Thanks. I already noted above that the specular and extra light on the screen come from environment lighting/mapping not visible directly. I’ve removed it for a render I’m currently running.
The plate is a simple image map with my standard ‘ceramic’ type material finish.
Yours is looking good so far. Perhaps the lighting should be more yellow or orange. Right now it seems too white for the candles.
kitsune_e - Nice render. I think it could be cropped in closer without losing anything, and it would be good to try to get softer shadows.
BarberofCivil - Still looking good. The translucency on screen is fine, the bright line between them is still distracting, and that shadow of the candle on the screen is strange, it almost looks like a giant candle is approaching from the outside of the screen, casting a shadow of its wick but no flame.
ChrRambow (Day Scene) - Still looking good! The shadows on the table seem strange, the large candle holds seem to cast just a ring of a shadow, and some of the smaller candle holders don’t look fully in contact with the ground, it’s as if they could be floating above the table for all the occlusion I can see. I like how you’re making distinctive shapes for the candle flames and giving some direction to the wind with the flames and smoke.
MasterZap - Still terrific! You might do a camera polish and tilt up a bit. Usually when a table is polished that much, the reflections bounce off the smooth outer layer and wouldn’t get broken up that much by a wood grain bump map - or at the bump map could be softened more and combined with a bit more plain old glossiness? I agree the rose petals don’t look as satiny as they could, but I’m sure you can compare to a real rose on your own.
ChrRambow (Night Scene) - Hmmmm… hmmm. Still a nice scene, but I think the previous version I quoted above had some good things about it. I really loved how the vase and the smoke were working in the previous version, if you could get that back it would be great. All these new colors, the bright blue frosty glow on the shiny surfaces, the green around the wicks of the candles, the yellow red purples in the table, add up to being distracting and not as targetted to a single look as before.
-jeremy
Hi my second try at light challenge.
Was a little late whit bottels if someone want to see look at my portfolio.
This is almost finished,like to heard some comments.
Done in max-vray-ps:)
Nice entries so far.
Here’s my try.
Rendered with fprime, no radiosity. I had to try and fake the sss, since i’m not using lw9 yet.
btw, it’s not me in the picture, i just grabbed something from google.
Here’s my latest attempt, generally happy apart from the flames which would need a lot more work for me to be happy with.
Like Otacon’s candles very much…sss not always needed it seems!
A new render without the environment map now and the waxiness has been put back in the candles. I maystill need to play with my candle textures some more.
Jeremy, I know what you mean about the candle shadow. I need to make the area lights for the flames a little bit biggerand see if I can’t add some sort of shadow to the flame
I found this photo howeverof a candle shadow and the flame doesn’t actually have a shadow, perhaps a little light fading and distortion, especially through the heated air above and around the flame.
http://set.lanl.gov/programs/DX2/explorations/Photos/CandleFlameShadow1.JPG
Thanks for the comments, I think I have some ideas how to tweak it a bit further now.
Snippsat: Looking good so far, one comment on the candles though - In my experiance candles only create visable smoke when they aren’t burning cleanly, and then they make oily black smoke (partially burned carbon?). The picture frame looks a bit flat now too, maybe it needs some kind of imperfections added to make it look less rendered?
Otacon: The candles look really good for fake SSS! Just wanted to point out the smallest candle is floating a little.
[b]BarberofCivil: [/b][size=2]I had a similar problem with a candle shadow on the screen, and mine was even more noticable than yours. I don't know what software you're using or what it can/can't do, but my solution was to just turn of shadow casting on the offending candle. Actually I later went back and made faux shadow objects for the candles so I could control how they looked. For these I just made a copy of each candle without moving it, altered the geometery slightly, then gave it a shadow-only material. So now light passes through the candles, hits the shadow object, and casts whatever shadow I want - fat, skinny, tall, short, monster shaped, etc ;)[/size]BarberofCivil - Terrific! I love it. If there’s something to work on, it might be making a nicer material for those large candle-holders. Right now they look like a ceramic or plastic with a super-shiney sheen, if you could maybe go for something more metalic or plastic or at least get softer more subtle reflections it could add alot. Also think about how you want the front surface of the table.
