[WIP] Lighting project (Film Noir/fantasy Thriller)

Fenix007

Hi guys

I was wondering if people could help me. I'm in my last year of university and for my final year project I am doing a lighting project by recreating chosen lighting styles without the use of post process.

I'm using 3DsMax as that is the program I am most comfortable using. I already have some progress renders and renders I hope are good enough to use I would just like peoples opinions on how to improve the lighting based off the styles.

The first style that I am working on is Film noir. Sin City is the main inspiration behind it, I have been checking on other forums at other peoples work and have found some images that I wish to aim for. (I'll find them and post them up with the correct references)

Fenix007

The Following renders have render effects on them to help create the Nior feel that I am after. Any comments that can help improve the renders would be appreciated.

1. without effects


3.With fog


5.With blackened fog

Kiser Designs

You need high contrast and reflections. You have high contrast but its not balanced.... seems to dark. Find a way to increase the reflection of the light. Also lower the film grain... i think it may appear more grainey than it is in udk in renders

Fenix007

Here are a few more renders that I have done, hopefully they are getting better as I update. Again anything you notice that they need for improvement please let me know.

Fenix007

feanix

I think you need a sharper fall off. A lot of the lighting in those noir references was really harsh and a sharper fall off might help with that.

Fenix007

Here are most of the Fantasy renders I have done. The chosen style is taken from the Underworld Movies.

Fenix007

Here are some more to do with the film noir

ah_lex

Do you want comments on all of them or are you asking which one is the best? First thing I'd do is ignore Sin city as its derivative of period film noir. Look at Kiss me deadly especially, the big sleep and Lady in the Lake. As an aside the bottom scene's car is non reflective and luminous and throws all the renders out. I'd start by thumbnailing what I wanted the image to look like value wise and then working to achieve that look. Iterative renders with totally different value ranges are just wasting your time.

Rhoutermans

fog isn't post process?

Fenix007

Fog is a setting used within Max so its not post process. Im trying to recreate the style just using the stuff in the 3D package. The whole project is to see if you can recreate the styles to get good quality renders that need little to no post process. The overall aim is for no post process.

I'm just asking which renders are more to the style I am going for and what other things I need to do make those particular ones better. I have less than 2 weeks to do this. The render times have eaten away at the work-flow.

So you are saying I need to sort out the reflectivity on the caravan?

ah_lex

Yes, can you not do renders at smaller res's / lower settings or use IPR to save render time? Your question is so open that not many people are going to go through 30 pictures and tell you which is best or how to improve them all. Can you refine it down to a few good ones that exemplify film noir and then ask which is the best one?

Fenix007

Ok I can do that. Ill put up the ones that think are better than the rest and are close to what I am trying to achieve. Ill edit the posts and remove the ones I am not happy with.

*edit

Right I have taken most of the images out. Also the resolution im using is widescreen which was advised by my tutor. Its the volume light that messes the render time in the fantasy.

Film noir is ok for render time.

ah_lex

Post 4 image 2 is probably best I don't really like the composition though as it focuses too much on the repetitious uneven ground. It's the best because it has silhouetting and a good range of value, doesn't have too much distracting glow or artificial looking fog. You're missing any variation in surface properties, from tyre to wood to metal they all look quite samey with them reflecting light in the same way. The fantasy vampire/werewolf scene doesn't really look fantasy-ish - the subject matter is too generic.
I hope you've looked at or have time to look at Film Noir Reader by Alain Silver and James Ursini it's got some essays on visual motifs and composition that would help you.

Fenix007

With the fantasy one what can I add to give it less of a generic feel to it. with it I have hit the aspects of my case study, with the light and darkness attributes.

The only trouble is it eats up render time so before I go back to it I'm trying to get enough info on what I need to improve it. I have 8 days left to get good enough renders out to use in my project, I can always discuss why I haven't reached objectives if the renders.

Ill check out those essays you have mentioned

Fenix007

The advice that has been given to me is that I need to fill the gap on the right hand side, lower the density or greyness of the fog and add some rim lights in by the grave stones, the tree and the character model.

glottis8

You need to work with silhouettes, right now the shapes just are not interesting, you need different sizes, wear, different shapes, interesting enough to build your composition. I like the lighting style, but i think there is a lot here to be improved.

Fenix007

Unfortunately I don't have time much time to work on it to a high quality for the project but I will be carrying on with this after I have finished.

Where in the render should I be looking at with the silhouettes specifically?

Fenix007

The first four images are slight improvements mainly adding rim lighting on suggestion of lecturer. The last two are the basically what I hope to use. I have a week left but only want to spend one more day improving them for the comparison to the reference images.

I want to add some more illumination to the right hand wall in the hallway to stick with the theme other than that I can really see myself what else could work. Like I said not got long to improve them.

Looking back at the FM stuff I need to sort the fog out around the tree on the right by the well.