I was just wondering what people think of this lighting and exposure. Should I add some photography lights to the scene, or go completely source driven as now. This render is straight out of Cinema 4D.
Architectural / Lighting: Christmas scene
artemesia66
#3
great scene, MJV ( i assume this is for Christmas in Indiania (?)). the tree looks fantastic–the lights are just the right brightness and i love that multicoloured glow they cast on the wall. also details like the frost on the glass. how are the needles on the tree done?
re: the lighting (which is after all what you asked about). IMHO, the contrast between the room lights and the shadows is too strong. the lights are too bright–i don’t think you’d ever get a room light that was so bright that the glare blew out the fixture the way it does on the one on the left. the lampshades look like they should be more translucent than the shadows that they are casting would indicate–ie the line is too sharp, and not enough light appears to be passing through the shade. if more light penetrated the shade, maybe you wouldn’t need fill lights.
two other small things:
it’s unusual to see the hinge plates on a door when the door is closed–generally they fold into the gap between the door and the frame.
i think the floor needs a spec map or bump map to delineate floor boards, so that you don’t have a uniform shiny sheet.
just my 2c and i know you have some photo ref for this project, so i might be talking through my hat.
polyester
#4
I’d be really curious to see what a close-up of the tree would look like…especially on the lights. I’ve been working on a scene myself (in Max) with Christmas lights in it and have had a heck of a time getting the lens effects to look right both far away and close up.
Good Work!
- Poly
MJV
#5
Originally posted by artemesia66
great scene, MJV ( i assume this is for Christmas in Indiania (?)). the tree looks fantastic–the lights are just the right brightness and i love that multicoloured glow they cast on the wall. also details like the frost on the glass. how are the needles on the tree done?
Thanks. The needles are geometry. Each needle is thee polys. It came from Treepro.
Originally posted by artemesia66
re: the lighting (which is after all what you asked about). IMHO, the contrast between the room lights and the shadows is too strong. the lights are too bright–i don’t think you’d ever get a room light that was so bright that the glare blew out the fixture the way it does on the one on the left. the lampshades look like they should be more translucent than the shadows that they are casting would indicate–ie the line is too sharp, and not enough light appears to be passing through the shade. if more light penetrated the shade, maybe you wouldn’t need fill lights.
Re the contrast, I think the lampshade on the left should be radiating more light. I just discovered an error I made on the lamp which might account for some of it. However, try really taking a picture of such a lamp, such a room without using a flash or extra lights. When people talk photorealism, they are usually talking about flash or studio photography or film photography, neither of which use natural lighting. If you look at a lamp in a film, you’ll see that it actually is not illuminating the scene at all, it’s just a prop with a dim lamp inside to suggest illumination. So it’s a pretty tricky issue to use natural illumination and have it look like Hollywood or House & Garden lighting. If I was shooting this room for real with a TV camera, I’d have to add lights to solve the contrast issue. Thus I’m wondering how far I should go trying to avoid doing just that same thing in the virtual world.
Originally posted by artemesia66
[B]two other small things:
it’s unusual to see the hinge plates on a door when the door is closed–generally they fold into the gap between the door and the frame.i think the floor needs a spec map or bump map to delineate floor boards, so that you don’t have a uniform shiny sheet.
just my 2c and i know you have some photo ref for this project, so i might be talking through my hat. [/B]
The door hinges are modeled from photo reference. Unusual yes, but that’s the way they are in real life. The floor has a bump map for the boards, but it doesn’t show so much unless close up. You can see it in the reflection. It’s difficult to get just the right look. Adding a specular map might help. Thanks for the suggestion.
MJV
#6
Thanks Poly. I’ll try to post a closeup of the tree a little later. There is two year old render closeup of the same tree in my Renderosity gallery, don’t know if you can view it without registering, but here is the link:
http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=116968&Start=19&Artist=mv&ByArtist=Yes
You might want to try using an expression of some sort to change the glow of the lights dependent upon camera position if all else fails.
Originally posted by polyester
[B]I’d be really curious to see what a close-up of the tree would look like…especially on the lights. I’ve been working on a scene myself (in Max) with Christmas lights in it and have had a heck of a time getting the lens effects to look right both far away and close up.Good Work!
- Poly [/B]
AdamT
#7
Hi MV. It is an interesting question–whether to aim for the way it does look or the way it would look in film. I think I prefer it the way you have it, although I might try it make it just a hair less extreme, either by adding very subtle fill light(s) or something like 1% ambient lighting.
