Carrara Challenge #25: Light and Shadow - WIP THREAD
MarkIsSleepy
Posts: 1,496
Light and Shadow
This month's challenge is to set a mood or tell a story using light and shadow and then to explore how changing that lighting can change the mood/story.
To show off the amazing effect lighting can have on an image, each entry should consist of a single scene lit in two dramatically different ways. In other words, create your scene, render it, then scrap all the lighting and light it again in a completely different way and render it again. The two images together will make up your entry. Then, if you want, create a new scene and do it again for your second entry!
If you are at a total loss for ideas, the most basic example would be to do a "day" and "night" version of the same scene.
Inspiration
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-key_lighting
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-key_lighting
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro
- Google "Dramatic Lighting" and look through the images (may contain artistic nudity depending on your settings)
Carrara Lighting Help
- http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/software/carrara/06_six/14_setting_lights
- http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/tutorials/carrara/carrara-lighting01
The Rules
- Each participant may submit up to 2 entries into the Challenge.
- Images must be new (previously unpublished).
- Images must be primarily set up in Carrara.
- Images must be rendered in Carrara or in an external renderer for which there is a Carrara plug-in (e.g. LuxRenderer, Octane).
- At least one WIP (work in progress) image must be posted to the WIP thread (this can be as simple as the scene setup, a pre/post post-work comparison or just a final image with a brief description of the process you used or as complex as modeling rooms shots, shader setups or partial scene setups or test renders).
- At least one item should be created, retextured or modified in one of Carrara's modelers (vertex, spline, metaball, plant, terrain, particle, etc.).
- NEW FOR THIS CHALLENGE: Each entry must consist of two images, both of the same scene but lit in dramatically different fashion.
Sponsor(s) and Prizes
Once again, DAZ is generously sponsoring the monthly challenge. In addition, PhilW has very kindly agreed to sponsor this month's challenge! Please check out his store at http://www.daz3d.com/philw
Prizes:
1st Place: $100.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s) plus one item from PhilW's DAZ store
2nd Place: $ 50.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s) plus one item from PhilW's DAZ store
3rd Place: $ 25.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s) plus one item from PhilW's DAZ store
Honorable Mention (4th place): $10.00 towards DAZ 3D owned item(s) plus one item from PhilW's DAZ store
The first place winner also gets to choose the theme for the next challenge, and generally acts as the host for the next challenge (but you can turn down the hosting duties if you do not have time or are just not feeling up to it).
Dates to Remember
WIP Thread Opens: Friday, 20 May 2016
Entry Thread Opens: Saturday, 11 June 2016
Entry Thread Closes/Voting Begins: Saturday, 18 June 2016 23:59:59 CST (GMT-6)
Voting Ends: Saturday, 25 June 2016 23:59:59 CST (GMT-6)
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Comments
Welcome the the Work-in-Progress Thread!
Post your WIPS, questions, comments, feedback and any related links you think might be appropriate and interesting here. This is a non-judgemental place to show what you are working on for the challenge, share tips, ask for help and encourage one another learn to use Carrara to its fullest and to improve all of the art we make with it.
The entry thread will open Saturday, 11 June 2016 for you to post your final entries and this thread will remain open until community voting starts on 18 June.
Nice Theme, This will help me with improving my lighting as I am still very week on that.
I will see if I have time to complete it.
Good theme! Lighting is so important to a good image - and let's face it, if there is no light, there is no image! I might even put in an entry myself now that I have a working computer back again.
Can I ask a point of clarification - is it only the lighting that can change between the two images, or can you (for example) adjust the camera angle too? Easy either way, but wanted to be clear.
Chibi on right (evil chibi) has one low bulb wthh hard shadows plus a rim light, Chibi on left (nice chibi) has a a few bulbs quite high with soft shadows - and artyfacts ;)
Alien Chibi, internally lit , cheated as I gave him glow on eyelashes and changed transparency of skin - added "Aura" in scene effects, and a glow thing in the belly light
My intent was that just the lighting be changed and I'd prefer that entries keep to that if possible, but if you have a concept you really like that requires other changes I'm OK with that so long as the primary change is the lighting. I don't want to restrict anyone's creativity but the focus should be on how changing the lighting changes the image.
