e/After_the_storm_by_Dao128.jpg

[RealReality]

I'll give it a shot,

first time I'll be rendering an outdoor scene, always made simple scene product renders for my own designs for school...

I'm curious :D

[EightHoursD]

Here`s mine. The main idea for this image was creating a rather simple composition while focusing on the ilumination. I use fur for the grass rendered with maya softwe

http://i462.photobucket.com/albums/qq344/8horas/faro_final_david_alvarez.jpg

[juemialma]

Here´s my final scene of the LightHouse.. I decided to make something kind of different and give it to the scene a little bit of magic. Thanks!

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x194/juemialma/Faro_final_med.jpg

Luis Gadea

[jeremybirn]

BlenderFan - I don't know. Guess you need to ask about whatever your problem is on a Blender forum.

rameshganga - Nice job!

f3rd5 - Looks great! That tree in the center by the lighthouse could use a little fill light, just enough fill in the black parts could simulate translucent leaves and light filtering through from the sky. That dark bird on the ground below could use a little rim or kick from the sun, just to pop it out and establish that it's sun-lit. Congratulations!

EightHoursD - Looks good! I think the grass could be longer, so it sticks up from the ground more. The sky looks strange: great overall, but then the sun doesn't look very well integrated.

juemialma - Great work! I agree, it looks magical now with the stuff floating around. The fence seens to have a lot of contrast, it could be better if the light on the fence cast bold dark shadows, and if there were a little fill and bounce on it in places.

-jeremy

[mirmel]

Hi all
I'm happy to see very beautiful works! :applause:
thanks Jeremy for this interesting challenge!
Here's my attempt..It is just a simple scene (I started to working on few weeks ago, and I'm sorry to post only now.)
I used maya and mental ray

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/6416/r11jh9.jpg (http://img293.imageshack.us/my.php?image=r11jh9.jpg)


Comment and critics are always welcome!
thanks!

[MartyD]

I wanted to give the scene a try. Thanks for letting me play.
Title: Old Technology Older Technology
Rendered with Vue 6
Used Global Radiosity with two lights, a sun and a spot.
The atmosphere is generated with the Spectral model.
Even though the scene is rendered with fairly high settings the clouds are grainy. I don't know how to fix that.
The thing I like the most is the way the clouds cast shadows.


http://www.ebbstudios.com/download/cglc16martyd_final.jpg

[DACART]

Here´s my scene of the Light House.. Its a little different, but i like that.http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq203/dacart_photo/finalcopy.jpg

[Sacito87]

Here´s my scene...:bounce: ...... the idea was to give a feeling of peace in the place ... I hope you like it ... comments are welcome:p

http://d.imagehost.org/0233/Lighthouse_Challenge_final_cg.jpg

[Chrisdc]

Hi, here's a couple of images snuck in before the deadline, first I have the last update to mt storm scene, with a little more done on the volumetrics:


http://chrisdc.com/forums/storm3.jpg

and to finish here's a quick sunset as well:
http://chrisdc.com/forums/sunset2.jpg

Thanks to Jeremy and Juan Carlos Silva for the great challenge,

Chris

[juahiddu]

Hi Jeremy,
Here is my final scene about the Lighthouse, I hope you like it, thanks

[VirusREdSox]

hi, here is my first post, I hope you like it, i ty to do something diferent.
I this one use Maya and Photoshop.

http://i422.photobucket.com/albums/pp309/virus_Redsox/CGtalk%20Post/finalLighthouse.jpg


thanx, to Juan Carlos for the model

[Caisio]

hi here's my first entry, first forum post too so having probs with the image linking

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xxoXeDPtUP4/SQT9aa9Yq8I/AAAAAAAAACE/4jArmyVZXtk/s1600-h/faroz.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xxoXeDPtUP4/SQT9aa9Yq8I/AAAAAAAAACE/4jArmyVZXtk/s1600-h/faroz.jpg
txz Jeremy and Juan Carlos :buttrock:

[Voigg]

Here it is, no post on it.

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r250/Voigg/save_3.jpg

[ARIES19]

hi, this is my final scene http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq308/mvbmauricio19/faro_mauriciocopy.jpg

[ARIES19]

hi, this is my final scene

[MaRiiEEC]

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r246/mariee89/Lighthouse_Challenge2.jpg

This is my image for the lighting challenge

[Ganimate]

Well, this is my final image, I end up with something totally different from what I started but some times that happens. I hope you like it and thanks a lot Jeremy and Juan Carlos.

