New Class, New Challenges

This summer semester I'm taking 3D Lighting and Surfacing 1.  We learned to make basic models in the previous class (3D Modeling 1).  We now need to learn how to cover them in textures that make them look real and light them realistically as well.  I did some of this in the previous class.  This semester's class specializes in that.

Remember that Ammo Room from last class?  We used it again for this one.  This first class assignment I just used the basic shapes as a way to show how my lights would bounce around objects in a scene.  For this I used the basic gray objects instead of the textured objects from last class.  We were asked to use lighting to create 4 different atmospheres or moods.


This first one was just a basic yellowish light with shadows turned on.  I left the windows dark outside.  You can see how the stark single light casts shadows from objects in the room.  That's not all I had to do, though.  You see, these objects don't bounce light off themselves the way things in the real world do.  The overhead lamp was a directional spotlight placed in the same location as the bulb.  I then put an omni at the floor level, the same color as the overhead light to simulate that light bouncing off a white concrete floor.   There's another weak omni light hovering at ceiling level to fill the room a bit more.

The next one was almost the same except I changed the color of the light to red.  I think this turns the Ammo Room into a sort of darkroom.  Whoever works in here is either developing photographic film, or he's going out immediately into the night and he doesn't want to compromise his night vision.  The light bouncing off the floor is red but the shadows are slightly bluish.

This next one is an afternoon scene.  I accidentally made the lamp shade slightly transparent, but that's fine.  I added a yellow-orange directional light outside the window to simulate a sunset.  I also placed a plane outside the window with a desert sky simulating that sunset.  For some reason the map didn't render.  you see the reflection of the sunset on the boxes in the room but not the light out the window.  Frustrating.  I also added a faint omni light just in front of that box.  It's the same color as the sunset light and you can see it reflecting off the barrel next to the box.

Fourth one was meant to be an underwater scene.  To enhance that feeling I made the lamp shine a kind of washed out teal color.  The directional light from outside was changed from sunset orange to underwater blue.  Again, there was supposed to be a plane with the underwater seascape but it didn't render.

This was a decent exercise for helping us think about how light bounces around in the world and what reflected light does from object to object.