scene from metropolis. need lighting advice

[Vampyre]

i suck at lighting.. does anyone have any suggestions on how to light this scene. i tried putting in an IES light above the robot, to make her feel "cold and evil" but , i dont know how to make the IES less bright, its blowing out my other lights.

plus i have two lights on either side of the camera and im not sure thats the best way to go.. any crits or advice would be greatly appreciated

[Kram1032]

to make something cold and evil, I'd light it from the bottom
inverted shadows look unnatural, weird and as that, kinda scaring
oh, and certain colour mixes (very subtle) can do a lot

AND, try to get rid of pure white

[Vampyre]

i like that idea. i just am not smart enough to figure out how to put lights in the scene so that it lights from the bottom. i guess i could use an ies light pointing up at the face.. back to the IES lights, how do i make them not so bright? in the blendigo exporter i've got the gain set to .02 , and teh rgb color set to almost black, but my IES is still way bright. ?

also, if not pure white, what color would you suggest, slightly blue? maybe green and goulish?

[Kram1032]

IES have fixed gain
you need to modify them in a text editor or in IESgen

[BbB]

Or you can make your other lights brighter. If you're using Reinhardt tonemapping, it will result in the IES light appearing darker.

[Vampyre]

that would explain why the 'gain' setting wasn't doing anything. thanks. i did end up using that method BbB, thanks. but i think imma look up what i can on IES light editing, sounds like fun

[Steve S]

the problem with rendering it with and without the light rings, is that the image that doesn't have the light rings also wont have their reflections or lighting...

Not necessarily. Do it in two renderings as Kram said First a clean pass without the rings. In the pic with the lighted rings, give everything else in the room a shiny black material. This will give those objects the highlights and reflections you're looking for. You'll have to turn out all other lights except for the rings. The presence of the chair and robot will also "hold out" the area where the rings pass behind them.

You can merge this layer with the clean pass by probably using the Add mode in PS. Adjust the opacity of the ring layer. You can even give it some blur. I'm not a 100% certain this will work, but I've used this techniqe in similar situations.

Steve S.

[Vampyre]

not a bad idea, thanks Steve, i may end up using that method. my only concern is the tonemapping. without the ring lights, i have a feeling the whole image will come out very different. its something i'll explore though.

[Steve S]

Here's an example of what I was talking about. I applied a bit of blur to the lighted ring layer and then set the opacity of the layer to about 50%. The only problem is that adding blur may cause the highlights and reflections to bleed outside the outline of the figure.

Steve S

[Vampyre]

wow it comes with an illustration the blur worked out really well. i think i will use this method, but the real problem is that in my scene, the rings are the main source of light. (the scene has changed a lot since the last update)
i'll just add in some lights to the non-ring version i think. thanks

right now im fighting with the bronze metal trying to get it to look right. i think its too shiny right now. i'm also thinking of adding a bit of a mottled bump map to it

[OnoSendai]

Looking cool, keep it up!

[Vampyre]

thanks ono. i think im gonna be happy with this when its done.

this is a quick render without the rings to illustrate the problem
if i add more lights to this scene, they'll affect the robot and back wall (by reflecting in it)... i suppose i will just play with tone mapping a bit, maybe brighten up the lights. thinking on it now, i think that will work just fine.
ok ignore me everyone thanks for all the help

[Steve S]

i think i will use this method, but the real problem is that in my scene, the rings are the main source of light.

I see your problem. Here's an idea. Have the rings present in both images. In the first one it will light the scene and provide reflections. In the "black" rendering, give the objects a matte black finish so there won't be highlights or reflections. Only the rings will be visible. When you blur this layer and add it to the other, it may give some fuzziness to the rings in the first rendering. You'll still be able to see the solid rings in the first one but the blur might help with the effect.

BTW, the image is coming along nicely. I always liked that shot from the movie.

Steve S.

[Vampyre]

if only the rings themselves are visible, i could use blender for that layer as well to speed things up. i might give that a try

[BbB]

Looking good. The last ones are pretty close to the original's feel.