yassein - Good start! I like the reflected caustics in those tests! Keep going! -jeremy
thanks jeremy 
i `ve problem with mia x material
when the ior any number like 1.2 , 1.3 or Even 1.5 to give the real glass look
it s turn material to black
like this example even with haigh refraction and dipth value
am i do something wrong ?
Update to Vue radiosity render. Need more tweaks to all gem matās, but a better image than my first attempts.
Link: http://cid-a7ea9daa7e99a717.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Vue%20scene.jpg
@nrd87: nice and good RobinHoodesque brightness and contrast on the treasure and overall look. Rise the coneangle of the volume light (it looks like some aliens are taking away the crown with their elevetor beam lol)ā¦ . cheers
ndr87 - The fog light with the snow or dust in it is great! Maybe the lighting on the table could consist mostly of that blue light that came through those windows, and be darker in the shadow areas? If you really focused on getting that window light working on the objects, then all youād need would be some warmer fill from whatever is on within the room, and you could get some really rich shading and shadows and nice contrast out of the scene.
yassein - That sounds like a trace depth problem. Make sure you have enough refraction steps and total trace depth in the render settings, and also in the shader. Most of the scene has a very bright ambient tone, I hope you can reduce that and focus the light selectively.
AquaGeneral - Keep going! The lighting looks very flat and uniform now, I hope you can pick a light source and depict the light coming from there.
atilla - Good start. The scene is very light, even in the shadows. Maybe you could tone down the fill light, or use some occlusion or secondary shadowing to keep the whole scene from looking washed-out?
Butsa - Good start. Maybe you could choose a key light location, such as light coming through those windows on the side, and get some nice illumination coming from there onto the subjects, with nice shaping on surfaces like the crown, and shadows where that light is blocked.
realgray - Welcome! Thatās a good start. Much of the scene looks overexposed and white. Maybe you could choose a key light location, such as light coming through some windows, or light from a torch, get some nice illumination coming from there, and then make sure you have nothing but shadows and darkness where that light is blocked.
RazorJack - Welcome! Thatās a good start with materials, shaders. For lighting, you need to choose a key light direction, some kind of a main light source such as light coming through some windows, or light from a torch, get some nice illumination coming from there, and then make sure you have shadows and darker areas where that light is blocked.
BlenderFan - I think you have too many lights, or too much GI, to get good contrast. Why donāt you delete all the lights, and start over with just 1 light and no GI? You could start by back-lighting the scene through the windows, but make sure the light actually hits the objects not just the floor, and check the shadows to make sure you donāt have any light leaks in the corners. You might need to push the camera in closer or zoom in if you want to get a good look at whatās on the table.
-jeremy
I have followed the suggestions and really like the new mood for the scene. Thanks for the help! Any suggestions for further improvement are always appreciated
ndr87 -
Your scene gets better and better!
Something Iām confused about is the shadow on the table. The blue light on the table doesnāt seem to have shadows shaped like the windows, it has some other shapes, as if it were a shadow of a curved arc and some vertical lines?
Another issue that could help tie the scene together better is that the reflections donāt seem to match the light sources. You have a blue light from the left, and a warm light from the right. The reflections, though, donāt seem to show these two light sources, and instead seem to have a bright white rectangle a little to the left of the camera. The more you could get the reflections and highlights to all tell the same story and reinforce each-other, the better.
-jeremy
10x
so this is my next attempt
I cheated a little bit with the lighting ā¦ i have 3 lights at the same place that simulate the sun. One directional light with no shadows to get the nice highlight on the coins and also to get some reflective caustics from the gold, one vraylight for the actual lighting, and another directional light towards the back windows to get volumetric effect.
Still working on it, comments, crits or any suggestion is welcome:
@ndr87: I like how yours is looking, nice work.
rmejia - Good start overall! I think the light is too frontal, if you pushed it to the side or back more (or anything further from the camera angle) you could get more variety and shaping in the scene. Keep working on the materials, right now the money bag looks more shiney than the coins or jewels.
RazorJack - Great, thatās a lot better. The idea of having a bright light in your scene that doesnāt cast a shadow isnāt really working. I think you could delete that one, because you donāt want bright highlights on the coins where they are under the tray, etc. If all the light directly hitting the tabletop is supposed to come from some windows, then it would be great to see the shape and direction of the windows clearly indicated with the lighting, shadows and reflections. If you want more highlights, put some other bright spots into the environment around the set, and let the raytraced reflections pick those up as appropriate.
brookselliott - Thatās looking good. Nice rich materials and textures. I think the lighting is a little uniform and washed-out. The reflections could be a part of that. Compare the right side of the cloth sack with its reflection in the tray. The right side of the sack is appropriately dark, but the reflection shows bright cloth. Maybe you have trace depth problems stopping the shadows from appearing in reflections, maybe itās an issue with a breakdown into passes, but see if you can debug that and get a nice range from brights to darks into your reflections.
-jeremy
](http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=upload01.jpg)
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my first post here ā¦ hope everyone will like it !
](http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=upload01.jpg)
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hope everyone will like my first post on this community
Hi all
After doing some changes in my scene, after taking some advices from some people, and main advice from jeremybirn, Iāve finished (again :D) my work for this contest,
so this is my final workā¦
Software used: 3ds Max, Photoshop, V-ray, FumeFX, DOF Pro
Render time: about 1 hour
I rendered about 15 different passes, composited them all in photoshop, and voila!
I hope you all like itā¦
-Vjekoslav Kiralj
Thank you Jeremy. I see what you mean about the shadows, theyāre meant to be shadows of trees from right outside the window. It does look odd though, combined with the fact that it looks like the shadow from the stone divider between the windows should be on the table, but in reality thereās enough distance between the wall and table that the shadow is falling across the floor and barely onto the back corner. I checked once you mentioned it because I thought that maybe the light might not be casting shadows at all lol, turns out to just be the misleading camera angle. Iām not sure if I should get rid of the tree shadows or just change them somehow, because it DOES look odd!
I was wondering though what might be the best way to get the reflections to match up better? At the moment Iām using an hdr image sphere connected to the reflected color of the objects. And of course it isnāt much of a match for the lighting in the scene, as you pointed out it has a lot of white lighting instead of the blue and orange. Should I be somehow making an hdr image sphere of my scene and using that instead? Thanks very much for your help!
-Nick
