I decided to start a thread on some of my experimenting with outdoor lighting and rendering.

So here is the scene I am going to be using:
Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment
I designed/modeled it to have complex shadows, relfections, and have IOR somewhere (the water (1.33))

Here is a late afternoon lighting.
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachmentClick to view attachmentClick to view attachment
I have updated that lighting setup slightly after the last render, I added 2 bulbs underwater (as suggested in this thread to give some shadow detail, and I also added a Lane T on the bottom of the pool.

Ive been enjoying rendering to OpenEXR and using its high dynamic range (32 bit too) and buffers to get additonal tweakability.

Next up is the midday daytime look!


Photoman

looks snazzy.

1st class render. Only critic is it looks to clean. But that could be the look you were after.

Ok, here is the day render!
I stopped it mid render, its actually a screen capture...
Click to view attachment

I stopped it at 5hours and it was at pass 6 out of 9...

The renders seem to take forever (AO and IOR can be computational intensive.... especially having all that water with IOR next to the camera).

Up next is the night scene!

@Jason
I agree with you it is very clean, a little too much too. But I don't really want to model much anything else for it
I am going for that ultra modernism hard edge style that seems to be popular nowadays


Photoman

AM is very slow with the transparency and the réfract. Does there exist a technique to avoid the problem? In 3dmax, there was reflect/refract.

Gratien

excellent work keep pushing the barrier

DIGGIN IT!

Thanks!

I decided to do a sun timelapse!!

Here is a test:
Click to view attachment
No water or reflections, 1pass 10%AO

More coming!

and I predict long render times ahead!


Photoman

you sir have a heck of a lot more patience when it comes to rendering then I do

Looks like it will be a pretty nice project, plan on having people blip by to add to the effect of time laps?

That looks cool.

Why do the overhead struts move?

They don't the camera is dollying back. I could make it even more confusing by adding one of those zoom perspective shots (Slowly zoom in as you dolly back).

As for now I am turning this into a short movie project.

View Here:
HERE

Photoman

Well, the short movie project was a bust. Never got my head wrapped around such long render times. The AO plus the reflections plus the refractions and everything was just too much.

After having that said, I want to render a 720p 10 second video of the timelapse of the sun. I plan on using a depth buffer to get a cheap SSAO pass in After FX. I will also DOF and film grain and whatever to make it more real.

I managed to adjust the scene so that the only objects with reflections are the water and the tiles next to it. All the other reflections are just environment maps. This dropped render times for a 720p frame from 30 minutes to 8 minutes, which is reasonable. The water also has no transparency or refraction.

The ambient light is actually a light probe of a mirrored sphere render of the scene at midday. There is no AO at all except in post.

I hope to have this rendered by the beginning of January.

Here is a quick 5 second DOF, SSAO, and grain test in AE:
Youtube


Photoman

Here is another quick update.

I am in the process of optimizing render times. I managed to get to down around 8 minutes a frame, but with the lights I added it jumps to 32 minutes a frame. Debating on whether to keep them or not.

Anyway here is another post processed render:
Click to view attachment

Photoman

I started the rendering as of now! Based on my estimates, it should take around 56 hours to render the 240 frames.

In AE, each frame will take about 2-20 seconds to render with all the post work applied to it.

Ill keep updating as it renders.

Photoman

looks really great!

Hey dude... i just have to say that my son (15yo) is really into 3D and is far from your talents. You have a very promising future ahead of you young man. Keep going!

@Spleen
Thanks!

@new guy
Thank you for the comment. I only started 3D when I was 14, but got serious when I was 15. The best way to learn is by practice. For every project that I consider to be good there are at least 5 different ones that I consider bad.

UPDATE!

I know have half the footage rendered! Five whole seconds, took over thirty hours!! Frames rendered from 40 minutes to 10 minutes.

Here is a little test I made:
HD Youtube
I know it goes by really fast, I am thinking of dropping the framerate from 24fps to 18~20, plus that would give it a more timelapsy effect.

Photoman

Looks nice! I like the color change!

Idea for the titles... give the blur behind the letters a shimmer like underwater caustics.

awesome... this has become really impressive.

That's really nice Josh, but your highlights are getting blown out on the wall and it is pretty noticeable. Did you adjust the levels in After Effects or something? Or did the renders come out like that? If you render to exr with light buffers on, you can play with the lighting in A:M Composite without having to rerender. Just make sure that none of the lights are pure white or pure black. I don't think you can adjust the color of the lights if they are pure white or pure black.

@Robcat
Thanks! I plan on doing a more elaborate title for the final render. I am thinking about including a few other shots as well.

@thefreshestever
Thanks!

@HomeSlice
I clipped the blacks and whites in AFX. I am trying (trying being the optimum word) to simulate a really shallow dynamic range like transparency film (around 7-10 stops). Also the blooming is from the specular highlights turning into bokeh with the DOF plugin.

Been playing in After FX and made a quick breakdown reel of my post processing. Here it is:
HD Youtube

I am thinking about adding a few more cameras and including a few more shots to make a 30-45 second short movie... It would be a major render job though!

Photoman

Looks like a job for v16 netrender. Do you have a multicore cpu?

Looks impressive!
*Fuchur*

Great stuff, Josh!

This is all gorgeous but you've got it going by way too fast. let us look at this stuff! The time lapse could be at least twice as long; this is a luxurious setting, the camera should linger on it a little. Same for the post demo, slower would be better.