Working on these I gained a newfound appreciation for lighting setups. What can be possible in Maya can be impressive and has helped me understand there is much more to light rays than the items it illuminates and the broader light rays that brighten up a room. I also believe I have developed a more solid understanding of area lights and their capabilities.
The number of separate lights was a little staggering for a first time and the layout of the broader house does feel confusing as the door to the kitchen is connected to a corridor or room the outer wall of which does not appear to obstruct the light from the right-hand window despite the sunlighht being at a slight angle though either window, which throws off where exactly the sun is in the scene as all the installed directional light appears ot be illuminating is the windowsill pottery and the left-hand counter.
The final image took half an hour to render on my PC. Had this been even a short scene I can see a render like this taking most of a day for just one second of 24fps footage. Then again given the room is illuminated by two sunlight sources (one of which must be getting obscured by the rest of the building) this might be an example of more-than-normal quantities of lighting for eductional purposes.
Hey Mark,
ReplyDeleteI noted from this it took a while for you to render this scene, that's a lesson to take from this little experience right there. Render times are not only defined by how many objects are on scene but also by how many textures, lights, dynamics (if any) and of course poly-counts. Doing a complete short scene by scene can usually be executed shot by shot but that's why planning the story/board/animatic is so important because it lays out durations and frame counts.
Having too much in the viewport can cause it to lag on some machines so its helpful to use layers to reveal/hide aspects while you animate. I used to hide everything in my scenes except the characters I was animating unless a prop was specifically needed or parented to the rig.
Always prepare for render times mate, like I told you time can quickly sneak up on you and if you haven't pencilled in time for rendering you will not reach the deadline. If your P.C at home cant handle it I suggest doing your rendering at Uni... If you want to render at home I suggest buying workstation graphics cards, (they are what the uni use) they are not recommended for gaming but they are for applications such as Maya....
Just something to think about,
xXStItChXx