FEEDBACK: Post here your take on the old challenges!

#921

Here’s my first attempt at one of these lighting challenges. Suggestions on how to improve are welcome!

#922

ndr87:

It’s looking good. maybe some dirt on the table to breakup the shiny surface. some dirt on the glass of the picture frame…and the reds in your candles are overly saturated. But I really love your smoke! care to share how you did this?

#923

Frayo:

Yes you are quite right, the candles are too saturated. I’ll change that soon. As for the smoke, I’m afraid that was just a finishing touch in photoshop… I hope that’s allowed in these challenges. That was the only part of the scene that wasn’t rendered. I’m not quite sure what you mean about dirt on the table or glass though, i realize nothing is perfect which is why my objects all have very slight bump maps applied so they are not perfectly smooth, but i’m not sure the table would have dirt sitting on it. Maybe i’ve misunderstood, thank you for your suggestions though :slight_smile:

#924

ndr87:

I’m sorry, my mistake, I wasn’t clear enough. I guess the right word would be “imperfections” like scratches, stains, dents…some might even cause glossiness in the reflections. You know…some sort of history of what the table top went through e.g. years of wipping with like semi-abbrasive cloth/wipes. Right now it looks too shiny it’s almost wet. That was what I meant by dirt. :slight_smile:

Smoke plugin/filter or painted?

#925

Now that I look at the table again, it DOES almost look like it’s wet. It’s funny how such obvious things like the super saturated candles and the wet table are only noticeable by someone else. Maybe because I’ve spent too long looking at the image lol. Thanks once again for your suggestions, I’ll work on them and hopefully post a new pic later today. :slight_smile:

Almost forgot, the smoke was an image I found and modified in photoshop.

#926

I fixed the issues that were mentioned, thanks! Any other suggestions for improvement are appreciated.

#927

That’s beautiful ndr87!

I kinda liked that shiny table tho :slight_smile: Maybe somewhere between none and all?
You’ve done an amazing job.

Seems like the most subtle touches are the most important.

I know I’m far from where most of you are here and where I want to be. Hopefully by looking at all of you artists beautiful works I’ll be able to learn how a pro does it. And I think I’ll get a copy of Jeremy’s book.

For now, here is my try at the fruit.

I used Lightwave. The model went a little goofy with polygon patches showing up here and there. I haven’t a clue why and certainly don’t know how to fix it. The textures, minus the plate print were all done in Lightwave.

Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions!

#928

Rhocando, glad you like my pic!

Although I use Maya now, I got started on Lightwave so feel free to let me know if you have any questions, although there are certainly people here who are better able to answer than me :slight_smile:

I especially like the texture on the orange. Unless you’ve done this on purpose though in order to see the fruit textures clearly, it seems your scene needs shadows for starters. The easiest way to do that will be to turn on Ray Trace Shadows in your Render Globals.

The edges of your objects are also jagged, which will be fixed by turning on antialiasing in your camera properties.

And now I must leave so I’m not late for class, good luck to you :slight_smile:

#929

I was trying to be “artsy” lol, which is why I didn’t place shadows but, I guess the goal here is to try to produce as realistic of a render as possible. I’ll work on that. And too, looking at it…the fruit kinda looks like it’s just floating in the air without a base.

Would you know how to fix those polygons showing up in the shadow area of the blanket?

I much appreciate your willingness to share!

I will try the things you’ve suggested.

I am also trying the candle challenge. The textures are coming along but I can’t seem to get the flames working. How do you do that?

One final question… how many lights do you have in your candle scene?

Thanks again Nick!

#930

rhocando - Nice colors on the fruit. Work on your shadows first. I don’t know if those black squares are polygons or if they are part of a shadow map, but a good first step would be to set up a spot light casting shadows and aim the light so that it only covers the fruit.

ndr87 - Lovely scene, that has a great feel to it! A little reflection could go back onto the table, just don’t make it look too watery with the bump mapping, and if the candles appear in reflections make sure the flames are also reflected. The topmost flame looks a little nuclear, with the super-saturated yellow glow around it, try to tone that down a bit.You might put a bit of light on the incense sticks, just so they aren’t so black. The background seems like it has very agressive occlusion, or at least soft shadows that outline both sides of each crossbar, maybe that could be toned down a little or replaced with regular shadows.

rhocando - Your Christmas scene is also a good start. Parts of it don’t look lit yet, especially the blue area in the lower right. I hope you can keep going with one of these and take it further.

ndr87 - Sounds like you’re describing what Maya does when you have a polygonal model with no UVs assigned to it, and you view it in shaded view with texturing turned on. If you want a real-time texture view, you’d need to assign UV’s. The “Automatic Mapping” command ought to be good enough.

