Test Render #1

Quick update, the render below is a test render so i can see if everything will render okay. So far most of the scene renders well apart from a few things, the main thing being the magpies eyes. Due to the storyline needing them to be sparkly and reflective i'll redo these soon.

This scene is rendered bright and colourful and gives the impression of a sunny day. I will most likely render everything out in this style. Any colour correction changes to contribute to mood will be done in post as this will be much quicker and more flexible.

There is a single ambient light within the nest with an intensity of around 40, light linking has been used to only light up the inside of the nest. This allows for the bird to be seen, without the light the bird was more of a silhouette.

The tree used was from paint effects, this was converted from paint effects to polygons. The default texture assigned to the tree did not stand up to close ups and looks pixelated. As a result the tree was exported to mudbox, painted and reimported to Maya, this allowed for a bark texture with a slight bump map that stood up to close-up renders. In addition the leaves were changed as they also became pixelated.

The background image is a HDR image standing for High Dyanamic Range. These image have a curvature incorporated so they can be wrapped around a sphere and are typically made by photographing a reflective ball. The image was 170MB and is now 80MB, it not only gives a crisp image but also allows for lighting data to be calculated. By selected "Image Based Lighting" in Maya and plugging the HDR image in the lighting has become more realistic by mimicking the light source of the image.

This shot has been bookmarked and will be used as a benchmark when filming the external shots of the nest.