April 2012 Updated Reel

This is a work-in-progress version of my reel. I am working to re-texture and render the garage interior of "Neon and Chrome."

I have not posted updates for a while, because I have started to spend more time on making paintings for  upcoming art shows. However, I will finalize the texture edits for the truck scene in the next few weeks and render up a new version of my reel in early May. Above is an example of the truck scene with the layers assembled: windshield and paint reflection, headlights, neon lights, florescent lights, key light pass and interior lights.


Credits
"Time Lapse" Bedroom environment modelled by David Vacek, design by David Tousek, and the rats are modelled by Dan Konieczka and Giorgio Luciano  
"Captain's Log: A Clear Night," modelled by Giorgio Luciano 
“Neon and Chrome” modelled by Christophe Desse and Matthew Thain
“Fruit Bowl” and “Bottle Collection” modelled by Jeremy Birn
Lighting, texturing, compositing, and animation by Sandra Herman 

Re-lighting Fruit Bowl

Modelled by Dan Wade.
I am trying to figure out how to create a glass shader with reflections and layers of translucency.

Revisiting Bedroom Scene

 Modelled by David Vacek
Working to add more grunge and a story, shared between a few rats of extraordinary size. Focusing on lighting and grungemaps that describe an afraid of the dark feeling. Also trying to draw more attention to the fur detail on the rats using spotlights. In the early stages of compositing, I am trying to figure out a way to push clouds by the window, for the time lapse.

Final Revisions of the Captain's Log Lighting Challenge

Modelled by Giorgio Luciano

Present Night Ship Edits:

I have created a dirtier texture using a lambert shader for my sunset scene and tweaked the translucency of the sails. For the star filled night scene, I think I need a few more passes to adjust areas that are too in the dark; which include the cannon hatches furthest away from the camera. I have also pasted a moon in the sky and revised my key light, to create a warmer feeling. There is a more realistic highlight on the water's surface, which was achieved by the use of a soft-box.

Earlier Sunset Ship Edits:
I want to achieve the look of back-lit sails from the setting sun. I've made sure that the sky is being reflected into the water and added a glow at the horizon line. Generally, boats in this kind of scene are flatly lit where the sun cannot reach. See the front of the boat, but maybe my version needs a little more light. Plus, I think there is some light leak happening at the ropes under the sails.

One Month's Progress: Captain's Log, a CG Talk Lighting Challenge

Modelled by Giorgio Luciano
I have started at the last minute this 3Drender.com mini-lighting-challenge of a ship lost at sea. It is due in early January, and the challenge is to describe a captains's log entry. This one is a ship lost at sea with a sun burnt crew suffering below deck. I mapped a sunset panorama; brightened with a warming filter, and set a directional light behind the boat.

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There are a lot of flaws to fix in the orange scene; like the weird uv-line showing on the side of the boat and the water texture is stretched. I am working on creating an ocean using fluid effects. The deadline has been extended two weeks, so I am considering some new approaches to the scene.

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I am getting closer to finishing my sunset version the scene. Some of the textures need reworking, but at this stage I'm focusing on the light set-up and ocean shaders for my sunset and night scenes. Need to figure out the settings for the shader I used on the sails. Looks much too shiny.

Fruit Bowl, Week 4, Rendering

Modelled by Dan Wade.

Starting to render; above is the the Beauty Pass with 40% ambient occlusion added. Then separately are the key, bounce, and rim lighting passes. It looks like I need to dull down the lights over the grapes. The next stage is creating my realistic wine bottle shader. Also, I have been moving back and forth to an older scene, a bedroom with an infestation problem. 

Fruit Bowl, Early Revision, Week 1-3

Modelled by Dan Wade.
November 29:
I am starting to revise my light setup. There are two new rim lights, one along the side of the far right banana and another focused on the orange to exaggerate the white specular highlight. I have added bump maps to both bananas to create depth in the bruises. I am currently working on textures for the grapes and cherries, to see if more detail can be seen at this distance from the camera. By the end of the week I plan to test render the shaders and finalize my light set-up. The bottles and self-made glass shader will have to wait.

