Lighting Critique, Maya

PolycountCounter

Hey guys, 

I'm practicing my lighting in Maya, and I was wondering if I could get some feedback on these two pieces that I did in terms of lighting.

The first one here I was going for a basic three-point lighting, nothing too fancy. If there's any suggestions on where I could re-arrange the lighting or add and/or take away more lights, I'd appreciate it. 




The second one here I wanted the lighting to make the environment seem cold and sad. I'm trying to tell a story of someone calling a loved one on a cold new years night.



Any feedback is appreciated!

teodar23

The purpose of the 3 point light setup is to create lighting from a main source (1), light from a seconday more distant source (2) and a back light or rim light (3) that creates light on the edges of the model. The main light is pretty straight forward, the secondary light is more of a fill light and could be of a different color to create a nice palette, like the main light would be warm and the secondary cold or viceversa. The rim light should be slightly at an angle not directly behind the model and should have a pretty high intensity depending on the renderer.
I like the second scene mostly for the idea. But the blue is too much. It should be more subtle like a hint of blue. Maybe do a cityline in the background with the top part being blue and the bottom being dark grey or black. Or do a gradient where the top of the background is black and the bottom is blueish.
 The warm light is nice but there are fill lights there which are noticeable. I understand the need to make the coffee cup and cigarette pop more but either make one large fill light with low intensity to help out the neon light, or just increase the intensity of the neon.
Good luck!

Add3r

The first piece is good, though the bright spot behind the character is fairly distracting.  I would either get rid of the circle or replace the background entirely with something either more generic or more interesting, depending on if the character is the sole focal point (if so, I would just go with a generic background).  The second piece as a whole is great, my only critique is to make the light off the cigarette more believable (less intense) or just use the light in the phone booth as a stronger source, the light doesnt seem to 100% match what I would expect from that horizontal bulb.  I personally would also go nearly black with the background to help sell night time and moonlight, the blue currently matches the rim light and your secondary details get a little lost.  

As a whole, I would stretch your value range out a bit more on both.  You seem to have both images living primarily in the middle of your available value range and it ends up with the images feeling like there is something missing (highlights).  Even at night, you should get some form of specular highlight on materials and hot spots on surfaces.  Material definition is just as important as lighting itself.

Great start overall, I think with some minor tweaks you could have two solid practice pieces demonstrating a lot of great fundamentals.