Shopping Mall

[deflix]

Some stills of a shooping Mall im working on.
Frame times are key here, and im getting about 4mins per frame with a pre-made IR map.

C+C's welcome.

[armilla]

Looking good. I worked on a big shopping centre animation last year, and we just mapped shop front images on to planes, gave them a bit of self-illumination and reflection, and they looked ok from most angles, but as dodgy as hell from others. Whereas yours look as if you've modelled the shell of the interiors and then texture mapped the interior walls, which works much better and adds depth. Are they photos of shops you've taken yourself? Whenever I've tried to take photos in and around shops before, I've always been moved on by an over zealous security guard. The Tesco inerior looks very nice as well - all the suspended signs help to sell it.

My main criticism is that the lighting lacks punch at the moment, making the space seem rather grey and uninviting. Maybe most of the materials are grey, I don't know, and it does look like a tricky space to light as it's a bit of a narrow canyon-like space. You could probably tweak it enough in post with levels/curves to make it pop. I'd be interested to see the final animation if you feel like posting it when it's done.

Andrew.

[cristoforo]

I agree with the lighting. It is quite dark. Maybe you should increase the intensity of the environment light.

[tricky]

My thoughts also -its looking a bit flat. Doesn't really look much like 'GI' if you know what I mean. Some good detail though.

Another 'issue' I have with Vray is making things 'sparkle'. Anyone had any luck with this? You know - starburtsts and things off lights and shiny curved bits of metal.

[olitech]

definitely needs a sky blue vray light or dome light above your skylight opening...need to get some ambient light in there

[deflix]

Thanks for the response.....


armilla - Yes I shot most of it at bluewater - it was very funny taking as many shots as possible b4 some upstart would turf me out. In one shop I started shooting from the hip for a bit of fun, and this security guy came over and actually pushed me out of the shop! - ironic as the retailers are all clients of the scheme!! I decided to use planes also but with alot of opacity maps thrown in for good measure - mannequins etc.... Shops are lit with non shadow casting omnis set with a limited Att range.

As for lighting I agree it does look flat in the stills - somehow it works when you move through it though as the sun is straight at you when you going past tesco's. Lighting was simple - an environment colour of pale blue, and an IES Sun pale yellow. My standard setup.

It would be nice to have a sun flare in the eyes at the end of the sequence -- anyone know of a decent post tool to achieve this?

Here is the actual res - 800x600 (prev small test run images by mistake)

[jacksc02]

looks good deflix, but i would recommend getting a lot more light into your scene. looks very dark even though there is a lot of direct light

[armilla]

The higher resolution stills do look better, more contrast, but I agree with the others - it would definitely benefit from more light. Are you using HSV Exponential colour mapping? If so, and I'm sure you know this, you can whack the multiplier of the sun up to 5 or 6 quite easily before it starts burning out. I imagine in this case, you could increase the muliplier of the environment a bit as well before it starts washing the scene out. Keep us updated.

[priad]

Look good, but take care too shadows and reflexion kill shadows and reflexion.

[sjmoir]

Looks very detailed, I like the shop interiors, these are the bane of my life. OK, not that serious but they are a hassle. I do think it all looks a little too grey though. St Stephen's in Hull right? Seen some other nice images somewhere.

[Aneurisma]

I think some of the people are tripping on acid!!!! they are kinda levitating!!!

Or maybe it's just me having a flashback...