Working on the Train

3DShaq

Finished outcomes of this project:





Older version with darker lighting:





I am currently a student and am still learning, so throughout my portfolio unit I have been trying to improve my skills and learn new techniques and shortcuts; for one of my projects I decided to create an environment (focusing on improving my lighting and shading) as that is what lacked in my portfolio from feedback I recieved.

I'm open to feedback so I may reflect that onto this project as I am thinking of creating a short animated sequence if I get the chance.

Thanks

Eric Chadwick

That's pretty! The blacks are very black though, might be nice to have a bit more bounce lighting.

Also, PNGs make for a very slow-loading thread. You should use JPGs instead.
http://polycount.com/discussion/63361/information-about-polycount-new-member-introductions/p1#make

o0_themilkybarkid_0o

Ah freakin sweet! You could always make one of those calming gifs and just have a scrolling background and gently shaking mountain dew! 

3DShaq

Eric Chadwick said:

That's pretty! The blacks are very black though, might be nice to have a bit more bounce lighting.

Also, PNGs make for a very slow-loading thread. You should use JPGs instead.
http://polycount.com/discussion/63361/information-about-polycount-new-member-introductions/p1#make

Ah ok, I'll make that change now. And yes, the black and quite black, I want to create a strong contrast but I see what you mean and I'll take that feedback

3DShaq

o0_themilkybarkid_0o said:

Ah freakin sweet! You could always make one of those calming gifs and just have a scrolling background and gently shaking mountain dew! 

I didn't even think of that!  I'll defo think about a loop type gif

3DShaq

I got some additional feedback and critique from my Tutors and I have made some adjustments today on the textures, lighting and some object rearrangements. Here are some quick renders from v-ray:


I will be adjusting the grease on the keyboard to cover more and also reducing the dirt tomorrow.

Would like some feedback on this. Should I remove/relocate the bottle? and how can I make the bottle look more.. Plastic? it feel more glass to me.
Also some feedback on lighting? does the warmer suit this environment or the cooler?

Thanks!

KurtR

Looking good! I don't have too much feedback, but about the bottle. Lower the reflect glossiness and you should get more plastic look. Both on reflections and refractions. Also make sure the "reflect on backside" is ticked on. It's under "options" in your vrayMtl. Are you using some sort of chromatic lighting setup (blues and reds in different lights)? I feel the yellows are a bit yellow, but at the same time I feel it sets the mood for the shot. So I am not sure. Overall I think it's a very good scene. Lots of small nice details.

3DShaq

Some Test Renders:

3DShaq

Here are my the finished renders with improved lighting and additional tweaks. I wanted to really show the detail on the second image so I rendered that in 4K

cptSwing

Very nice, impressed with the laptop and other props. There is some repeating scratch detail on the former though, and the plastic area beneath the window looks wierd.. light baked into the diffuse?

RustySpannerz

The original darker image is more visually interesting. I understand that it was too dark, but now the texture on the wall beneath the window is distracting, and the laptop being the focal point is not as clear anymore. Maybe it's just personal taste. Beautiful scene though! 

3DShaq

cptSwing said:

Very nice, impressed with the laptop and other props. There is some repeating scratch detail on the former though, and the plastic area beneath the window looks wierd.. light baked into the diffuse?

RustySpannerz said:

The original darker image is more visually interesting. I understand that it was too dark, but now the texture on the wall beneath the window is distracting, and the laptop being the focal point is not as clear anymore. Maybe it's just personal taste. Beautiful scene though! 

Yes, I see what you mean. I feedback and critique I got from my Tutors was that it was dark and the colour scene should be looked at again; initially my aim was to have it dark like my older versions and a bit more stylised but it didn't make sense realistically, but I understood what they meant.

Now really looking at it, that area is quite distracting, so this week I should be able to adjust that wall and replace that area under the window with a more flat and lighter blue so it's less distracting.

Thanks for the feedback all!

3DShaq

I got some time to make the adjustment:

Jaykrass

The liquid in the bottle gives it away.
Can't explain how, just my first reaction to it was, "That's too static and glassy." Try adding some bubbles around the sides of the bottle and a little at the surface of the liqued, also I suggest giving it that fade look where it look darker in the center of the liqued and more transparent around the sides to convey the liquid has depth (can't think of the right terms).

ActionDawg

Nice touch with the meta screenshot lol. I love the setup of this scene, though I did think the earlier shots had stronger compositions.

A few other thoughts to apply to this or your next ventures, since you say you were pushing lighting and shading with this endeavor:
Fabric - Firstly I thought the fabric was much more interesting in red. It was a nice contrast to the bluer metropolis BG and screen and complimented the warm cabin lighting. Try to get a better unwrap or push for more detail in the modeling here. Also look into fabric shading with a scattering model at least. Fabrics have unique reflection profiles (micro roughness/BRDFs) which are nothing like those of other materials. There's a few ways you can do it.
Polycount - May I ask why this is a relatively low poly scene? I think it would jump up a notch in quality simply by having some subdivision going on. This is more a nitpick.
Paper - Get a scattering model on the paper, or do tests to get a realistic amount of transmittance. It really brings paper to life.
The bottle - Easily the least developed aspect here. Right now it comes across as glass as you mentioned. Check the IOR of plastics (slightly different from most glasses) and increase the roughness a bit. Also note that plastic has scattering, something absent here. That small diffuse from scattering brightens plastic up compared to glass which is strong, clean and clear refraction. I haven't looked at Mtn Dew in a while so not many notes on the liquid inside, but note that a non-clear liquid scatters and absorbs a lot of light and will not have clean refraction. Finally, the cap looks unfinished without having a molded grip but you'd have to tell me if that's the actual design.

In reality even glass will have slight diffuse properties, but this is significantly less than clear plastic.

From these notes I think it's clear that you've really succeeded here and have small bits of improvement in a specific area: Materials extending beyond diffuse and specular. The lighting is lovely, especially how it falls onto the table. The blue reflections balance nicely. So going on, look at real objects that use subsurface scattering and do some quick tests to visualize the difference for yourself.

Make something like a strawberry and test it with and without scattering and absorption. You may be surprised to realize that even in low light the difference (on, say, your newspaper) would be easily noticeable. Read about how scattering happens due to the internal structure of an object. It will also give you a good idea on why plastic scatters and absorbs light much much more than glass, "filling" it with light. Same for fabric. This is the hardest thing to get right because fabric really relies on its micro structure for its look so people typically use a custom shader. However with a good normal map and SSS you can pull off some nice stuff.

Hope all this helps! This scene turned out really awesome and if you applied these notes to another hour or two at it you could easily push this scene an extra 10 percent!

3DShaq

@Jaykrass @somedoggy

Thanks for the additional feedback, it really helps on improving and this being my first environment I'm proud of, I will definitely be aiming to improve and look more into the details you mentioned from extending to different materials and also the smaller the details you mentioned

Fabric: I'll definitely look into the micro detail you mentioned, any suggestions where I could start looking from?

The Bottle was quite tough for me as there was a lot of IOR and roughness adjustment going on and I kind of messed it up, so I'll be revisiting that and adjust the settings you mentioned. As for giving the liquid and reflection more depth, I'm not quite sure how to accomplish this effect, and suggestions where I could start from?

I will definitely be coming back to this project when I finish with other projects before I put it in my reel. Thanks!