Here is my take (1pass) on lightning on the Act 2 Scene 7 Seq 73. Based upon the same lightning technique from Act 2 Scene 7 Seq 80

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Here is a small update. I do feel the lightning is still a bit flat

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You forgot to turn the "Render Shaders" "ON" (Woot's Hair.)

Thanks Martin. Hair updated:

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Maybe a rim light (or more obvious) is needed?

You need to figure a way of separating Woot from the background. The traditional trick of casting rim light on Woot would do but another way would be to shine a spot of light on the objects right behind Woot. so that the contrast between the light background and the dark Woot would make him separate better. That is the approach I would take here. It is imaginable and plausible tha some piece of machinery behind Woot would require stong lighting.

Thanks for your tips. I've done a few tests with a spot in the bakgroud, but I felt the background became more distracting and also lost some of its mood. There is already a rim pointed at Woot, but I'm gonna try to increase it more and rerender. How about Woots outfit? isn't there a Nancy version of it also that would help making him stand more out?

It is not just the outfit. The whole Woot character is too dark. What about shining a strong spot on Woot himself. The rim light can be usefull but it will just add a bright outline on Woot while if you shine a light on Woot, you will get a goos separation from the background. The light could come from the side like if there was a light on the table next to Woot, for example. I think that the light should also shine on the glue container since this is where we want the viewer's eyes to be directed in this scene. There is a bit of experimentation with light positioning there.

would you suggest a light list to bright up only woot or a spot that also will affect some portions around him. I've used light list on the other shots, guess I could give it a try

Ok, here is a new test where I've added a spot towards Woot. Had to break the render premature (Its late, so I'll need to wait to tomorrow to play further more). Eventhough its not fully rendered you'll get an idea on the affect of the new spot. Am I going in the right direction?

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What follows is a very personal opinion. Don't take it as direction but rather as brainstorming and avenues for experimentation.

I'm not a fan of light lists and I don't use them so I cannot advise on that approach. I like when my lighting is plausible so I would not attempt to light Woot with a strong light if that light was not going to light the rest of the scene in some plausible and consistent way. In other words, to my eyes, it would not be plausible to have Woot brightly lit while the rest of the scene is dimly lit.

But I like to use light in an impressionistic way. For example, in this scene, I would try to place a light on the table in such a way that it would light the glue bottle and Woot at the same time. In this scene, I would try to setup the light position so that the bottle cast a shadow on Woot shirt. Woot would then receive a shadow from the bottle and the table top but the rest of the scene would stay dimly lit. I would also push the light brightness as high as possible so the contrast between lit Woot and the background is as strong as possible. This means that Woot face would probably be almost saturated with light so the light clearly shows on his rather dark outfit. Using the bottle and table shadow on Woot would make the bright light plausible while still getting impressionistic effects. Plus, the bottle and table shadow would unmistakably sit Woot in its environment.

One thing I observe in your lighting is that you tend to not push light brightness far enough, a least for my taste, so you end up with scenes with very small dynamic range.

Thanks for your opinions, I find them very helpful. I ended up not using lightlist on the render abow, but I placed the light on the image right (Woots left) because if I placed it on the opposite side the tables shadow did "cut" Woot in half. I see what you mean about the dynamic range, If you do have any suggestions or thought sabout that, feel free to let me know, afterall your lightning knowledge is far greater than mine, and I learn a lot listning to others suggestions when I light this scene

Stian

Related to that, I have the feeling that the table a too high which reminds me the discussion about furniture heights earlier and the same fundamental questions that come back is : Could Ku-Klip actually work on this table? Isn't it too high for Ku-Klip?

The dynamic range is the result of the difference in contrast between the shadows and the light so I can think of two things : Use brighter lights and have darker shadows. So a good stong light shining on Woot should help increase the dynamic range. Apart from those generalities, I would have to examine your lighting setup in order to be more technically explicit.

I was pretty sure that was fixed, but I did check anyway, and your right, the table is way to high. I will fix this asap

I'm soon finished lowering the tables and workbench. I will update the SVN soon

Here is a new wip image of 073. The table has been lowered and a few light tweaks. I'm not sure, but I suspect the animation needs some tweaking too due to the table changes


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Wow, this looks much better! I'm no lighting expert but you've taken this a long way Stian! From what I do know and just from what I see, it feels like the left wall is "competing" with Woot, maybe this won't be a problem when Woot is moving?

Anyway... it looks great!

Lee