Lighting Challenge #17: Natural History

#261

@pedrojafet: hey very nice renderings…which renderer you use ?
maybe it would be better to rotate the t-rex or change the camera position slightly cause
the windows that are behind look somewhat strange…only a idea
keep on going

#262

Thx Fex.
I did it with Maxwell Render, over Lightwave.
I have the Vue software too, and I will do some tests with this scene there.
I like the Vue Rendering, but it’s too heavy (slow). But w/ quality…
So, sometimes I like to do the same snapshot with FPrime, LW, Maxwell, Fry, Kray
and play as composition with them.
Thx your words.
BR.

#263

Some progress, I’m obviously going to model actual light-fixtures
for the spots later on. The textures need some more lovin, and I haven´t touched
the floor and it’s props yet, the same goes for the ceiling.

When I feel happy with materials I’m going to explore more interesting cam-views.

pedrojafet: Nice, what about rendertimes in maxwell?

#264

Thought I’d give the scene a try after seeing Rockmed’s post at Luxology’s site. Tough. Big scene.

Rendered with Modo. Used environment, to area lights on either side for the walls, spots up to highlight the ceiling structure and panels. Working on lighting the side galleries.

Just started using a different gamma workflow in Modo and it seems to work pretty well. Still have a lot tweaks though.


#265

Hi everyone,

This is my latest update with some textures and a little bit of tweaking here and there. feel free to give comments please. Thanks

#266

zero08,
Very nice entry! Loved, congrats!
What’s your rendering engine?
BR

#267

Hi pedrojafet,

Thanks I’m using mental ray in maya then i combined the layers in Digital fusion. I have a rough fog , light rays and beauty pass.

#268

zero08 - That’s terrific! Wonderful image! I love it! The dino on the right reads fairly well, I wish he were punched-up just a little so he popped out of the scene more. Maybe more blue light reflecting off the top, more yellow light on his tail from the right, and just a little more contrast overall? The dino on the left doesn’t really stand out much, his nose is hidden behind a case and he doesn’t have much light on him. A little more contrast and maybe moving the display case or something might help. I like the glass reflection on the left-side sign. You could probably do more with defining some of the other glass in the scene, reflections or rims of light along the edge could both help. Some reflectivity on the floor also could bring interest to the scene. I like the stained glass along the back, maybe those white squares in the bottoms of the windows could be replaced with more colored glass. (I also wonder if any more colored light could be illuminating the scene near it? Just a thought.)

visua - Looks good! The ceiling is so much brighter than the walls that it almost doesn’t look like the same scene, maybe get more sky light coming down lower, and try to get more contrast there. Inside a little more bounce light could help inside the arches. Through those doors at the end it would be nice to see ground outside instead of sky, since we’re looking downwards. The dinos could use some dark tones so they get some nice contrast.

pedrojafet - Nice idea to study different times! The key to making a scene look “dark” is not to over-expose the whole thing, but to be selective about where the light is placed. Use dark shadows and a lot of contrast, selective highlights and reflections and rim light to bring out detail where you need it.

BlenderFan - I’d probably use a lot of projections, and maybe some 3D procedural textures.

wasimattar - Those are great! The different signs and display cases and glass around the displays seems inconsistent, some of those rectangles are going too bright others too dark. The night scene is starting to feel really nice, see if you can get some light onto the ceiling or get something from the skylight.

LAV - Nice work. The thing I like most about the first one is that you have some contrast making the dino on the right stand-out clearly. If the camera panned to the right to show more of him, and there were a rim of light on top of the other dino, they could both really pop. In the 2nd one, or any image where there’s a wall framing a part of the foreground near the camera, you can darken down that wall on the left and the scene will look better.

davidsharp - Nice work! It looks like you’re starting to develop something really well thought out with all the extra lighting and banners. You’ll really need to focus on the glass rendering at some point, and need to find a way to make the left dino stand out in the shot. The right dino reads well with the sun on him.

georgedrakakis - Nice work. Focus on fill lighting, to extend the illumination around the dinosaurs where light would bounce on them. You could use a little work on the glass too.

Guy-zmo - Welcome! Nice scene! I like the color contrast, but it would be great if the blue were a little less saturated, and more of that yellow light illuminated the set, just to help tie things together. The two dinos could both use yellow rim lights motivated by the lamps in the background.

-jeremy

#269

Shantanu -

Those tests are good starts. I think they could both use more contrast, so that the range from light to dark makes use of the full range all the way from black to white where needed.

I see you are posting from Mumbai. To you and other members from India, I just wanted to mention that all of our thoughts and best wishes are with you. Mumbai a place that I’d love to visit myself at some point, and I hope you and your familiy and co-workers are all well.

-jeremy

#270

kanooshka - That’s looking good! Really solid feeling overall and nice lighting. I think some really subtle, soft lighting could help bring out the dino’s heads and the mouth and teeth of the t-rex. You could use some light or reflections on the glass from the light fixtures in places, and a little light on the bottom of the left sign. I wonder if the back windows could use some reflections or highlights or something visible outside, just something other than pure black?