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/1340/final2bu4.th.jpg (http://img186.imageshack.us/my.php?image=final2bu4.jpg)http://img186.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

[Ganimate]

This is the location of my image in cgtalk, bye:buttrock:
http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g74/283874/283874_1225077778_large.jpg

[sonlas3am]

this is my scene http://sonlas3am.cgsociety.org/gallery/

[jeremybirn]

Ganimate - Interesting image! The sharp angles between the polygons on the foreground glass thing and the ground could be smoothed out for a more organic look. The illumination from above the balcony needs to be shadowed where it leaks below the balcony on the left side of the tower, even in an abstract scene fixing things like that makes your objects more believable. See if you can find another environment map without that pole at the top - the reflections in the top of the tower and the top of the glass look like a probe image taken surrounded by walls, and don't really match the soft swirly look of the environment in the scene.

ARIES19 - That's a nice sky in the background. I guess you didn't have time to work much on the lighting yet, but thanks for entering.

Voigg - Nice overall scene. I think if you made the ground a different color or texture instead of the smooth green it would look more believable, either that or hide the ground with more grass? You might rethink that lower left corner with the tiny bit of water and ground, that looks sortof stuck in there, and would need some lighting and atmosphere and a better part of the composition if it were going to work.

Caisio - Welcome! Your image linking works fine. If you use "Add Image" instead of "Insert Web Link" then it'll appear without needing to click on it. That's a nice scene with the colorful aurora in the sky and the nice snow. The visible polygons in the rocks hurt the scene, as does the bright marble texture on the tower. Maybe you could tone the tower lighting way down, and make it look more back-lit with kicks of color just along the sides?

VirusREdSox - Welcome! That's an interesting scene! Probably you could do without the lens flare, and work more on shadows and making a really convincing water line at the edge of the water. I'd love to see some more shaping from the lighting to on the earth as well.

juahiddu - Nice scene! I like all the effects for the stormy look.

Chrisdc - Those are great! If there were more time I'd love to play more with the exposure on those. The night one seems as if things could be toned down into mostly deeper tones, with a slightly more subtle beam from the lighthouse, while keeping the sky in dark tones like that. The sunset one is beautiful. I keep looking at the top of the tower expecting to see parts of the roof inside going darker than the roof outside, instead of staying at that gray. Maybe some sunlight could glint off the reflector glass or the metal in parts of the lamp and tower, too?

Sacito87 - Interesting scene! I certainly has a flat look, which can be a bit peaceful. I find gently rolling hills and curves peaceful, too, though. The foreground flowers and grass are nice, and so is the matching with the background image. Maybe the sun could catch more in the reflector and top of the tower, but not be as bright or wrap as far around on the tower?

DACART - Interesting scene. It has nice colors and a nice background. I wish there were some lighting work on the lighthouse, too, because that doesn't really look integrated with the scene yet.

MartyD - Nice job!

mirmel - That's terrific! Very solid feel to the models there.

-jeremy

[sonlas3am]

this is the link to my last scene, http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g99/266599/266599_1225085178_large.jpg

thx to jeremy and juan carlos

[pankajkaintura43]

Hi Jeremy Sir.....Sir this is my first post to ur site. So I need guidence from ur side...
http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p396/pkaintura/LIGHTHOUSEFINAL.jpg

[cukiniman]

here`s my lighthouse, i tried to give it a "waterworld" kind of scenario...Hope you like it!

http://img384.imageshack.us/my.php?image=challengecopyfb3.jpg

[Ganimate]

I think this is it, well thanks again Jeremy and Juan Carlos!:applause:
http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g74/283874/283874_1225139760_large.jpg

[manki]

@jeremy: thanks a lot for your feedback!
thanks for this challenge!!

the final update on my images:

--> hires version in 1920x1080 resolution here (http://mantidman.com/forums/lighthouse_1_large) <--

http://mantidman.com/forums/lighthouse_1

old version was this one:
http://mantidman.com/forums/lighthouse_1_old

here the second image improved:

--> hires version resolution here (http://mantidman.com/forums/lighthouse_2_01_large.jpg) <--

http://mantidman.com/forums/lighthouse_2_01.jpg

old version:
http://mantidman.com/forums/lighthouse_2.jpg

[Dipali]

Hi,

my first to this challenge, kindly comment and guide

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb231/Dipali_album/CG_Challenge_16/L_C_16_comp02_c.jpg

[Ganimate]

Here is a version with some other changes, I take care of some details that I skipped before and try some variations!
http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g74/283874/283874_1225149535_large.jpg

[nachoferse]

HI , this is my underwater lighthousehttp://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g72/296072/296072_1225151508_large.jpg

[VirusREdSox]

http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g12/295312/295312_1225152192_large.jpghi, this is the final image

[VirusREdSox]

this is the final Image of a friend, he got troubles uploading the image with his account, so i uploaded.
this is the link

http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g72/296072/296072_1225151508_large.jpg

[jcarlosa]

thanks to Juan Carlos Silva for the Scenehttp://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g33/350233/350233_1225156305_large.jpg

[Nepenthe]

Hello everyone! I love the work I'm seeing on this forum - it's really phenomenal, and thank you Jeremy and Juan for the lighthouse and the feedback. I just thought I'd submit the image I've been working on for critique while I still can - I'm working on getting the ocean to look better but suggestions on everything are welcome. We've been using the challenge as a good example to work on in my lighting class. Thank you so much!

