Light Tests

This week I have been hard at work on lighting tests. The primary light sources in the scene are the over head windows, and the mobile phone itself. It's important that both sources cast light onto the dummy geometry so that realistic lighting can be added during the final composite.

The mobile phone will be moving throughout the scene, bumping into props and casting a glow on the environment. It's also important to me that as the screen is on, it should have a realistic interface. The idea that someone is calling the phone can only be realised if the screen lights up an image as well emits light. This has been a cause of some head scratching, but after thinking through the idea logically, and acquainting myself with the shader shop in more detail, I seem to have managed to produce a decent effect.

I am also attempting to produce God rays/Cathedral rays to light the scene from above. This is an early test render comped onto the back plate. This is NOT the final grade or composite, I was just interested to see how the lights from the dummy geometry would look with the back plate. I think the effect is working relatively well, perhaps a little fast, and the geometry certainly needs cleaning up a bit. I'm also not liking the rays through the side portholes. Perhaps a simple glow would be more effective here. It'll be interesting to see how the light rays are effected by the movement of the phone through the scene. 

Aquascape Update

It's been a very busy couple of weeks, so been remarkably slow on updating the blog.

On the 22nd October, I returned to my location, that had been scouted out the week previously, and took some more photographs. This time I took a tripod to allow myself to take photographs on a much slower shutter speed, thus improving the lighting of the scene. It also allowed me to take multiple exposures for bracketing purposes. I took many pictures, from all angles, I was keen to get into shot the port holes, and the hanging lamps that really sell the place as a boat rather than the inside of a pub.

I've also spent a lot of time researching. I've looked at a lot of general under water images, but for this project to be successful I need references from inside a shipwreck. I found the following image whilst hunting through Google images. I particularly like the colouring of this shot, and the fact that the structure is wooden should significantly help with the final colour grade.


This is the final concept art. I'm intending for the phone to cast light on the foreground elements, and then the light from the window to cast light onto the phone as it passes into the midground.


Once the final backplate was selected, and the concept was complete I could begin work on creating dummy geometry for the scene. This is still a work in progress, though nearing completion, and should hopefully be finished and textured by the end of this week. The dummy geometry creates surfaces for the CG phone to illuminate. These light passes can then be rendered off and composited onto the real scene, creating lighting as the phone passes through the scene. I intend to use area lights to light the scene through the windows, so I can also get a realistic lighting on the phone.


On Saturday 26h October, I spent the day, with a team, in the studio filming practical effects to use in the composition. This largely involved filming bubbles and particles in a water on a black background. The idea is to combine real effects which should add a level of realism and depth, with CG simulation, which will interact with the 3D model.

The 3D model in question is a mobile phone. I have spent much of this week modelling and texturing. This has taken me longer than anticipated because I have never really tried my hand at 3D modelling before, and Houdini is a whole new system for me. However I seem to be learning it quickly and I am quite happy with my efforts so far. The largest issues I've met so far, are; correcting topology issues, which were causing my initial texture attempts to turn out badly; and getting my phone model to realistically emit light. 

Again, this is still a work in progress, but I am hoping that by the end of next week I shall have an iphone that not only emites light, but has an image on the screen. I'd also like to have an some early animation attempts complete as well.