yassein - Nice job! I think the candle flames need work - the one on the right is almost missing, and others have dark vertical bands running through the center. Soft shadows would be nice. For a real candle-lit feel, try using less light, making it less consistent so things are only bright near the candles, and try using some warmer light colors.

yassein - Nice start on the challenge 11. The goal in that challenge is to fine a way to demonstrate that Leet is superior to Brand X. Pretend you are making an ad, trying to pursuade people that Brand X isn’t as good as Leet.

a-vector - Looking really good! You could use a little bounce light so contact areas don’t go black, but the fill from the left is already bright enough. By the time you get the grapes all the way on the left, they look overlit, or lit too uniformly. There might be a problem with the fill light shadow, some areas in fill light, like the top of the apple, don’t appear to be getting shadowed. The cloth texture looks great, it is probably getting lit too uniformly and could use less fill or be lit more from the side.

Cuni - Good start on that fruit. The shadows look very dark, as if some fill or bounce is needed. You might frame-up the shot a little tighter around the bowl, too.

-jeremy

#931 
Thanks for your comments, jeremy.

I added more bounce light, framed-up around the bowl, worked on shaders, changed the cloth and the overall mood.
There’s some SSS on the orange and grapes (need more work), I haven’t touched the pear yet.

All shaders procedural except for the cloth. No post work.

Thanks

Lluis

#932

LightHouse (with a beach house? :))
Maya Software+Occlusion(MentalRay 34% opacity), 40%“PhotoFilter” (warmingFilter 85) in Photoshop.

I changed the reflection, fillLight on the fence, did three seaGulls, added some new ground bump&color, Added a “Trygg-Hansa Liv-Bojj” (Thanks Ackee), duplicaded the stairs from the house to the “entrance” of the LightHouse… It´s still bad reflection…
The fluids BTW is straight from the preset, scaled and color changed, resolution is pretty low (140,12,140) and I actually used “Don´t use Real Lights ?!” and typed in the same r-value as the DirectionalLight r-value… The Fog was also made by a fluid. Orange in the bottom and blue color on the top. Tweeked som with the Incadecense and the opacity…

#933

Rhocando: As far as the candles go, I’d suggest starting by using a gradient to change the color of the flame from blue at the bottom through an almost white in the center and orange at the top, just experiment to see what colors look right to you. you can use a gradient as well to fade the flame out so the edges aren’t so sharp. turn up the luminosity and turn up the glow. this should be a good place to start from anyway. I look forward to seeing your candle scene :slight_smile:

#934

diazsoftware: very nice render. Maybe you could make your clouds more “solid”, with more volume.

Lluis

#935

Thanks Jeremy! I will work on the things you’ve mentioned, and yessirrreeeee, I certainly will follow through and finish every project!

Haven’t worked on anything today or much yesterday as I’ve been under the weather but hopefully can start back up tomorrow.

Ndr87…thanks again! I will work on that and see how it goes.
Here’s a very bad render of my candle wip but it will allow you to see what i’m starting with. Haven’t had the chance to work on it much but I’m looking forward to trying your suggestion.

Cuni, your apple looks really great!

#936

I’ve also begun a “realistic” version of the fruit.
It’s definitely a wip but I’m open to suggestions before proceeding!

#937

Hello, this is my first work for lighting challenge and on this site.
I used " 3ds max " and “Vray” for rendering and “finalFlares” for glows and “finalDOF” for depth of field and “photoshop” for modification.
I hope to get critics from all of you.

Thank you Jeremy Birn for lighting challenges.

#938

@jeremy … glad that u like my hallway scene … heres my candles effort so far… i use ae and ps for composition and color corrections

#939

Thanks once again for the crit Jeremy. Blenders internal render is not a true raytracer so it’s a bit difficult to add ‘bounce’ light to eliminate the darkness in the contact sections. The way I achieved that render is by colouring the shadows of the lights (reducing their intensity). That is also why, as you correctly point out, the apple lacks shadow at the top.

Having struggled to push the render further I tried a couple of other render engines. Indigo gave some nice renders at 9+ hours but I struggled to get the subsurface on the grapes looking good as indigo doesn’t accept color maps as part of the subsurf material. Yafray gave some ok results but also took a very long time to render. I finally settled on using modo’s renderer which is fantastic and amazingly fast.

This render took ±20mins using a physical based sun and sky, gi and the only light being the sun. Unfortunately Modo doesn’t have a particle system so the kiwis lost the fur. Interestingly after trying some post pro and tone-mapping I actually preferred the original image so here it is:

Thanks again for your cirts.
a.vector

#940

It starts and everybody.
I am Japanese who is studying CG by self-study.
Because the lighting was the first time, three points were illuminated for the
time being.
Moreover, the texture is not used because it was thought that it concentrated on the lighting, and
it changes only to the setting of the material.