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll254/LadyofWorlds/jclighthouse.jpg

[ScallyFox]

manki, yours is my favorite!! Great job!! (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=166296)
I'ts a pity I haven't time to finish my entry, maybe I'll rework it later.

[augustos]

I was very busy working on a project that I haven't chance to participate on the last one's.
I did this one yesterday, still not happy with some of the elements, but I really like the composition.

Take care!

[dpendzich]

Hey everyone, here is my latest lighthouse scene render!
Thank you for your feedback Jeremy, your Mental Ray mib_shadow_transparency advice worked like a charm on the trees in my scene. I'm not longer getting that solid black shadow silhouette over the second layer of leaves. You are awesome!

Let me know if you spot any other things in my scene that can be improved.

Software Used: Maya 2008
Rendered Using: Mental Ray + Final Gathering

http://fc87.deviantart.com/fs34/f/2008/302/8/b/Lighthouse_III_by_Daniel_Pendzich.jpg

[andycortes777]

This is my image..hope you like it:cool:
<a href="http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=eroticosc2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/1754/eroticosc2.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us (http://www.ImageShack.us)" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://img604.imageshack.us/content.php?page=blogpost&files=img225/1754/eroticosc2.jpg" title="QuickPost"><img src="http://imageshack.us/img/butansn.png" alt="QuickPost" border="0"></a> Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

[Ganimate]

A friend of mine had some troubles uploading her image, so I did it for her. Her name is Andrea Cortes, just for the credit`s sake.

http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g74/283874/283874_1225236376_large.jpg

[juahiddu]

This is the same image that i posted before but in high resolution and better quality :cool:
http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g71/296071/296071_1225237585_large.jpg

[EN1GM4]

Corrections made... THANX For feedbacks the last time ! I´m very sorry i didn´t get at time.

http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g21/323921/323921_1225258771_large.jpg

[Dipali]

hii,

pls comment and guide..

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb231/Dipali_album/CG_Challenge_16/L_C_16_comp3.jpg

[manki]

@ScallyFox: thx for this compliment ;)

@dpendzich: nice result with the shadow_transparency node! never tried this trick before too...

@EN1GM4: well done. the cabin looks too dark, compared to the tower. I missing bounce light there (maybe some of the blue light that already hits the tower)

[vjaramillo]

Finally had some chance to work on my Lighthouse. Buildings are all textured now. On to the hard part, the terrain.


Vince

[vjaramillo]

Here is one of my finals. This has been fun. This is one of the few times that I really get to be creative with my lighting. Work is always fast track.

I was trying to achieve a rustic, mid-west look to my rendering. Kind of Mainish...even though I've never been there. This is what I imagine a lighthouse would look like in Maine. I decided to remove the car since it didn't really fit my intent.

All comments are welcomed.
Vince

[vjaramillo]

Second Image.


Vince

[vjaramillo]

Final post. Good luck to everyone. Amazing work.


Vince

[vjaramillo]

OOps...looks like I missed the deadline. Hope I can get some feedback anyways.

Thanks,

Vince

[punytjoshi]

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o168/modelerpunit/FInalPost.jpg
(ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
punytjoshi - Wonderfully stylized image! I like the ocean, but it's a
bit hard to tell the ocean from the mountains, they both look like
similar hard blue things. The lights illuminating the tower itself could
use some shadows or occlusion, just to make it a little more solid
looking. At the top of the lighthouse, the ladder looks completely
white, but parts of the lamp reflector look black. If there's a lot of
light bouncing around up there, I'd expect some illumination hitting all
the black parts, but maybe a little less pure white.)

Here is my Improvised work will be looking forward for comments and critics

[BinaryRay]

I am using max 2009 with mental ray.
I changed a little the angle of the camera again, also changed most of the shaders.
I changed the options in the volumetric light effect and added depth of field and glare.
I tried to put also mist lume but it was impossible to render even in low resolution.
This is my final result...

http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/9105/lighthouseyn0.jpg

[punytjoshi]

There has been really nice works on this challange.
really eager to see the galary so, when is it coming up?????????????

[jeremybirn]

Great work, everyone!

The gallery is now on-line, so you can browse some of the amazing entries posted in this thread:

http://www.3drender.com/challenges/lighthouse/index.html


This thread is being closed to new posts, but Juan's fine models are still available for download for anyone else wants to try lighting the scene.

-jeremy