Nov.19:
With a closer cropped camera and re-positioned bottles this week, I'm struggling to revise the banana texture. I have done a few passes with an older spotted banana, but found it difficult to place the dots in a natural looking way. Now I plan to work in layers to paint the stem and add some age this way.The glass is a downloaded shader, I will return to it later with my own shading network, (to the emphasize colour and surface thicknesses of each bottle individually). I've added more light to see the textures that I'm working on and adjusted the maps of most of the fruit. The plums, apple and pear have reflection maps and bump mapping. Only, the pear looks flat right now and the orange is plastic-looking. As well, I'm trying to match the lighting conditions in this reference picture. See the specular highlight on the pink lady apple.

Nov.14:
I've started to revise the light set-up; this version has a spotlight as the key light. It looks too even and dull at this stage, it will be a bright mid-day scene when I am finished. Also testing out the resolution of the apple and pear textures, and re-cutting the blanket UV. 

Student Work: Week 1-3, "Night Scene"

Modelled by Christophe Desse and Matthew Thain.

Week 2, May 10-14, 2010: 
This week I have created a soft light box beside the truck so that colour and specular highlight will be visible in the night scene. It works like a real life reflector or white card to bounce light onto an object. I have also shifted the composition because earlier the face on the billboard was awkwardly cropped off. The neon lights require more focus here. I have been playing with placing lights and the colour fog of neon. (Top image only)

Week 3, May 15-19: 
This week I have spent a lot of time tweaking lights and deleting unnecessary lights. I have found more reference images on-line to see the way that colour falls off of neon lights. I am trying to match my florescent lighting on the view of florescent lights seen above the Lake theatre in this first photo.

Render layers have also been planned. A proper Beauty Pass is almost complete. At this point I can see how much further I need to go to use render layers properly. Ideally, I should be able to assemble the different aspects of my image, and use effects in After Effects to amp up or turn down the intensity of each layer. I am learning this more intimately now that I am working with a still image that does not have animation. Render time is faster. The final image at the bottom is a test Beauty Pass. 

Student Work: Week 10-18, "Neon and Chrome"

Modelled by Christophe Desse and Matthew Thain.
March 21, 2010: 
I have added florescent lights to the exterior of the garage. See the upper recesses of the garage. There needs to be lighting in there for this scene to be lit realistically. Over all, the lighting looks too even in quality and the colour temperature of sun light versus the florescent lights does not make sense. Florescent lights should not be as bright as the sun, or orange in colour, matching the sunset tone on the facade of the building. I am hoping to correct this in After Effects, as there are three types of lights in my scene, and I can use blending modes to adjust light intensity.

Lighting is broken down into three parts, first there is the key light. This is the sun. Then there is interior lights in the garage, which are both fill and bounce. Mostly these are fill lights and they radiate from the florescent tubes and the ceiling lights in the far back of the garage. Then there are the florescent lights seen at the end of the animation, in the upper levels of the parking garage. These lights are bounce lights, and they are aimed upwards to create a tunnel effect. Now there is an illusion of depth.


April 7, 2010: 
Here is a more realistic looking revision of the windshield ramp, in comparison to the yellow windshield from previous weeks. I have been working on a rust detail, see the second shot. There is a hint of orange on the top of the bumper. I hope to control this effect later, and tone it down to a more natural red-brown colour using a render layer. Also, this shot is from my key light render layer, and I am planning on amping up this contrast of light and dark in my final rendering.

April 8th to April 12, 2010: 
There are three types of lights in my scene, and I can use blend modes to adjust the intensity of these three different parts of the scene. There is the key light, the sun (Third image from the bottom). Then there is interior lighting in the garage, which is characterized by both fill and bounce; mostly fill, radiated from the florescent tubes and the ceiling lights. (Here is the second shot from the bottom). Then there are the florescent lights seen at the end of the animation, in the upper levels of the garage. (See the last image.) Theses are bounce lights, aimed upwards to create a tunnel effect, a sense of depth. I have been trying to finesse the interior lights, to create a hazy cast of light.

April 20, 2010:
(The fifth and sixth images show the reflection and neon lights passes respectively). Most of this time I have spent setting up and testing out render layers in After Effects. I have had to make adjustment layers to fix textures and lighting after my preliminary test renders. I tried re-rendering the scene with the truck removed from it, so that the diffuse layers of my three lighting effects would render faster separately. This was not such a successful undertaking. I found that there are now blotchy dark shadows, which are now noticeable. These have resulted from low final gather settings. So I retested the scene and m now rendering once again.