Shading and Lighting

My first month experimenting with Shading and Lighting techniques was the best month ever. I had so much fun working on this project. I remember staying up all night for 5 days straight just experimenting with different things to do to the scene. I look back now and I still see many many ways I could make it 100x better.


We were given the basic models to work with. I hid a lot of the elements in the scene to give the final image the feel I wanted. (The scene was originally the National History Museum)


I learned a lot of helpful things in this month.


Bump-mapping:
This can be your friend, or it can be your worst enemy. Always make sure you don't use too much bump depth in your scene. It may look really cool and awesome to make something look torn up, but it also may look horrible to everyone else. 


The easiest way to do bump mapping is through a Blinn. Take the original texture you're using for color, drop it into photoshop, desaturate the image and adjust the contrast and brightness. You may have to paint out any artifacts you don't want in your bump. Drop the file back into the bump section of you Blinn and you're on your way to a great shader. Just make some minor adjustments and you're set!


Surface Shaders:
Super helpful! I used surface shaders for my stained glass windows. You can apply an image or texture into the color attribute and voila you have a pre-lit object. Surface shaders don't need any lights or adjustment to have them show up in renders. However, this means that you may have to do some adjustment in post (photoshop or another compositing software) in order to get the desired effect.