In my attempt to better myself in Computer Generated Lighting I have been working on a test scene in 3D Studio max consisting of a tank and an apache helicopter.
What I have done was created a landscape scene with trees and stuff in Vue 5 Infinite. That scene is used as the background image in 3D Studio Max for me to composite the tank and helicopter elements so they seamlessly blend in.
This is the background plate with the default lighting:
Here is the the correct lighting setup. It still doesn't look right:
And here is the the finished comp with Afterburn fog applied to it:
This not the completed image. I still have some work to do regarding the raytrace shadows. I want the shadows to have a feathered edge instead of the hard edge. But all in all I think that the composition looks good.
What are your thoughts?
ADDED: I fixed the shadowing in the scene. Here it is:
Visual Effects Artist
Website: www.visual-chaos.com
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/visualchaosfx
I know absolutely nothing about CG, but to me it looks pretty damn good, however I think the two pics with the fog look too bright, I think the second, darker picture fit better with the background. Looking good though!
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Wow! Awsome! I was about to do something like that for class, That looks top notch! Little opinion thing: turn down the brightness or the levels, I think the final one looks too bright. Just me.
UFProductions wrote:With fog is definately better, but it seems the tank is too dark compared to the background.
I agree with you on that. So what I ended up doing was increasing the output on the tanks texture to brighten it up a bit. Here is a comparison image containing the last render on the right and the new render on the left:
The image on the left, to me, belongs in the scene now. Its not bright and I didn't have to adjust any lighting in the scene.
What are your thoughts?
Visual Effects Artist
Website: www.visual-chaos.com
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/visualchaosfx
CG lighting is hard... harder than lighting for cinema. Lets take a chance to think why.
Environmental lighting in CG has to be replicated, you cant set up a light like a sun and expect it to work the way it will in real life. As such in order to understand what needs to be replicated in a CG lighting excercise we have to understand how light actually works. Which ill try to do without getting to scientific,
Okay so lets go through this the way i would light it. You gotta find out how many light sources there are well in your case one. The sun which is actually very hard to simulate lighting for. I usually always have my sun a color. If it was mid day it would be a little blue. since yours is a sunset maybe a dark orange or red. since it is sunset and sunset only lets the lower frequency light through the atmosphere hence the orange and red colors.
So light your primary light with an orange tint and set it very low since at sunset the sky gets dark and the sun is illuminating less of the scene at the low angle the slightest orange tint on the tank will add some believability.
The haze was an awesome idea and should be used any time your rendering something outside with a vast depth of field. But as such the haze too should be an orange or red color.
Radiosity would be rampant in this scene since the sun is illuminating hardly anything... all those shadows would be softer like almost 70% softer including their intensity.
Otherwise you just need to consider things affecting the lighting.
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aaronv2 wrote:CG lighting is hard... harder than lighting for cinema. Lets take a chance to think why.
Environmental lighting in CG has to be replicated, you cant set up a light like a sun and expect it to work the way it will in real life. As such in order to understand what needs to be replicated in a CG lighting excercise we have to understand how light actually works. Which ill try to do without getting to scientific,
Okay so lets go through this the way i would light it. You gotta find out how many light sources there are well in your case one. The sun which is actually very hard to simulate lighting for. I usually always have my sun a color. If it was mid day it would be a little blue. since yours is a sunset maybe a dark orange or red. since it is sunset and sunset only lets the lower frequency light through the atmosphere hence the orange and red colors.
So light your primary light with an orange tint and set it very low since at sunset the sky gets dark and the sun is illuminating less of the scene at the low angle the slightest orange tint on the tank will add some believability.
The haze was an awesome idea and should be used any time your rendering something outside with a vast depth of field. But as such the haze too should be an orange or red color.
Radiosity would be rampant in this scene since the sun is illuminating hardly anything... all those shadows would be softer like almost 70% softer including their intensity.
Otherwise you just need to consider things affecting the lighting.
Hey aaron, thanks for the lighting tips. The current lighting setup that I have consist of a spot light positioned relative to the sun and a skylight placed in the scene with the light tracer enabled in the advance lighting properties. But I will post another image with the improvement tips that you have bestowed upon me.
Thanks again.
Visual Effects Artist
Website: www.visual-chaos.com
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/visualchaosfx
Muzzle Flashes, Bullet Time, Lightsabers, Buffy Vampire Effects, War Films.... Ahhhhh!
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how would you animate it? lol uhh i dunno... rotate it maybe? how come this thread has turned into the helicopter one now lol
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like i mentioned before... radiosity causes shadows to be lighter. When have you ever seen a shadow that dark under a car?
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Yeah I think the shadow is bleeding through the fog and is waaay too dark. The smoke should be thicker and less dissipated. The car itself looks really nice; might try a little more reflection.
the car doesnt look nice at all. its missing bloom and reflections and all around materials that make it look convincing as with most beginner 3d it looks like plastic
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