Exterior Shot

I really enjoyed doing these images. These renders will form the final shot of the film where we see the protagonist exit the apartment and go off into the night. This building will be in the background as the character walks off camera. I had modeled the exterior early in the production but now it was time to light the scene according to Chris's storyboards.

I created some area yellow area lights which would emit the warm glow created by the sodium lamps on the street. I made sure that the light had a linear decay so that it would not cause over exposure. I also made sure that the lights had ray tracing capability so that the light would not pass through objects. This was vital in this scene as the scene would take place at night. Once I had the sodium lights in place I adjusted the intensity so as not to illuminate too much. The scene was supposed to be dark and gloomy as the main character sets off for his next hit. The lighting had to enforce this and describe visually what the character was feeling emotionally.

Chris wanted an extra light source coming from a hotel sign which would help suggest that the character was renting an apartment. The blue tones of the glowing sign would also soften the reds of the brick facades.

The images below show some of the more early light tests using mental ray as well as the positioning of the hotel sign. We decided to move the sign to the left of the image so that it would not be too jarring on the eye. While setting up the scene I was always mindful of the positioning of the camera as well as certain objects in the scene and the way in which the light would interact with the various surfaces. Once I was happy with the layout of the scene as well as the lighting I began to render a colour and occlusion pass.

The images below show the finalised exterior shot and composite. I also added a chemist sign which I felt gave some more focus to the shot as well as colour and it looks cool too. I very much enjoyed this process and the results far exceeded my expectations. Plus this shot was completed within a day.