Ok so Finally I’ve found a bit of time to make my entry. I was not satisfied with the first one since I finally preferred to make something more “Alice in Wonderland” why should a carousel be sad 
So here my first. / lights, HDR (so a bit of GI) post for glow and color correction.
Every comments is really wellcome I would like to improve this one !
Lighting Challenge #22: The Carnival (WIP)
jojo1975
#381
herbertagudera
#382
Telefonie - nice work on the carousel! you might want to work on the mirrors on the carousel. its kindov distracting. also add more skylight or fill light to lighten the dark shadows on the roof and the bench. goodluck!
Creativemickey - nice update… turning on shadow would really help you scene… also may try to lower the intensity of the light coming from the right side of the image. maybe turning on decay rate would help. 
tanmoycgartist - really nice work on the textures! your image really makes me feel sad and creeps me out at the same time. the horizon could use a little help like adding silhouettes of mountains or buildings.
xeltestic - nice update! integrating the roller coaster feels like its a scene from blade runner. i like the atmosphere too! great job! i look forward to your final rendering.
jojo1975 - great job! its nice to see something differrent. i like the colors and the lighting. maybe occlusion would help shape some parts of the image. good job!
tanmoycgartist
#383
thanks for your comments and feedbacks.
@ herbertagudera: even i think that the horizon is not enough appealing… i posted this to get opinions from u ppl… i initially thought of adding something and will think of it
Telefonie
#384
thanks for the feedback will change the mirror and brighten some of the objects a bit more…got an assignment at the moment so it will take a while till i post the next picture.
thanks again
ChaoticSilly
#386
Finally managed to get time for an update. I think I have the issues with the balloons and the top of the carousel (mostly) fixed. The yellow balloon on the bottom still looks a little grungy, but then again just about everything is layered with a dirt texture. I used scattering media inside the balloons to help with the diffuse so I had to take the soft shadows off of them to speed up the render a bit (2.5 hrs vs a little over a day and a half).
kanooshka
#387
Just a reminder to everyone that there’s only about a month left in this challenge, remember it ends April 30th, 2010. Don’t forget to put your final images into the Final Entry thread so you can be entered into the judging.
ChaoticSilly: I really like the atmosphere you’ve created in this one. I’d like to see a little more transition from the fog into the sky especially on the right side of the image. There’s a very sudden change from fog to sky. I’d like to see a little bit of a cool blue light being cast from the sky and illuminating areas like the shadow of the bench and the trashcan. Especially since the inside of the carousel is not entirely dark.
jojo1975: Good job! The materials seem to have a very waxlike feel to them. Mostly because of how bright it is mixed with the low contrast. This also flattens the image a lot because of the even lighting. The Ferris wheel in the background is brighter than the clouds in the sky. Try to balance that a little better. keep it up!
xeltestic: Nice update. I’m finding the rid lights on the Carousel a little distracting, my attention is immediately drawn there. It may help to balance the image out to add some red light elsewhere unless you want that area the center of attention. It looks like it may be raining in the image, if that’s true I’d expect there to be a lot more reflections, especially on the ground and perhaps even some puddles.
tanmoycgartist: Welcome! Nice image so far. Cloudy skies tend to be not quite as interesting in terms of lighting. But it can definitely work if you want it to. Try adding a main light source to the image whether it’s the sun breaking through the clouds or a an artificial light to give the scene some more shaping.
herbertagudera: Nice update! With having the DOF in the foreground I’d also expect some in the background at some degree. If it were a deep focus image it would make sense for everything to be in focus but since the foreground is out of focus the camera would have to be using a fairly low F-Stop. It still seems to be difficult to tell depth in the image, I think the DOF in the background will help, but on top of that I’d like to see some separation of areas with light color. Just as an example what if the bench light was a warm color, the Ferris Wheel lights were a cool color and the carousel lighting was somewhere in the middle. Finally, the contrast could be adjusted a little bit. The darkest value in the image is about 16/255. You may want to make sure your monitor’s gamma is correct.
Creativemickey: Try to concentrate on one light to start with. Decide on a main light direction you want and work from there. Also make sure to compare different objects materials to each other. If you look at the trash can and compare it to the balloons the highlights are much brighter.
Telefonie: Nice update! Scale seems to be a little bit of an issue, it makes the image a little confusing and hard to read, the carousel isn’t much taller than the bench. Try scaling the objects in the background to be a little bigger and/or increase the field of view. The reflection in the balloons in the foreground seem to be a little deceiving. The reflection of the ground is brighter than the reflection of the sky. Try to reverse that. You may need to create a second sky object that’s just for reflections and increase its exposure.
Keep up the good work everyone!
halfPintMike
#388
Hey there, here’s my next update. Not really happy with it when I was doing the final composite(Which is quite different) so I improvised. What do you people say? Really in a rut for ideas now. Do critique this picture.
Here’s the image,
The image now goes something like this: The carousel horses spinning through time, leaving behind the past. Childhood perhaps.
Thanking you,
Timothy
Pendragonz
#389
Hi! It’s my first try at this. Wondering what everyone thinks. All critiques welcome!
neonbulbs
#390
Hi guys, great looking renderings all around. Sigh…I wish I had the time to participate. I guess just be a viewer instead
@bimalbose : great job with the lighting and i like the atmosphere but I guess you need to put a better background like a faint skies just to exaggerate it more.
