TECH316 CG Lighting and Rendering

Project Website
4 projects have to be completed within the 10 weeks of the course. These projects are listed in details on this website below. If you are new to this site, please take not more than 5 mins reading the instruction below. It will help you navigate through the content easier.



(A) The index of the content is listed on the right of the page. Click on any to navigate to the page directly. Otherwise scroll down to read more.
(B) The index is not listed totally until you click on the black arrows. Once clicked you will see the full list of the contents under each month when the contents were posted.
(C) Continue to scroll down to read more.

Please enjoy going through the materials in this site, and leave any comments if any by clicking on the "Comments" below each entry.

Thank you.

Project Four - Final Portfolio Piece

The student will work on a project of his/her choice, one that utilizes the lighting techniques from the previous projects. My proposal is to build an entirely CG environment of an abandoned factory floor with a "dead" robot. Every CG model will be built from scratch based on a design that I have done previously on my own time.

See concept drawing of robot, click here. Modeling of the robot was done in 2 weeks while texturing was finished within a week of the project. I used the next 2 weeks before the project due to light, render, and composite the layers in Shake. The rendered layers are: Beauty Pass, Shadow, Occlusion, Specular, and a Matte layer.

Here's the final render after color correction in Shake.

(Click image for larger image)

Matte Layer
One thing I did different for this project was I rendered a Matte layer that acts as a mask layer used in Shake to change specific areas on the final beauty pass without affecting the other portions of the render. This is specifically useful when the scene gets complicated.



Final render on video:

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Project Three - CG Environment and Lighting

The objective of this project is to render a completely 3D environment. A reference image has to be used in this project. Besides, the student will continue to use the technique of rendering in layers and combining these in Shake to achieve the desired result. Through this, the student will acquire a better understanding of lighting and materials, and to see the significance and impact of compositing as part of the lighting and integration process.

Reference Image
I have chosen this as my reference image because I like atmospheric lighting. Light coming in from a direction into a room with no light create a strong key light in the composition that enhances the emotional aspect of the object that is lit.

The visual cues important to this image are strong lighting, composition, and color. The somewhat over saturated color caused by the key light suggests that the mood conveyed is not moody or melancholic, though the shadows do. The light is focused on the wheelchair (object centric lighting) while details are obscured by the light. You might ask, "Why is there an empty wheelchair?" Has the person stood up and walked away and towards the light. The compelling light from the left might mean more.


Lighting Process
The process for this project is similar to Project 2. The scene was rendered in layers and finally composited in Shake. Color correction was done on the final composite to achieve the final look as close to the reference as possible. See process and render below.



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Project Two: Match To Live

This project will give an introduction to setting up a camera, light rig, shadows and reflection of the environment on a simple object to "match" it to that in a photo taken with that object. The process involved choosing a real world object that could be modeled in a short amount of time. Afterwhich, the student would create a series of photos (at least 20) of this object in a variety of settings inclusing outdoor, indoor, daytime and nighttime. The composition would require the object to occupy not more than 25% within the frame, thus leaving room for a CG twin to be included.

Photo references:

(Click on image to view larger pix)

Process
The first step is to make the model of the object chosen, which in this case is a Nivea bottle. Then it will involve UV layout and texturing, and finally a test light to see how the shaders are working with the lights.


Camera Setup will be next. This is done by using "Maya Live". Elements like grid lines, repetitive tiles, and any lines within the reference photo itself, are used as much as possible to correctly setup the camera with the right perspective that matched the reference. The grid view from Maya is an effective tool to make a good approximation. Sometimes fill in geometries have to be created to have better accuracy.



Rendering
Taking into account the positions, color, intensity, transparency and attenuation of the shadows on the original photo, student should attempt to light the scene as close to the reference as possible. Other factors would be reflection from the environment, and other material attributes that affect the lighting.

Rendering is done in passes using rendering layers in Maya. The layers are diffuse, specular, occlusion, shadow and reflection. These layers can be seen as follows:



Compositing
Compositing is done in Shake. See Shake node below. (Click image for larger view).


Final Render and Composite


Comments:
I would lift the bottle cap a little higher just to make the occlusion beneath for obvious. I would also change the environment reflection a little just to match the reference.
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CG Lighting Projects - Project One

The class consists of 4 projects that we have to complete within the 10 weeks of your studies. Project 1 requires students to use 4 different rendering techniques for an "object lighting" of their choices. We would use (1) Raycasting with Dmap shadows, (2) Raytracing with raytraced shadows, (3) Photon mapping or Global illumination, and (4) Final gather for our rendering purposes. With proper use of lighting and composition, we will attempt to create a focus on the objects within a simple scene setup.

There are several factors that determine a good render. The first is the proper use of light to achieve a certain amount of visibility, clarity, and creation of shadows. Composition is as important as lighting. Both add to the aesthetic quality of the final render. Therefore lighting can be object centric or environment centric. Good composition is also about balance and placing the object applying the rule of thirds. Shadow also plays a part in balancing the composition as well.
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Rendering Layers in Maya

Read all about rendering layers in Maya.

a. Rendering layers in Maya I
b. Rendering layers in Maya II

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The Power of Diffuse

Texturing and lighting works together to create more believable CG renders. Here's something that I read about using diffuse. I am getting better understanding of using diffuse channel now... oh yes.. diffuse is the absorption of light.

Read about diffuse.

And there are many other tutorials available too. Here is the link: http://www.noir.org/3dTutorials.html