Natural History

[Andrew March]

CGtalk has an ongoing lighting challenge, I thought I'd have a go at it.

[cagey5]

Very dramatic lighting and good tones, but can't help thinking that considering all the light streaming in and the size of the windows it seems very dark at floor level.

[Andrew March]

I like it moody.

[JBT27]

I like the drama of it.....I don't like those window reflections, in that they are very distracting, being so neat.

Not sure about the floor level being so dark.....you either do it moody, or work it to the point it resembles a tone-mapped photo. Either way is valid, depends what you want ..... :D

Nice though :thumbsup:

Julian.

[Andrew March]

Cheers Julian

[virtualcomposer]

Looks great but wondering about the floor. If I can see a ton of light rays, shouldn't the floor reflect it as well?

[JeffrySG]

Looks great Andrew! Did you do any post work with this or is it all LW? It's nice to see a great entry using LW. Are you going to do any other versions for the contest?

[Matt]

Not a bad effort, better than mine!

What was the render time on this?

Pavlov started a thread on this too:
http://www.newtek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91690

[Andrew March]

Looks great but wondering about the floor. If I can see a ton of light rays, shouldn't the floor reflect it as well?

Nope, the rays are an illusion caused by dust particles in the air and you wouldn't see them.

There was some post work in PS, just a little colour adjusment and some grain.

Thanks Matt :)

[precedia]

The following is a 9.6 rig for the TRex in the Natural History lighting challenge (my attachment limit has been exceeded in these forums hence the external link):

http://www.lanovaz.org/daniel/Documents/LightWave/Scenes/TRex/TRex.zip

Sample screenshot images:

http://www.lanovaz.org/daniel/Documents/LightWave/Scenes/TRex/trex-rig-01.jpg
http://www.lanovaz.org/daniel/Documents/LightWave/Scenes/TRex/trex-rig-02.jpg

The mesh is based on one supplied by Matt (http://www.newtek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91690) with weight maps applied for the bones.

The lighting challenge scene is brilliant, but the t-rex and triceratops were not rigged for posing (and future animation within the scene).

This was a learning exercise. Prior to studying 9.6 rigs available as part of the new 9.6 content, I always selected and rotated bones rather than floating controls. These bones are locked tight; you use controllers (head, jaw, l/r arm, l/r leg, tail, spine, etc.) instead. Some have labels, but they should be self-explanatory. You can translate and rotate a few of them (e.g. wrist and ankle). The small boxes behind the ankle controller are for rotating the entire claw chain. Useful when animating walking where the claws will contract and expand as the leg lifts and lowers. I tried the new pole vectors on the legs.

I used more bones than necessary as an experiment in per-bone rigging of a skeleton. I placed some HBP limits but it's time to move on.

I hope someone finds it useful.

Daniel

[precedia]

Andrew, I forgot to mention that I enjoyed the overall mood of your render.

Daniel

[clagman]

Nope, the rays are an illusion caused by dust particles in the air and you wouldn't see them.

There was some post work in PS, just a little colour adjusment and some grain.

Thanks Matt :)

Wouldn't the light being scattered by the dust be visible in the reflections too? (not so much illusion)

Crepuscular rays from sunlight through clouds show up in my rear view mirror on the drive home ;o)

[starbase1]

Well, as someone who has photographed the real thing many times, yes the floor area is pretty gloomy compared to the upper levels!

See attached panoramic photo...

[Nitisara]

Very nice image!
One of the best I saw on this Challenge...