Lighting!

I still have some animation stuff I could tweak, but I have to keep moving if I want to finish by the deadline. I painted a texture for the camel, and I even did a couple procedural textures for some of the props.  I would really like to use n environment light and Sub-Surface Scattering, so I did some experimentation.  As you can see the results are beautiful and dramatic...

... but the render times are out of control!  I was averaging about 40 min - 1 hr per frame with this configuration.  Here is the lighting pass I have just completed for the first shot (reference imagery after the jump):

This is no longer using SSS or Environment lights, and I cut my render times down to about 1 - 4 min. per frame.  what a difference!

You may notice that this shot doesn't match the original storyboards.  I did a little camera tweaking after consulting with one of the upper-division grad students who specializes in that sort of thing.  I think the new look is much better.

More Shader Work

I spent some time tonight tweaking my shader for the rider.

He's looking a little glossy, and I am not sure how to get rid of the black line on his nose or the rings around his eyes (they come and go), but this is a step in a much better direction than the earlier version.  He's got a few close-ups; I've gotta make him look nice.

Lighting Key

Here's the lighting key for my first shot.  the idea is to give direction to the kind of lighting scheme I want to use throughout.  I'm also uploading a 3D sketch of how I tried to implement that scheme.

Textured Models

Some photos of my textured models in-progress.  Most of it is looking pretty good, but the rider needs a little work.  Something about the specular properties are not going like I thought it would.  More after the jump:

Texture Reference Sheets

I have included my texture reference for the main characters.  I've got a big challenge ahead of me with the unwrapping process in order to get variation between the skin and the costume of my "rider" character, but the camel is pretty straightforward, since it's not wearing any clothes.

And here's the rider:

And this is the color I want to use in the background:

Motion

The "Motion" phase of my animation is now complete, which for me means blocking and main actions of the characters.  I'll leave secondary actions (breathing, facial expressions, etc.) for later if I have time.  Now, it's time to progress to textures and lighting!  I relied pretty heavily on the storyboards for my visual reference here.  How do you think it looks?