Sanguinem Sanctorum (violent content AND a playable demo)

[Mouth for war]

Hey! In this picnic-friendly room I want to animate that candle in the corner...But I really suck at it. The candle animation itself is easy to make, but how to make the light against the wall? Can someone give some good pointers how to do this? (Animated attempts are of course more than welcome hehe )
Enjoy!

[Atelier]

Cant help you with the candle per se - but good compoaition of scene dude

[Mouth for war]

Thanks man :-)

[Armageddon]

Get a renderer like MentalRay and place a light and animate it to flicker in 3Ds Max.

[Darth Mandarb]

I love the look you've got going here.  The only "major" critique I'd offer would be about the lighting... I get the "this is supposed to be creepy/scary" feeling from what you've got but the lighting just doesn't portray that effectively!  But that's not what you've asked for here


- the light/shadow bounce is intentionally over-exaggerated (to demonstrate) but should probably be toned down a bit
- same with the candle flicker
- the cone of light (above the flame) should probably extend higher as well

One of the things I like about working with flames/lights/shadows is that flame is so random that just throwing lights/pixels around can achieve a very pleasing effect!

This was done pretty quickly so it's not as good as it should be, but it should be enough to serve as an example!

[Mouth for war]

Darth you are absolutely right. I really want to learn how to set the light better. I know i am asking for much but if you have some ideas and time of course to show me on that picture it would be really really awesome. I feel completely lost with this.That candle animation was really good!! :-)

[Darth Mandarb]

Had some free-time figured I'd give it a go (totally dig the style!)

I didn't have any of the textures/etc so I just did this from scratch (so it doesn't match-up exactly) but close enough!


- gave it a hue shift to feel "darker" (and blue is more moody)
- added shading to better define the edges (walls, floors, etc)
- added a torch to define the light source

Some things I wanted to add (but just ran out of that aforementioned free-time):
- dirt and grime (to add more randomness and realism)
- more lights (to show overlapping shadows)
- the stairs/door
- blood on the walls
- stuff on the floors (barrels, bodies, etc)
- wood beams around the ceiling

Lighting (and shadows) is the part I struggle with the most and I'm FAR from an expert!  But the thing I always do (to create it) is to imagine my eyes are the light source and I'm looking around the room.  The parts of the room that I can't see would be in shadow.  It's probably not accurate to do it that way, but it works for me

And the lighting could/should be animated like I did with the candle before.  It's LOADS of work, but well worth it in the end!

[Mouth for war]

Glad you like :-) that was an amazing edit. Which program do you use?

[Darth Mandarb]

Was done entirely in Photoshop.

I borrowed the textures from a Google search (didn't have time to make 'em myself!).

[Mouth for war]

Ah good ol' PS...Damn I guess I will have to settle with what I have...that light stuff is out of my league...I made an update though...I think this looks a little better at least

[Darth Mandarb]

What program are you using?  It looks like you've added an "omni" light object over the stairs for this version?

Can you adjust the color of the light?

[selmiak]

I guess this is modeled in 3d so you could also put the lightsource outside of the door and let it shine through the door and have some cool shadows. And for the darkness that appears in the rest of the room you can light the candle.

[nihilyst]

There's something weird going on with the shadow of the stairs. Why isn't it cast on the floor?

I dig the style. Has a unique vibe to it which I like.

[Mouth for war]

I'm not using any 3d programs except for characters...the rest is 2D. I'm using World Creator and the game is actually made in Multimedia Fusion 2 I just added the light with paintshop pro fast and I think it should be possible to change the colors of the light. Yeah Nihilyst, that staircase shadow is bugging me a little. Need a little more work I guess with all this

[Mouth for war]

Yet another attempt then

[Darth Mandarb]

Now we're getting there!  This is a major improvement.  The lighting (more the shadows I mean) still isn't technically "accurate" but the darkening of the scene is really helping set the mood much better!

I'm curious where the shadow of the stairs is coming from?  Are you adding that in manually in paint shop pro after World Creator renders the scenes? (I know nothing of World Creator so forgive my ignorance!)

[Monsieur OUXX]

I'm really impressed by Darth Mandarb's shading. With Photoshop?!? Teach me, master.

[Mouth for war]

I draw the shadow in mmf2 and just make it transparent. So all shadows is made manually. Adding light/shadows is the most difficult part of the process i think.

[Mouth for war]

World creator is actually a nice little iso tile engine...it creates iso and top down 2d tiles in seconds with wall depths etc...You can import black and white masks to create any tiles you want more or less Oh and I totally agree with you Monsieur Ouxx...Darth has great skills!!!

[Darth Mandarb]

Sheesh you guys are going to inflate my head  

I would wager that if somebody like Loominous was to see my "technique" he'd probably laugh (though his advice a few years ago directed shaped my style)!  I have no real idea about proper techniques or theories... I just kind of start throwing stuff down (adjustment layers (contrast, color balance, hue/saturation), layer masks, filters, etc) until I get something that I'm happy with.

Here's a quick (sloppy) rundown of what I did...

The Layout

• created the layout of the walls/floor with solid pixel lines (no anti-aliasing)
• grabbed some repeating textures from Google (normally I'd probably try to create my own but this was much quicker)
• created new layers for each texture and filled them with the [repeated] textures
• mask out the areas of each wall
• copy the wall texture layer to a new layer and 'perspective' adjust it to match the angle of the wall I'm working on
• Then using the mask for each section of the wall (and the corresponding perspective-ified texture) I copy and paste the new texture over the mask
• (same for the floor which, in this case, I didn't adjust in anyway, just masked it in)
• now I have each wall piece individually

The Lighting

• add an adjustment layer for the color balance and find the "mood" I want (in this case the dark blue cast)
• select the mask for each wall and add an adjustment layer for each (that require light)
• add the adjustment layer (again color balance) to find the color I'm looking for (in this case orange/yellow for torch light but this works for any color light)
• then mask out the area the light affects (layer mask/gradients)... this is the "feeling" part.  I just keep working on it until I get a result that feels right to my eyes

The Shadows

• added a new layer over each wall piece and used a gradient (black to transparent) and "edge" the piece darkening each edge (this is done by eye and, in this case, I used black but this could also be done with an adjustment layer to create more natural colored shadows).
• LIGHT SOURCES: I imagine my eyes are the light source and then I mask out the areas I can't see
• apply more adjustment layers to darken/hue-shift/color balance the area (again, this is just done on a case-by-case basis until I find the look I like)
• layer mask and adjust the edges/fades (once again, it's case-by-case to make it look like I want as some light sources would have sharp shadows and others would be soft)

I'm not sure this makes any sense?  That's really the first time I've ever tried to organize my "technique"... I've always had a hard time giving any structure to something as variable as art!