Even though I’m not using the super-duper humongous level kit that a major animation studio for the movies uses (donations would be gratefully accepted though 
), it’s still possible for me to use the same level of effects for single-frame images.
An example of the dilemma this causes is after the fold.
I’ve been reading Darth Mojo’s blog, and in it he once discussed how the Battlestar Galactica FX crew had lit up one of the ships they rendered/animated for the series. I decided to give the methods he discussed a try.
The first image was the one I had in mind right from the start, a simple steampunk vehicle trundling along a barren alien landscape at night, that had picked up an unwanted alien hitch-hiker.
The scene as envisioned would give me a chance to practice the self-lighting techniques I’d been reading about.
Hitch Hiker (Unlit)
Looks pretty good, I think?
Enter the dilemma. I also tried to do the same render, with mostly the same lighting, but turned on volumetric lighting to the render.
It actually came out pretty good the first time, but the haze and smoke “flared” too brightly with some of the lights from the original scene, so back into the lighting settings I went, as well as adding some extra external lights to try and bring the shadows into better focus.
This was the result of the tweaks with volumetrics enabled.
Hitch Hiker (Lit)
I’m not sure which one of these I’d call the “better” one. The first one has some of the feel, and is a lot clearer, but the one with volumetric has a more atmospheric, dusty dark planet feel to it – and the line of shadow coming from one of the alien’s fins towards the right is a cool effect.
So, which one would you choose?
[polldaddy poll="2381766"]
Shortlink for this post: http://wp.me/p2cfwg-eK
I gave the non-volumetric one the nod… but only because the volumetric one looks more "washed out" to me. I did like the shadow effect on the volumetric one but not so much as to compensate for the loss of other details (particularly the door to the space-craft).