VSFX 752 - 3D Color, Lighting, and Rendering

Recreating Reference-based Mood Using Only Final Gather in Maya

Project Summary:
Recreate the space and mood of a reference image. The focus should be on the characteristics of its lighting and the mood they provide rather than on the realism of the space itself.

Results:
Click on the image to the right to see the final video.

To the left you will see my reference image for this project, click on it for a larger view. I wanted an image that focused solely on the lighting and found myself repeatedly drawn to architectural/interior design shots like this one. Their simple, geometric shapes lent themselves perfectly to the project because the space itself is no longer a distraction. It made it easy to quickly model and layout the space and kept scene geometry light.

The majority of lighting in the reference is soft, bounced light so I chose to light it exclusively with final gather. Clicking on the image to the right will bring up the orthographic views of the scene with each FG panel highlighted. They are: main light (A), main bounce with its "barndoor" to block light from the wall to the right of frame (B), the three decorative light bars (C), two smaller bounce panels to adjust fill and shadows on the bench and wall (D), and a very dim panel underneath the bench for floor bounce (E).

Final rendering was in Mental Ray with an accuracy of 600, point density of 8, and point interpolation set at 128. Click on the image to the left to see the final still. Click here to see the reference and final image side by side. There are some differences between the two, particularly involving the way the surface of the wall interacts with light. Ultimately, the point of the project was not to replicate exactly the scene but rather capture its overall mood and I feel it was very successful in that regard. The assignment called for a short animation with a small camera move, you can see that video by clicking on the final render at the top of the page.