COBRASoft - Nice solid feeling overall in the room. The black dinos aren’t really working, get some light on them. I think the ceiling area might have a bit too much fill light so it lacks contrast, but lower down in the scene some more fill and bounce could make the lower arches more natural. The reflections on the floor near the doorway don’t seem to match what they are reflecting. I like the fact that you can see into one of the display cases, maybe a little more light on the skulls would help there.

BlenderFan - Interesting “3D movie without the glasses” look on the 2nd one. :slight_smile: I still think what I posted in post #236.

e-maje - If you’re going to use occlusion, you should really render a fill light layer with overall soft illumination, multiply that fill layer by the occlusion, and then add the other lights on top of that. The other lights can have their own shadows, but don’t need the occlusion. Try to do more to tie your whole scene together, carry the cool light down from the windows, the warm light up from the spots. Where you actually see a light source, such as on the back wall, you might work on the direct appearance of the light, get a white-hot spot that isn’t so saturated, and add a glow around it.

Leotril - Looks good! Nice classical lighting, nice treatment on the lamps. You need some softer light coming from the windows, I think, and some more soft illumination from the lamps. I don’t really feel the purple light from the sky entering the scene yet. With all that red light on the right, you could do more with rims and fill from it extending into other parts of the scene.

gEarMon - Welcome! Good start with the t-rex and a terrific bone texture on him. I’d like to see some light on the other dino.

EricFerreira - Nice job! I think the sunbeam on the back wall gives that area the highest contrast in the scene. Putting the most contrast onto the far wall tends to draw it closer and flatten the scene, so I’d try for less contrast there and use the sunbeam to highlight something else. The dino on the left could use some light on him.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

-jeremy

#271

Very kind and useful your suggestions, jeremybirn. Really appreciated.
You are doing a good work :slight_smile:

Edit: Hope I’ve understood your ideas…

zero08: great image, congrats! :bowdown:

#272

thank you Jeremy for your kind words!
fill lighting is my next step, and i;ll have to decide if i add actual fill lights, or try to visualize it with sketch lines.
this is an early example of “illumination sensitive” sketch lines on the triceratops. dark red-orange lines in subtract mode,and yellowish line in add mode.
rendered with Sketch&Toon module of Cinema4d

edit: this is an update with fill lights.
fill lights only (perhaps it’s too bright)

final result

regards,
george

#273

Thanks Jeremy, I will try something like your sugestion.
By now, I’m working in a daylight version. As soon I finish the settings, I’ll post it.
BR

#274

thanks for your comment Jeremy this is my other take on the night scene hope this one looks right

#275

Some updates. As suggested by jeremy I added more highlights and rim to my dino and light up the roof abit more.Also added volume fog. C&C are welcome:)

#276

Hi all, there is my last lightning setup before I start the texture step.
Comments, pls.

#277

I’m just curious as to how some of you are texturing the dinosaurs, are you actually UV mapping each bone and then painting them in photoshop? Or simply adding a shader with some sort of image file for the color and maybe a bump texture? I’m still pretty new to all of this and just looking for some insight. I’m obviously not going to be participating in the actual challenge because there is no way I’ll be able to come close to a completed scene by the deadline.

I also noticed in some posts saying that the normals need to be reversed, how do you know when normals need to be reversed, is there any easy way to tell which objects have normals issues?

BTW, I’m using Maya 2008 Unlimited.

Thanks for any help.

#278

[left]Hi Jeremy, thank you for your commentary, I am sending over a further update is not the final image.

thanks[/left]

#279

hi pedrojafet,
the foreground is perfect inho, i like the contrast and you have a fairly good idea of the depth (volume) of the archery. the main space (background) looks a bit flat to me. since the light source is not defined, i would expect a less dominant ambient light (perhaps blue tinted on the top of the walls, yellow tinted on the base of the walls & the floor) or maybe add a vertical gradient to the walls to add more depth.
well, don’t take myself too seriously, i;ve got a lot to learn :slight_smile:

#280

Well, I have discovered this contest way late, but it sounds fun. So, I’ve decided to play with it a bit, even if I’m probably not really competetive. I downloaded the geometry last night, and I have started to sort through it and figure out what all is there. Unfortunately, my computer won’t even think about dealing with all this geometry at once. So, I have been in the process of chopping it up, and making segmented low poly objects that I can deal with interactively. Thankfully, having high res objects for render, whilst using the high res geometry for renders is pretty easy in Lightwave.

Having set up my proxy geometry for the T-Rex, I decided it would be more fun to make a picture than continuing to deal with Geometry. So, here’s my first picture. Lightwave renderer, about a 2 minute render on my Athlon64X2, using monte carlo radiosity. [Also, I like garish colors in lighting. (: ]