Very cool! That's exactly the kind of dramatic, lighting driven mood change the challenge is meant to highlight.
Great - thanks!
Great idea for the challenge, Marc Mark. I will need lots of help, and that is a good thing. I thought of an idea and did a quick concept sketch. One sketch is at night with 4 spotlights pointing out from one of the 2nd floor windows. I included some volumetric clouds to get the light cone effect. I also have a bulb light inside the room from which the spotlights point outwards, so that room lights up a little. For the second, I turned off all of the lights in the first, and then inserted a sunlight and a realistic sky.
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a) Help! Suggestions very welcome.
b) I will give a $5 gift certificate to the first person who correctly guesses the movie that my scene is inspired by. To win the gift certificate, give the answer in this thread.
c) When it comes time to place the entry, am I supposed to composite these together, or do I post the two images separately?
Diomede - I am reminded of The Exorcist! Great contrast between the images, although I would increase the bulb light in the window on the first one as it doesn't look bright enough to produce the light cone that is coming from it, otherwise all good.
I think either way will be fine. In my head I pictured them as one image file with the two versions side-by-side (or one above the other) but doing it that way entrants might have to reduce the size of their images and lose details they want to keep, so posting the two versions as two separate images will be OK too.
I like where you are going with this - the volumetric effects on the first image are very cool looking. I agree with Phil that the window should possible be lit up more to be casting such a strong beam of light out.
On the second (daytime) one my only real suggestion would be to consider possibly angling the sunlight a little. Right now it looks like it is pointing almost straight down. I don't know that the fog would still be there at noon, so angling the sun a little more to suggest early morning might be better. It would also allow you to add a little color and to cast some interesting shadows across the scene to break up some of that open space. Try out some different angles to see what looks best to you - side lighting is often pretty dramatic but having the sun casting the character's shadow toward or away from the building might look good too.
I might also try putting some lights in the ground floor windows and maybe one or two of the upper floor windows too to suggest the place is more active now that it is daytime, but I don't know for sure if that will show up or really work - it might be more work than it is worth.
Thanks for the suggestions, Phil and Mark. Spelled the names correctly this time.
Phil, I sent you a PM.
I will definitely spruce up the lighting inside the 2nd story window for the night time image. I am also brainstorming on ways to get more of a reflection glow on the windows on the side wall to get more of the aura effect in the reference image. (see attached).
BTW, Exorcist is correct. I intend to add a few more details Maybe the extra details will give me a few opportunities to spruce up the daytime image. I will experiment with the sunlight.
More suggestions welcome.
Great image. I love the black and white. Was post processed? What did you use?
I wish! Agree the reference is a great image. No, it is a movie still that I used as inspiration, as per "...to get more of the aura effect in the reference image. (see attached)." It is from The Exorcist, The black and white image scene was one of the movie poster promo images. See more at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3707298304/tt0070047?ref_=tt_ov_i
Sorry if I misled anyone, but I've got several more weeks to try to improve (with help from your suggestions).
And here is a quick update of the night version with brighter lights on the second floor and a few other changes and added details.
Suggestions welcome.
diomede, I was going to mention adding just a tint of yellow then I saw the reference pic at imdb... notice how the room next to it is lighted in yellow, indoor lighting. I'm looking at my wall/ceiling which are white during the day and now have a yellow tinge. To test this I inserted a plain... made it white... then added a slight yellow tint to the light.
For glow on windows I'd play around with shaders or add a texture make to reflect in the window... not sure if that would work. Might be able to place a few lights to only shine on the areas, ONLY, you want to have reflections.
That's looking a lot better - very cool!
Great suggestions. I will test some yellow tint for the interior, perhaps behind the first floor door and another upstairs window - and check the glass shaders for the reflection level. Thanks.
