Week 23 - Reflective Journal

This week I started adding base colours to my environment and experimented with lighting. I started with a blue ambient light (sky) and orange directional light (sun) that would cast shadows in the day scene (fig.1). For the night scene, I started with a deep blue ambient light (night sky) and a white/light blue directional light (the moon).

Fig. 1: Spence, 2023. Day Time Scene

Fig. 2: Spence, 2023. Night Time Scene

After these inital lighting tests, I decided to render using Arnold, which would allow me to use other lights such as the Sky Dome. Before adding this, I added a few more directional lights and removed the ambient lights. I also experimented with adding a glow to the mushrooms in the night scene.

Fig. 3: Spence, 2023. Day Scene Arnold Render

Fig. 4: Spence, 2023. Night Scene Arnold Render

I then did a couple of rough concept paintings over a screenshot of one of my camera angles, testing more colours and adding to the background. I found a slight pink overlay helped flesh out the scene, and might add this to my final render to create an atmosphere leaning towards early sunset.

Fig. 5: Spence, 2023. Day Scene Quick Painting

Fig. 6: Spence, 2023. Night Scene Quick Painting

My aim for the night scene is to use the mushroom glow and moonlight to make the scene visible but maintain dark aspects. I also want to test adding fog to the scene.

Thinking about environment painting, I thought back to lessons at the beginning of my undergraduate course with Jordan Buckner. Some of the basics Jordan taught us were having darker areas to frame the image near the front, and desaturating and lightening far away objects to give the illusion of distance. Examples of this are prevalent in Jordan's work (fig.7+8).

Fig. 7: Buckner, 2020. canals

Fig. 8: Buckner, 2015. Untitled

Adding these basics to my rough image adds dimension to the scene, frames it nicely, and highlights a focal point to draw the eye.

Fig. 9: Spence, 2023. Adding Dimension

References:

Images:

Figure 1. SPENCE, Nel. 2023. Day Time Scene. Private Collection: Nel Spence

Figure 2. SPENCE, Nel. 2023. Night Time Scene. Private Collection: Nel Spence

Figure 3. SPENCE, Nel. 2023. Day Scene Arnold Render. Private Collection: Nel Spence

Figure 4. SPENCE, Nel. 2023. Night Scene Arnold Render. Private Collection: Nel Spence

Figure 5. SPENCE, Nel. 2023. Day Scene Quick Painting. Private Collection: Nel Spence

Figure 6. SPENCE, Nel. 2023. Night Scene Quick Painting. Private Collection: Nel Spence

Figure 7. BUCKNER, Jordan. 2020. canals. jordan_buckner [online]. Available at: https://www.jordanbuckner.co.uk/bpydm3dt82twfxno8scoipwl5c9uad [Accessed on: 01/03/2023]

Figure 8. BUCKNER, Jordan. 2015. Untitled. jordan_buckner [online]. Available at: https://www.jordanbuckner.co.uk/bavlzfv10xccji31nmsb6uhen7qerg [Accessed on: 01/03/2023]

Figure 9. SPENCE, Nel. 2023. Adding Dimension. Private Collection: Nel Spence