11.05.13 Refining the lighting in the Nursery scenes

So while I was updating the textures in the nursery scenes, creating higher resolution colour and bump maps, I started trying to revise the lighting setups I had already and looked at how I could improve them.

Luckily, it was pretty sunny today, so I had a jaunt about my flat and took some pictures as reference for how the sunlight would be cast across the room and the shadows it would throw, and how they varied.

Here I was looking at how the sunlight affected different materials. Paying attention to the bounce of light off the gloss painted door, in comparison to the less reflective wall.

Here (excuse the mess....) I was looking at how light travels and bounces around corners to light up the room, and get into the corners. On a really sunny day like today, and like the one I intended to portray in my "Constructing" and "Constructed" version of the nursery scene, there shouldn't be any vary dark shadowed areas, not even in the corners of the room.

Again looking at how the sunlight reacted on the wall, in comparison to the wardrobe.

Sun decided to hide behind a cloud at this point...

Looking at colour bounce and reflections

Looking at how the direct rays of sunlight filter through the window and the shadows they cast, and how intense the light would be.

Looking at the dropoff and angles which the sunlight travels in and how it lights up the room and casts the shadows from the objects on the windowsill.

Went into the very messy living room to get a look at how the sunlight interacts with other materials and surfaces, and the various shadows it casts, how dark they are, and how soft the edges are when compared with direct sunlight, and light bounce.

Looking at how sunlight falls across fabric, and bounces off the reflective wooden floor.

The shapes the shadows have formed as a result of how light is cast around the objects on the windowsill and table.