Knights Project: Lighting, Rendering, Comping

When the animation was complete the C.G team had to focus on lighting the shots. Originally we were going to use the mental ray sky feature to light are scenes because it would avoid problems when matching the lighting in the 2-D backgrounds to the 3-D animation but there were problems with the shadows and it would be bad practice to use the feature. Instead I carefully placed directional lights with different intensities into the scene and created good lighting and shadows based on the light direction in the storyboard. When Rendering I needed to create layers that included the lighting on the models (beauty) and the shadows created by other models (shadows). Because the 3D is being placed on top of 2-D it was important to render out shadows on objects that wouldn't render out for example the floor. The software renders out the shadows and beauty separately so that they can be edited in comping.
I originally wasn't expecting to do any compositing but I couldn't resist completing the shots I had created. The Art Director ( Justin) wanted the shadows to be less harsh because although the lighting looked good the shadows suggested the wrong time of day needed for the shots. Finally shots were being finished so we dropped them into the block through so at least the team had evidence of our work.