My first cartoony 3D BG for C&C

[Theme]

wow 1hour render? it's too long i think.
InCreator you might be using the settings for the render too high.
One good render solution is Kerkythea: http://www.mfbb.net/kerkythea/kerkythea.html
it's very fast

edit: but you 'll have to do some exporting stuff

o/

[LimpingFish]

I'd agree that GI is overkill, and is really only needed for photorealistic professional work. I find that, for a small room, an omni light such as the one in my image, along with some key lights, will be perfectly adequet for a scene such as InCreator's.

As I've mentioned (many times ) before, I use Cinema 4D XL 6. It doesn't support GI , but never once have I felt at a loss when lighting a scene. It has enough light types (omni, spot, area, parallel, etc) and enough flexibility in shadow types for almost any scene. Plus it has a really fast render system.

Back to the scene...

Looks really nice, but where is that light source above the telephone eminating from?

[Da_Elf]

why are people so afraid of GI? heck he said it took him 7 minutes to render his scene. and after talking to him i found out his computer was stronger than the one im doing this test on.

[LimpingFish]

Looks fine, if a bit sterile.
And the lack of contrast between shadows make it look a little flat.

Now light it as if the bulb is illuminating the room.

[CaptainBinky]

why are people so afraid of GI?

Nobody's afraid of it. I just questioned it from a stylistic perspective.

[Da_Elf]

true. it does ahve its own style.
i couldnt help fooling around with the scene

night 1 light (middle of roof) needs to be brighter to light the room so its giving a hotspot




night with the roof light plus other lights out of view mounted as wall mounted lights. (less of a hotspot)




night skylight only




and since i was bored enough i couldnt resist.

[thewalrus]

     Wow, awesome improvements!!!

[InCreator]

Near-finished!
I'm using Vray instead of Mental ray now (thanks, da_elf!).

I think I have successfully achieved that cozy, colorful cartoony look I wanted, so I'm quite satisfied with this room now. Some additional details are still missing (I'll add them later), but hard part is over now.

Of course, my room is nowhere near these realistic renders da_elf did, but realism was never my objective at the first place.

As I make more rooms and improve on lighting, I may improve this one aswell.
To be honest, I'm extremely happy that I learned something so cool and new... and maybe a bit proud too. 
Thanks for C&C, everyone.

[Da_Elf]

this strikes me as a night time shot. if so you might want to turn off your outside light as well as make the background color dark

[InCreator]

Evening shot.
Once I decide the color of evening sky (which I will use also in other rooms), I'll rerender it here too.

[Da_Elf]

ah ok. and dont forget another part of mood is also color of your lighting.

[LimpingFish]

Looking great. Nice improvements. 

[MadReizka]

Da_Elf:
What renderer did you use?
Vray, Brazil or somethingelse?

[Cluey]

God I wish I could do my lighting that realistic. Do you guys have an links to tutorials and such? I'm good at outdoor lighting, but indoor I find tricky.

[Da_Elf]

Da_Elf:
What renderer did you use?
Vray, Brazil or somethingelse?

Im a vray beta tester

[Da_Elf]

Strange. it says that my message is posted but its not showing up for me. still shows cluey as the last post. anyhow. i was saying that i was a vray beta tester thats my software of choice. as for learning about lighting, when you get to the level of physical renderers all you need to do is pick up a book on lighting for photography or lighting for film. Once your materials are all set up properly you can just insert your lights and your camera and use the same camera peramiters as a snap shot camera since vrays camera comes with all those peramiters.

edit. must have been the computer i was on i can see it now. can someone delete my post above this one

[Lad]

I know I shouldn`t crit Da_elf work, but there should be a little glow from the laptops monitor.(as it was working)(last pic of his)

[Da_Elf]

actually in contrast to the brightness of the exterior light the light from a laptop is extreamly dim not to mention that whats wrong with the laptop is that at that viewing angle the screen should be even duller due to the nature of LCD screens. where i should have put glow is at the window since its so bright. normally when doing a job for a client i will tend to put in some glow but sometimes clients are actually bothered by it even though the glow is closer to realism and we all know the rule that the clients always right. The great thing is usually i work with an interior designer so my job is just to put the scenes together and i dont even need to worry about furniture possition or selection or color (:

[SpacePirateCaine]

One thing I noticed about this background that may stand to be mentioned is that with the exception of your couch and the front of the desk, your lines are straight. Though it'll significantly increase your poly count and make rendering take a while longer, you might want to look into some curving - lines that are nice and straight, though they don't take away from the overall cartoony ambience, seem a bit sterile. Your mundane objects are all warped, which looks great, but you may want to take it one step further, and add just a little bit of Bill Bryson style curve to the art.

For reference:

Note how all of the lines have subtle curves. (Screenshot borrowed from World of Monkey Island.)

I've been looking at some other 'cartoony' 3D rendered games (MI4, Sam & Max 2), and they don't really use this technique very much either, so I can't predict how it'll look ultimately, but I think it could benefit you in the long run insofar as adding a little more 'cartoony' flavor to the images. Might be worth a try, at least.