All right, time for an update in my progress. Now that I'm healthy again, I have begun lighting some of the finalized shots. This is fun.
This is also tricky, especially balancing the beginning shots between twilight/visible.
Complex lighting has never been my strength, but I'm learning.

Also, I have been wrestling with the stunt-bunnies to populate the shots that call for hundreds(!) of flesh-bunnies. Flocking is fun, and powerful, and I am just trying to get the work-flow down pat.

In related news, I stupidly ran the computer all last night, and rendered 150+ frames at the wrong resolution (40 pixels short in width!)

Anyhow, below is a comparison of an old shot (top) and new shot (bottom). I especially like my re-worked rocky ground, and the new post-processing I worked out to give everything a slight haziness.

Just a continued update on the lighting work I'm doing, new lighting (left), old lighting (right).
Working on keeping dramatic lighting yet making the action more visible. Old lighting was way too murky, didn't "read", visually.

Also, I'm trying to bring some more vibrancy to the colours - the old shots were a bit too monochromatic, I think...
I dunno, lighting is just trial and error for me at this point, I think I have an eye for what looks "good", but I'm not sure. Any tips/criticisms? (Not going for realism here, obviously.)

That looks a lot clearer - just don't lose the old dark murky feeling completely!

Yeah...it's kinda a weird balancing act -

Been dividing the short into several lighting "acts" (like a play)..
First shot cloudy/hazy/murky, oranges for sky, blues, greens for the building action
then opting for more warm colours with the climax of the flesh-bunnies' rampage, almost a hellish palette for lighting, lots of reds, oranges, and set these off with purple bruise-ish colours in the backdrops
then moving more into natural browns and golds for the bursts of sunrise, what the sun touches in golds, and the shadow areas still bruise-colours
Finally, as the angel/death/sunrise approaches, the colours resolve themselves into gold light, blue skies, and more natural light (skin tones are more natural, fewer tinted lights)
after credits, the tag/song/lip-sync bit ("Coming Home", with angel of Death) finally resolves the entire production in golds, pinks, blues and finally, pure white.

Okay wow I rambled, but that's the thought behind this.

I'll be using this topic specifically to post shots that I have re-lit. The first one is from the first look we get at the old man's face.

Still somewhat obscured by the dim colours, but you can see the sky becoming more intense, pre-dawn.

Click to view attachment

This is looking really promising. Great before and after stuff. The first shot is especially telling. I have not followed your story, so how long will this project be and what is the projected completion time? Keep posting.

Should be done around January 2009...
It's just a ~5 min short

I'll be following your threads

A particularly nice bit of lighting hot off the RenderBeast...
Click to view attachment

...but wait! There's more!
Click to view attachment

Thats a great shot. What did you use for the ground material?

Thanks!
It is an enormous bitmap generated from a combination of the "scale" material and a ball-point-pen drawing I did on the back of a styrofoam plate and then scanned back in 2001. The bitmap is then tiled and used as a displacement.