wine cellar

[Hollynorthup]

Hello everyone,

 

Tell me what do you think about this picture? I think it need more lights. Anyone? Any hints? This picture should be wine cellar.

 

[Wildsided]

Hi Holly,

 

Don't know about more light, I think you've struck a nice ambiance with the lighting, I do think though that it might need a couple of wine racks on the walls. Just a thought.

 

Dan

[mouseman]

It might be neat to see rendered with Ambient Occlusion, but your render times would go way up. (There's also a "Fast AO" plugin ... I think there is a free version and a pay for version, but I've never used it. A lot of people on the forum rave about it.)

[robcat2075]

Hi Holly,

 

It's hard to know what to suggest when I'm not sure what your "goal" is.

 

But I guess you feel it's coming out too dark other than the floor.

 

-You might try actually darkening the floor so it's not such a contrast to the walls

 

-you might position very fuzzy, wide Kleig light at the center of the hotspots, pointing up, to simulate the light that would bounce off the floor and illuminate the surroundings a bit more.

 

-possibly, you might reduce the "attenuation" property of the lights so their light doesn't die out so quickly.

[Hollynorthup]

Hi Holly,

 

Don't know about more light, I think you've struck a nice ambiance with the lighting, I do think though that it might need a couple of wine racks on the walls. Just a thought.

 

Dan

 

Hello Dan,

 

There is a gate at the end of the hallway and it doesn't show.

 

Ya, it needs more inputs. Thinking about hanging ropes or chains or sacks, etc. from wood beams.

 

 

see the picture below: (I used global color) so you can see clearer and what is missing that the lights did not let us see like the first picture i showed earlier...

 

 

 

It might be neat to see rendered with Ambient Occlusion, but your render times would go way up. (There's also a "Fast AO" plugin ... I think there is a free version and a pay for version, but I've never used it. A lot of people on the forum rave about it.)

 

 

Hello Chris,

 

I never heard of "Fast AO" plugin... Do you have a website information where I can go and learn about it?

 

Many thanks...

 

Holly

[Wildsided]

Ah I see the racks now, I dunno what else to say about the lighting. I like the idea that a cellar is a dark place, like attics should always be full of old but interesting things and cobwebs.

 

have to admit that I'm always impressed by people that can do rooms. That's a skill that I've vastly under developed.

[Hollynorthup]

Ah I see the racks now, I dunno what else to say about the lighting. I like the idea that a cellar is a dark place, like attics should always be full of old but interesting things and cobwebs.

 

have to admit that I'm always impressed by people that can do rooms. That's a skill that I've vastly under developed.

 

 

speaking of cobwebs; does anyone have any ideas how to create the webs?

 

I was planning to use dust includes as final renders...

[Hollynorthup]

Robert, thanks for the hint about add more lights. I pointed down instead. I want to make the hallway to be dim and dark and unusable...

 

It seems to be better...

 

 

 

kinda too bright, thought, but I'll work around it to get it right...

 

Thx again

[TheSpleen]

I like the dark look with few lights

[Hollynorthup]

I like the dark look with few lights

 

 

Yeah, me, too...

[Rodney]

If you have the time and inclination to experiment you could render out to EXR format with Light Buffers and then use A:M Composite to alter the lighting (of each light) in real time (after you've rendered your scene) to suit your needs. It's da bomb.

 

Here's a good introductory to manipulating lights via A:M Composite and EXR format: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15282

 

Here's an example of practical use with a populated scene (Jim Talbot's 'Leopard Queen'): Light Buffers

 

...and a Zip file full of the resources needed to experiment with the Leopard Queen scene: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19458

 

There are a few dead links at that location so here is a more direct link (to Noel's Norlok example of Light Buffering):

http://www.s1.hashmirror.com/ftp/pub/movie...e/Composite.swf

 

 

I'm liking the look of what you've got going already!

[itsjustme]

I'm not sure what kind of look you're after, but I would check as many reference photos as possible. I found a couple with a quick search here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, etc.

[bobbesch]

I never heard of "Fast AO" plugin... Do you have a website information where I can go and learn about it?

 

Many thanks...

 

Holly

 

I'm not Chris, but i bought the commercial version of jenpy's "fakeAO" plugin. It's very, very nice, especially in combination with a:m's image based lighting

 

the link:

 

http://jenpy.noob.jp/fakeao/fakeao_e.htm

 

Norbert

[Vertexspline]

Holly, I like the improved darker version as well.---its a nice scene ......my only thought if you want to try further experimentation would be to darken the floor and lights hitting it some more ...I am also one who thinks wine cellars would be kind of dark and that might take some of light off wall and floor a little more. But that's just my likes.

