Lighting Solution to basement Scene

AmazinRazin

I'm working on creating a basement environment for a school animation project. I'm not very good with lighting and I'm looking to improve as much as I can. I'm primarily working with Maya and 3DS Max. Any suggestions on how I can fix up this environment's lighting. Going for a more realistic look. Still have a lot of modeling to do for this seen so don't judge too harshly. Looking for lighting fix only. Thanks guys!

EarthQuake

Well it seems lie eyour main problem is that aside from the small window there, the basement simply isn't lit.

So, the first step is to figure out how you want to light it. What sort of light sources? Overhead lighting? Fluorescent tubes are pretty typical for basement lighting in this sort of room., but you could do some of those exposed bulb lights with the little string to pull to turn them on too, or recessed lighting, or floor lamps, or anything you want really. Find some reference for the type of lighting you would like to add and then try to reproduce it.

ActionDawg

What are you rendering with? For a natural look where the basement were lit only by the window you will need to use realistic light intensities and physically based materials + camera. Even adding lights as EQ suggests will only get you so far if your renderer isn't bouncing light properly in the first place.

AmazinRazin

somedoggy said:

What are you rendering with? For a natural look where the basement were lit only by the window you will need to use realistic light intensities and physically based materials + camera. Even adding lights as EQ suggests will only get you so far if your renderer isn't bouncing light properly in the first place.

I'm currently rendering with Arnold in Maya. Unfortunately, I have to stay rendering with Arnold because I'm working in a group project with 3 other people. To save on time we have all decided to stay to 1 renderer so we can all have the same scenes. I miss mental ray so much. So do you have any specific suggestions on what I might do? 

Eric Chadwick

I would suggest checking out the help file.
https://support.solidangle.com/display/AFMUG/Lighting+a+Room