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diomede, I'm no lighting master... those are just ideas that I'd try and perhaps pitch out... don't let me lead you down a wrong path.
Below is the flashlight that I modeled in the spline editor and transfered to a vertex object to add 4 material zones. I also quickly put it into a walled off area to show a lighting idea that I had. First is with the flashlight bulb, spotlight, along with some ambient light and no default light to show the flashlight and room??... 2nd I then turned off ambient along with default spotlight and turned up flashlight spotlight a bit then adjusted falloff and range falloff and angular falloff . Next is just a screen grab of setup and last is a good view of the flashlight itself to show how it looks with the default light. The scale of the flashlight is waaay off... I'm just playing now. I can't see that this will be an entry unless the idea I had can be incorporated but then I'm sure that it can... I'd jumped the gun when Mark first mentioned Light and Shadow and should have waited for the rules... just had to go model the flashlight anyway.
Here's something simple 'Two Chibis Better than one"
Chibi on right has one low bulb wthh hard shadows plus a rim light, Chibi on righ (nice chibi) has a a few bulbs quite high with soft shadows - and artyfacts ;)
thanks :)
diomede, that looks terrific already !!! maybe the shulders needs a slight adjustment for a little bit more realism? ,
is that a figure you modelled?
nice modelling wdgjohn
Interesting stuff lighting... can be a real PITA at times but fun
Missed out on $5 as well... I said to myself that diomede render looks like the Excorsist.. Phil beat me by a few days lol
Here is my first WiP
In my first render I shall use 3 spotties, 2 bulbs and a distant light.. Ambient turned down to 8
in my second one I shall use 3 distant lights and ambient set at 12
Everyone is off to a great start... good job folks. I've a few ideas of the infinite things that can be done with light and shadow but can't seem to decide on anything and don't think I'll have time to enter anything this month... instead I've been modeling a rock and a tall bolder, latter is below, this evening. After rewatching again PhilW's video on a rock shader I've been messing with fractal noise, also for bump and displacement among a few other things not show here. Dummy me had a better look that I'd nearly perfected... then opened up a few more files... leave it to me to close everything without saving the new bolder version so had to revert back to a non-textured version and start agiain... doh! I'm not happy with the bolder but saved the template created for it so can go back and modify it... even come up with a few different looks... it is a vertex obj using the Ruled Surface tool.
OK, so I am thinking of putting in an entry this time around and this is a test render of the dark and sinister version. I modelled the noose, although it is only seen as a shadow, and the hair is Adrea Hair, which although available as a product, I did as well! The concept is to have a shadow (and overall lighting) that changes how you might view the scene. I did this one first as it should be easier to do the light and bright version. I may change the expression a little but this is close to being done - rendered in Octane by the way.
The lighting for this is a largish mesh light to the left which is deep red, and small white light in front of her to create the catch lights in her eyes, and a red spotlight (a mesh emitter at the far end of a tube) to the right to create the light and shadow on the back wall. No ambient lighting, so shadows are very dark.
Any suggestions welcomed!
And here is the first version of the sunlit version, I added a tree to make the shadows more interesting.
Very nice PhilW
interesting concept Phil W!, the shadows telling the story.
I'd put a wall behind her that takes up 3/4 of the right hand side back ground and let us have a glimpse of distant farmland or village on the left hand - that we can ony see in the second version.
I'd also use http://www.daz3d.com/bright-eyes-for-carrara to add a glint to her eyes in both . Could be both evil and good.
Glad you are putting something in.
cheers
There's something ironic about being recommended to use your own product! I generally prefer to use genuine reflections with Octane but I'll have a think, thanks for the suggestions!
ANNOUNCEMENT
Hi all,
Late announcement here but I just wanted to let everyone know that in addition to participating in this month's challenge, PhilW is also very generously sponsoring it! Each of the four winners will get to pick out one free item from his store, so please go check it out and start adding things to your wishlist! :)
http://www.daz3d.com/philw
Sadly when I go to that page, nothing shows up because I already own it all.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled challenge, already in progress...
Mark