Magnemar
#8
I’d say that a little more dressing is required for the room itself - it looks like a Christmas tree in a normal room at any time of the year. Perhaps some Christmas cards strung up on the wall, some holly round the lampshade or on the wall spaces.
How about a little plate with mincepies and a glass of sherry for Santa? 
oracrest
#9
I think that this is looking pretty tight. I think that the lighting is looking good, but I would really like to see some other types of christmas ornamentation. I don’t know how much more your willing to work on it, but I think if you added some white christmas lights on the other side of the door, that could look good. maybe those icicle string lights hanging from that outside awning, or some lights strung around a tree outside. It just seems if you added some more christmas ornamentation, it would really bring everytihng together nicely. If not outside, maybe some lights wrapped around the stair banisters? I think it would also look good to throw some more presents down there, and give them some more variation of wrapping paper.
<edit> my bad, i mistook the chandlier for stairs.
kvernon
#10
This is just beautiful!
My only thing is it’s still clean. There aren’t any pictures or deformities on the wall and the pine needles (whether plastic or real) are too clean as well.
Unwanted_Pain
#11
the camera strikes me as very odd,
my eye wants to move it down,
maybe to eye level
marcia
#12
The white in the upper left is stairs? I think you have too many spindles; one per step is standard, and would make it easier to distinguish what it is.
You might also consider changing the lighting ratio, so that the lamps contribute less and the tree lights contribute more… would give it a cheerier, more seasonal mood.
Akildee
#13
It’s looking very nice. You obviously put in a lot of work. Just a few of crits.
I agree with brightening the christmas lights. The tree looks a little dark and unfestive right now.
Maybe you could make the folds in wrapping paper more obvious. And some of the papers shoulc be shinier. Wraping paper often has a shiny cast.
The floor is way to clean and bad cg looking. Even though the floor is cool looking, it needs some scratches and sublte dust. Every wood floor has that.
Akil
MJV
#14
Originally posted by AdamT
Hi MV. It is an interesting question–whether to aim for the way it does look or the way it would look in film. I think I prefer it the way you have it, although I might try it make it just a hair less extreme, either by adding very subtle fill light(s) or something like 1% ambient lighting.
Thanks Adam. I may do that. Of course I assume you are viewing the image on a PC, but the gamma is set more for Mac, so it will appear darker on a PC.
MJV
#15
Originally posted by Magnemar
[B]I’d say that a little more dressing is required for the room itself - it looks like a Christmas tree in a normal room at any time of the year. Perhaps some Christmas cards strung up on the wall, some holly round the lampshade or on the wall spaces.How about a little plate with mincepies and a glass of sherry for Santa?
[/B]
Thanks for looking. Some things still need to be added, though probably not as much in terms of Christmas decorations as you might like, because I’m told that aside from the tree, not that much decoration was done, and my goal here is historical accuracy depicting a 1930 scene.
MJV
#16
Originally posted by kvernon
[B]This is just beautiful!My only thing is it’s still clean. There aren’t any pictures or deformities on the wall and the pine needles (whether plastic or real) are too clean as well. [/B]
Thanks. I’ll try to make it dirtier.
MJV
#17
Originally posted by Unwanted_Pain
[B]the camera strikes me as very odd,
my eye wants to move it down,maybe to eye level [/B]
I know, it’s kind of a looking from heaven angle. Actually the goal here was mostly to see the interaction of the lights with the window and floor reflections, since that is what I was working on at the time.
MJV
#18
Originally posted by marcia
[B]The white in the upper left is stairs? I think you have too many spindles; one per step is standard, and would make it easier to distinguish what it is.You might also consider changing the lighting ratio, so that the lamps contribute less and the tree lights contribute more… would give it a cheerier, more seasonal mood. [/B]
It’s a chandelier. Should be clearer in other views, some of which can be viewed here: http://www.mvpny.com/Christmas3D.html
MJV
#19
Originally posted by Akildee
[B]It’s looking very nice. You obviously put in a lot of work. Just a few of crits.I agree with brightening the christmas lights. The tree looks a little dark and unfestive right now.
Maybe you could make the folds in wrapping paper more obvious. And some of the papers shoulc be shinier. Wraping paper often has a shiny cast.
The floor is way to clean and bad cg looking. Even though the floor is cool looking, it needs some scratches and sublte dust. Every wood floor has that.
Akil [/B]
Thanks. I will see about brightening the Christmas lights. More pronounced wrapping paper folds, good suggestion. Shiny paper isn’t going to happen, because they didn’t have shiny paper in 1930, so I’m told. It’s more like tissue, and only colors where red and white. I guess the floor needs more work.