[Hollynorthup]

hey hello everyone,

 

I updated the lights and tried out with and without lights buffer. It seems to be better to aim to the gate instead of pointing downward to floor or pointing upward to ceiling... I still think this picture is too dark and too weak of the lights. I am going to work on it some more until I get it right...

 

Rodney, thank you for telling me about light buffers. I had no ideas how it works. Just starting to play around the light buffers and trying to understand. I will go back to links and learn more.

 

this picture is with light buffer:

 

 

 

this one is without light buffer:

 

 

very interesting..... to see the differences between these two pictures. And other things is that I don't see any shadows from barrels or crates. Or just because they are too close to the walls?

 

 

 

 

 

Norbert, thank you for the link...

[largento]

Experimenting is the key.

 

You might also look at some compositing or post effects, too.

 

This is just me taking the first two images you posted and compositing them in photoshop with some layer effects. It would take some experimenting, but you could use the A:M compositor to achieve the same kind of mix.

 

 

I went for a spookier look and used a blue filter to desaturate the warm colors. I also added some blurred noise layers to simulate adding a little bit of fog and did a small amount of blurring to simulate depth of field. A small amount of black fog and depth of field might help give it more atmosphere.

[NancyGormezano]

Rodney, thank you for telling me about light buffers. I had no ideas how it works. Just starting to play around the light buffers and trying to understand. I will go back to links and learn more.

 

Another link to explore, which is probably more recent (things have changed a bit) is Holmes' excellent tutorial on light buffers

[Hollynorthup]

Experimenting is the key.

 

You might also look at some compositing or post effects, too.

 

This is just me taking the first two images you posted and compositing them in photoshop with some layer effects. It would take some experimenting, but you could use the A:M compositor to achieve the same kind of mix.

 

 

Yes, I agree that experimenting is the key...

 

 

I like the picture that you worked on it with photoshop... but the problem is that I don't know how to use photoshop or gimp..

[Hollynorthup]

Thank you, Nancy, for the link...

[Rodney]

this picture is with light buffer:

 

this one is without light buffer:

 

The single image you've shown makes me wonder if we've done enough to explain the process.

 

Keep in mind that a buffer is simply where data is stored within the EXR image that can be manipulated to create many other variations from that one image. A Light Buffer just stores the potential for changes in lighting across the spectrum of available variables. You'd probably have to post an animated movie to demonstrate what the image with the light buffer really looks like. So the buffer represents potential for change and the image displayed is simply one of many that could have been displayed. I assume here that it is the default without altering the percentage of any lights in the scene. Without too much effort you could manipulate it to the point where it looked a whole lot like the second image which you've indicated had no light buffer.

 

Note: I'd have to experiment but A:M has to set each light's buffer to some setting and I'll guess that it picks a mid range intensity versus turned all the way down to zero or all the way up to the highest intensity. This is easy enough to check and perhaps Holmes has already mentioned that default intensity in his tutorial.

 

There are way to do something similar without EXR and without post processes. A quick way to manipulate lights is to create and manipulate them in an Action and then simply drag/drop that action onto a model (the model itself can be empty) in a Choreography. We can even open up several windows at the same time so that we can move the Lights in one window while examining the effect from another window.

 

This second method is generally preferred over post production method of compositing because it is mostly the intensity and color of the light that can be effected in post. It is difficult to manipulate the location of the lighting in post and therefore such manipulations generally must be faked by creating and altering copied layers of the original image and introducing new elements of light 'in between' those layers. Error tends to creep into these images because it is hard to get rid of the original lighting in a scene. Therefore, many who do light their scenes in post tend to work with images that are evenly lit. This is also where such useful tools as Depth Buffers, Ambiance Occlusion (AO), Normal Maps, and other effects are used to further manipulate and enhance scenes.

[Hollynorthup]

Rodney, the picture with light buffer, I just started to try it out from your "starting simple data" from one of your text box. (http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15282) to see the different.

 

I am going to learn more about it and play with light buffers to earn more experiences and understanding how it works...

[Hollynorthup]

hello everyone,

 

I just want to let Rodney know that I believe there is a bug in or on openEXR sequence. Because it crashed all the times. I was doing experiences and learning on light buffers which it collapsed on me. Every time, I clicked on image from PW also I could not save the project that I have added more works on it because it crashed. I have been report to A:M and still waiting for information from them.... I could not work on my project....