glebe digital - I have to admit that I personally don’t see what you’re going for. There are many colors that don’t seem to come from anywhere. I can’t even tell which direction some of the lights are shining, or what kind of look or feeling you are going for with the image. If I were working on the scene personally I’d be trying to simplify the lighting a great deal, but that’s just me. {I’ve just edited these comments since posting them, I’m not really sure what to say and what would be helpful…}
otacon - Looking good! In such a brightly lit scene, it seems as if the translucency effect (bright tops to the candles) would be much dimmer, maybe try cutting it in half or to 25%.
snippsat - Terrific image! Using the screen as if it were a window makes it look very similar to that bottle collection challenge. I don’t think that putting the squashed version of the bottle scene as the framed picture helps this project, it is funny though. You’ve got a nice crisp winter look to your lighting and colors that works well with the background.
-jeremy
Thanks for your perspective jeremy, yes looking at this again [with fresh eyes] I can see what you mean, the palate has become confused somewhat. :-/
Thanks for the comments. This is my new render, I added and removed some shadows, made some material changes…,
I did this one for a little levity. It is such a strong scene, I thought the style contrast would be fun. This is my first posting in a challenge. I saw this one and had to part-take.
I kept this pic a little dark as I love the feel of candle light. There are a few touch ups I plan to take care of besides replacing Mickey: an odd light effect on the burning incense, adding some caustics, and replacing the default textures of the frame and the plate.
I am an amateur trying to break in to the CG industry, so any advice you can give would really be appreciated.
Also, I hope its not breaking the rules, but I couldnt feel the candle flames when they were physical objects, so I created them in fluid effects…and also added smoke is in post (Photoshop).
Long live Mickey!
-Michael
Hi tnx for reply jeremy and kitsune_e.
Have make some changes based on your reply.
Nice work ChrRambow,Seggy,MasterZap,glebe digital,BarberofCivil,otacon
Think i am close to finish,if there something you dont like tell me.
All in all looks pretty good. IfI was to change one thing, I’d remove the flame from the incense. Either just leave it smokingor add a glowing ember instead.
Thanks for the crits, Jeremy. Heres an updated version with less candle brightness.
mswertfager, thats really nice. I love the candle flames.
Thanks Otacon. I look forward to letting the fluid effects roll and animate the lighting for a vid clip of the scene.
By the way, the color balance of your shot is very well laid out. The soft blue background really provides a lofty soothing feeling, while the foreground is tangible. Nice art!
-mswertfager
fulg0re - Looking good. The large candle holders don’t seem to be shadowing the table. If you can get everything casting very soft shadows it’ll look better.
mswertfager - Great! The fluid effect candle flames look terrific, with very subtle colors at the base and edge. The way you’ve got the background screen lit looks very natural. You could stop now, but I figure everyone who posts wants feedback so I’ll give some very minor opinions. The vase looks good, although as a tiny tweak perhaps the window reflection could be a little bit softer and less intense, and perhaps the candle reflections a little more intense. The composition is effective, although if you were rendering this particular scene again, you might consider widening the shot just a little, to allow a tiny bit more room at the top and not crop in the middle of the left candle.
snippsat - That’s great! I agree the flame on the incense could go away, or at least fix it so it doesn’t have an opaque black edge. The candle on the far right looks really spot-on. Maybe the candles in the background go too white near the tips?
otacon - You’ve got a nice render there. If there’s an overall thing to work on it’s a sense of flatness to the image in places where there might be more variation in tone. The glow near the tops of the candles looks very consistent in the top two inches, instead of really looking focused near the top and fading out with a nice gamma. The vase seems to be lit differently in the diffuse shading (fading to black on the right) than the reflections (reflecting a window to the right) and the window reflections seem like very uniform rectangles. The reflection of one of the candles in the left side of the picture frame looks very consistent in tone, with the flame in the reflection not looking any brighter than the wax (maybe that’s a very focused shadow not a reflection?)
-jeremy
Tnx for the tips jeremy.
Think this is the last version.
Hope for many more great entrys:)
Nice flames mswertfager,the shape is little wrong.
Like the smoke,what plug or metod did you use to create smoke look great.
Oacon really nice mod overall.
The flame has the same color break it upp a little in bottom.
Otherwise great.
Added some better smoke, reflections on the candles and a little better DOF with a slightly new POV.