@ChaoticSilly : nice lighting. I love the theme that you made. But maybe it’s just me, if you can render without the balloons that could make the theme much suitable. Because it’s old and weary.
@tanmoycgartist : great start. maybe you can add up more highlights variation to the shaders to make the looks more convincing and not too matte.
cheers…and happy lighting
pmcb
#391
Hello, everyone, I’m still seeing good works here. Sorry, I don’t usually make any comments unless you ask me something directly because I take a long time to write in english even without technical words.
I tried to do 2 themes in this image - Bright Night and Tale of Horror.
I think this is my last rendering, unless there is very bad comment
Kanooskha, Xeltesic and Nan1203 thank you for your comments and help.
(I have some ideas for - Child’s Fantasy - but I don’t know yet if I will or not do anything)
Thank you
Paulo Bravo
xeltestic
#392
xeltestic: Nice update. I’m finding the rid lights on the Carousel a little distracting, my attention is immediately drawn there. It may help to balance the image out to add some red light elsewhere unless you want that area the center of attention. It looks like it may be raining in the image, if that’s true I’d expect there to be a lot more reflections, especially on the ground and perhaps even some puddles.
thx kanooshka for the input. im totally on the same level with what u said. It is totally off balance at the moment and im aware of that. The carousel will be tuned down at least to 30% grey if not more. And I will introduce more light on the left side of the image. Nevermind about the colours at this point. Im going B/W until I get the levels nailed down. For the puddles - yeah - they were there in earlier versions but im leaving them out for now to save on rendering times and bring them back in later.
pmcb: nice work! I don’t feel like going to Paradise Carnival. Looks spooky and unwelcoming - just like you wanted it to be
eduroam
#393
Hello everyone. Terrefic jobs I see in this challenge. This is my first post in this challenge #22, i still have to work in the wheel.
Software: Maya 2009
Render: Mental Ray, just Direct Lighting
Correction: Photoshop.
Any comments, are welcome. This image is in Low quality settings.
Thx
Eduardo
kanooshka
#395
eduroam: Nice test. I’m glad you were able to find the time to try out this challenge. I like the touch with the motion blur on the Ferris Wheel. However, I would expect more than just the ferris wheel to have motion blur on it especially since it’s a little distracting. The highlights on the balloon seem to be a little too bright. They’re brighter than the light sources themselves. The path is very dark and though the reflections break it up a little I think there could be some more diffuse shading.
pmcb: Nice image! I know you’re considering this finished but I figured I’d give a little feedback just for your reference. I still like how the foreground looks, but the balloons material could use a little bit more work. The specular reflection is brighter than the light sources themselves and also the highlight looks like it is too big for the size and distance of the light sources. Overall, good work!
Pendragonz: Welcome! Overall the image is very evenly lit, try to get some dark values in the image and some highlights.
halfPintMike: Interesting take so far. I’m not sure if I’m feeling the black and white background. Maybe if it wasn’t completely black and white and had a little color in it. Or gradually went from colorized to black and white. The bright pole right in the center of the image is a little distracting. I’m not sure how you could solve this. Possibly more of a gradient down the pole and darkening it a little bit.
.
kanooshka
#396
eduroam: Nice test. I’m glad you were able to find the time to try out this challenge. I like the touch with the motion blur on the Ferris Wheel. However, I would expect more than just the ferris wheel to have motion blur on it especially since it’s a little distracting. The highlights on the balloon seem to be a little too bright. They’re brighter than the light sources themselves. The path is very dark and though the reflections break it up a little I think there could be some more diffuse shading.
pmcb: Nice image! I know you’re considering this finished but I figured I’d give a little feedback just for your reference. I still like how the foreground looks, but the balloons material could use a little bit more work. The specular reflection is brighter than the light sources themselves and also the highlight looks like it is too big for the size and distance of the light sources. Overall, good work!
Pendragonz: Welcome! Overall the image is very evenly lit, try to get some dark values in the image and some highlights.
halfPintMike: Interesting take so far. I’m not sure if I’m feeling the black and white background. Maybe if it wasn’t completely black and white and had a little color in it. Or gradually went from colorized to black and white. The bright pole right in the center of the image is a little distracting. I’m not sure how you could solve this. Possibly more of a gradient down the pole and darkening it a little bit.
halfPintMike
#397
Thank you for the critique, kanooshka. I did think of having the background going from colorized to black and white but don’t really know how to. Will do some tests regarding that. And about the bright pole I’ll do something. Maybe make it rusty.
T.
Voigg
#398
Here is what I think is my final, just wanted to see if there where any areas I should change, thanks.
djprasun
#399
@halfPintMike- You can easily get gradual colourizee to black using zdepth pass. Load the zdepth pass in photoshop alpha channel. Then using load selection option select the image using the zdepth alpha channel. With the Image selected you can then desaturate or hue and saturation an decrease the saturation. You will see gradual loss of colour. If you want I will give you more detailed help.
technicolorgirl
#400
Hey guys! This is my first try at this. Please let me know your critiques. I’m still a beginner.
