Lighting.

Cat_Dancing

Hi everyone, good afternoon. My worst problem is always getting the lighting right, very hit and miss for me always. I have started some illustrations for a kid's book but just cannot get the lighting to a suitable  and acceptable level. (See attached) I've tried most of the lights I have available and rendered and re-rendered several times. Would someone be kind enough to tell me where I'm going wrong and perhaps offer a solution please. The scene was rendered in Iray and took about 45mins. It looked fine on the pre-render screen. Perhaps you could suggest a good tutorial or three?

Richard Haseltine

What look are you wanting? I suspect the materials need some attention too.

Cat_Dancing

Hello Richard, well I trust. Thank you for responding. I merely want to be able to light the scene properly and know what lights to use. The scene seems to be greyed or shaded. it's difficult to describe. I believe you are corrrect in your comment re material, the sea for instance is very light in colour but I thought that was how it came from the vendor. It would be an advantage to have it look like sea and less like soup.

kervala

I personally am using more than 1 light, usually a HDRI and 2 (or more) lights. One HDRI is not enough to have a full control of lighting :(

PerttiA

If you add some snow on the ship, you would have a perfect representation of an arctic expedition stranded in ice.

If you have other water shaders, try them on the sea. I don't see the picture being grayed or shaded.

Cat_Dancing

Hello Kervala and PerttiA. Thank you for your comments and advice. It willl certainly give me something to try and I will look into water shaders. Unfortunately the ship and the Toy Town Army are en-route to the desert so snow would be a little out of place. I have tried more than one light and HDRI but it's always very random. Thank you both.

Aabacus

Based on the shadows the light is somewhere around 10 o'lock and fairly low in the sky. I think you may see better results using a different angle. Depending on the look you're going for I would recommend something in the 5 o'clock range and fairly high in the sky. It's super individualized so I can be completely wrong but basically I think you're lighting exactly the opposite of what's right for the scene.

Cat_Dancing

Hello Kervala and PerttiA. Thank you for your comments and advice. It willl certainly give me something to try and I will look into water shaders. Unfortunately the ship and the Toy Town Army are en-route to the desert so snow would be a little out of place. I have tried more than one light and HDRI but it's always very random. Thank you both.

Cat_Dancing

Hi Abacus - Thanks for your comment, I will experiment. The problem is that I don't know which light etc to use to illuminate my scenes.

Have a nice day.

chris-2599934

It looks like you have two problems with that image...

Lighting-wise, the sun is very low in the sky, and shining from behind the ship - which puts most of it in shadow. If you want a nice, plain HDRI lighting for your scene, I suggest downloading and using one of AgentUnaware's "skyset" freebies. Select that as your lighting, then in the render settings Environment section, adjust the Dome Rotation until the main light is shining from behind the camera.

The sea seems to have frozen over. Presumably the product you're using - whichever one it is - doesn't have iray materials. I'm sure it could be adjusted, but it's hard to suggest anything without knowing more.

PS. One of the sailors on the uppermost deck seems to be impaled on a radio mast. Ouch!

Cat_Dancing

Chris-2599934 - Thank you for your helpful observations, I have sent you a PM.

 

Cat_Dancing

Chris-2599934 - Thank you for your helpful observations, I have sent you a PM.