Got you! (Blenderguru Steampunk competition)

Hi everyone,

after browsing through the other steampunk scenes I thought I can share my progress as well. It took me ages to come up with an idea that I’m able to realize in the necessary timeframe. I took a model of myself which I never fineshed, completed it to a level that I can use it, got mad with the rigging (never done it before) and created this:


I know that lighting is one of my weaknesses, so feel free to come up with advice :smiley: I’m happy for any crazy idea to get more out of this scene.

Cheers
Xerubian

Looking good so far :slight_smile: The lighting needs some work though, are you using a HDR image for lighting? or just Sun/Area lamps etc?

There is just a spot lamp in the front and the emission in the left hand. That’s it so far. Any suggestion what you would try with the lighting?

Can’t wait to see your entry coming along :slight_smile:

Thanks man :slight_smile:

I would recommend you use a HDR image as you’re world lighting, Other than that i’m not too sure… maybe swap you’re spot lamp for an area lamp?

Hey Xerubian, I was already wondering if you would jump in :smiley: - and you posted a good start and interesting concept. I agree that the lighting could use some work. Everything is a bit dark at the moment.

Sorry to be a sick in the mud, but it’s against the competition rules to use any previously started projects.

Sorry :frowning:

Hey Regus-Ttef, as I won’t win nor be mentioned it just makes my life easier to create something I like or even better others like :smiley: Besides that it didn’t prevent others to hand in their scenes in the past :rolleyes:

I played around with the lightset and found two setting I pretty like:
An HDR Setup:


Turning the spot lamp into an area light:

Looking at the first one and it’s atmosphere brings me to additional ideas to complete the scene: change the table to a desk, with a lamp to the right hand side and the background will be switched to an office wall with additional weapons. I guess this will turn him into a freaky maniac :yes:
What do you guys think?

The lighting is better, You’re idea for a change of background is a good idea :slight_smile:

How are you using you’re HDR? I find that this setup is the most effective. It ensures that only the brighter parts of the HDR image are increased when the strength is multiplied -

(Also Don’t forget to turn on multiple importance sampling, lol :slight_smile: )


Also, Try using the HDR as a darker ambient light (Strength of maybe 1 or 2), and have you’re area and emmission as the dominant source of light. This should draw the viewers attention towards the character

Hi, Xerubian, I wonder how it would look, if he uses the light in his right hand to shed a light on whatever he caught with his left hand. Looking at the image I’d say that’s the next thing he’s going to do :slight_smile:

Hi guys,

@Jamie: what kind of multiply shader is that? Is that the MixRGB? If so I don’t get these settings. Well multiple importance samples are turned on and already on 8096 to get it sharp :frowning:

@minoribus: I add this idea to my list and will play around with this. I have another one I want to try. I’ll post all results here later today!

So, here is my update. I did two versions:

V1

  • different lighting
  • adding more detail
  • changing background

V2

  • I tried a different pose to change the story slightly and
  • changed therewith the lighting as well
  • tried DOF to get some more atmosphere
  • I know the lightning near the left hand is not in place :spin:

I personally like the second one. The pose is looking more realisting and not like a puppet. For both the background is too strong and is grabbing too much attention, even when I love the wallpaper :eyebrowlift: Overall it’s still a bit to boring. The lighting is not ready yet as I couldn’t rebuild Jamies setting to see what it does. Besides that the HDR is tripling my render time now :frowning:

Any suggestions to improve the atmosphere?

This is my latest status. I got rid of the HDR lighting as I couldn’t do volumetrics and some other atmospherical things with it. So I changed the light setup again as well as the background and optimized all textures. Now I’m just struggeling to get the dust right. And than I’m going to hit render. Need to work on something else :wink:

Any suggestions?

The change of the pose and the background library are working great! Especially the library adds more to it than the weapons did. And the story is very clear.

A small fill light from the left which is directed at the head could make the subject a bit brighter. The shadows could be softer. And the light in his hand is still a bit distracting.

Otherwise a great composition.