Lighting Study - Zoe's Room (Patreon)

Before even starting to animate I usually test out a number of different lighting conditions inside a scene to determine which of them look least horrible! The plan for the next animation is to have Zoe resting on the couch in her room with a full squirmy tummy, and of course this borderline smut scenario needs to be properly lit as well!

Day- http://cake.macrophile.com/HDimages/lighting%20study/ls_day.jpg

Dusk- http://cake.macrophile.com/HDimages/lighting%20study/ls_dusk.jpg

Rain- http://cake.macrophile.com/HDimages/lighting%20study/ls_rainy.jpg

Night- http://cake.macrophile.com/HDimages/lighting%20study/ls_night.jpg

During the recent days I've set up various lighting models to test inside her room. Unlike the recent animation this is a relatively small scene and therefore allows for fairly detailed light and shadows. Lighting is mostly made up of a skylight half-sphere illuminating the room, as well as weak ambient light, a stronger sun spotlight, and hand placed global illumination. For the night variation there are other light sources, but this particular variation was made knowing I wouldn't use it anyways, after having done two animations playing at night time in a row. Having said that, I didn't put much consideration into the night variation, which is why it doesn't look particularly good.

All things considered I'll likely go with the rainy variation, I love the idea of raindrops on the windows refracting the outside light. Furthermore the grey/green contrast of plants and furnishings has a soothing effect on the eye, which will fit perfectly for this animation. I've planned to additionally put at least one tree in front of the windows outside to emphazise this contrast, apart from that the 2D image plane of the city will be less obvious, so things will feel a little less like the Truman Show.

Zoe's room has gotten a few improvements by now as well, most notably the curtains. Material shaders have seen a vast improvements overall, glossy ones have real time reflections now, while others like the carpet were enhanced by a fancy fur shader! I shall hold back from making a terrible fur-niture pun here. <:

There's still some work to be done here. Eventually the room needs a few more props, apart from that there's currently nothing behind the camera, so modelling a desk with a laptop , as well as a door seems like a good idea. This way she wouldn't always have to enter throught the window as well