This lighting kills me...

[Crimson Wizard]

Allright, I was practicing drawing some random background. My initial idea was to make a room with crumbled wall. During painting process concept has changed slightly....

This was a simple palace (or whatever) hall:


Then, a cannonball flew threw the wall and smashed the floor:


Now I have to add lighting/shading, and THAT is a pain in the... well, you know.

Well, that's cool  but it looks rather random, and I am not sure it actually feels like realistic lighting, especially the one on pillars.

Can anyone give me some tips how to make it better?

[Ketskari]

There would most likely be a little light on the ceiling, shaped a bit like the lighting on the floor, but not as strong because sunlight is presumably shining down on the palace.

The lighting on the columns seems as if it should be backlit, like the brown triangular objects in the foreground. So dark shadows would cover the majority of the cylinders (and would be rectangular rather than circular in shape.)

For potential reference, and if you aren't happy with the shape of the pillars, I'd wiki the Palace of Knossos from the Minoan civilization. Your concept and the frescos kinda remind me of it (in a good way....)

[Khris]

Compared to the dimensions of the room, the sun's distance from the scene is close to infinity. Thus the rays that don't hit the outside of the building but the hole are for all intents and purposes parallel.
What you drew suggests a light source about 2m outside the hole.
The bright spot is supposed to be much smaller.

(If the sun actually is slightly above the hole (in a 2D sense), obstructed by the ceiling, then the ground lighting is correct. This will create a sort of fish eye effect though, which isn't supported by the rest of the structure.)

Since the interior is made of exclusively non-reflective surfaces, there'll only be a minimal amount of ambient lighting, i.e. the columns and walls not directly hit by sunlight should be barely visible.

[InCreator]

I tried to replicate this in 3D, to check on light.

I think I kind of failed -- with different "outside light" setups, AND light bouncing off surfaces, my final result was still times darker than your image... might be realistic, might be not

Basically, I think your idea of shading is on correct path, but light reaches MUCH lesser visible area of pillars, with viewer side almost in total darknes and lighted part is much thinner edges. I mean - 90% of pillar should be super dark and only light-direction edge should get maximum of light. You have it more gradient and light vs. shade much more balanced, which isn't correct.

EDIT: That's pretty much what Khris said
Also, I did press printscreen at some point



Actually, I don't think it's hard to get absolutely right using a desk lamp, and handful of copier paper or something even more solid cut & folded into pillars and an oval room...

[Crimson Wizard]

Hmm... now I see the point.
It seems I should change something in overall composition to achieve what I want. Having only small spot lit and frescos in complete darkness is not really nice. Either hole in the wall should be larger, or some extra light sources should be added inside the room. Will try that later.

[Anian]

Doesn't light reflect of the floor as well, is there a floor on that model InC?

Besides, there's "realistic" dark and "mood" dark, I know the last  Wizard's picture is not completly realistic, but I also am aware that it's supposed to be a dark scene.

In any case, when in doubt - add more light sources - throw in some fallen torches or something.   It seems the wall through which the canonball went is going to be dark, so add a fallen torch at the bottom of it, that way the map would be visible, right?
OR just move the wall with the map to be ie on the left, the wall with a hole on the right and a wall with the passage/door to be in the back (facing the player). That way, you have a light source, the door could have a light from another room and the map would have a spotlight and it'd be drawing your attention.
Also that way you could add a nice tyndall effect (cause the ball just went through and you have a light projected and there's dust everywhere, would be a nice atmosphere.

I built a whole model of a greek temple (something along the Pantheon) and then realised how dark the inside would be so I added some torches along the walls, helps a lot when trying to use a 3d model.

[Crimson Wizard]

anian, there's no map it's a picture of some cloaked guy, which is not really important to be lit. I just want these side frescos be relatively visible, otherwise it will be like I drew them for nothing.

[Anian]

Oh, lol, sorry, in the middle it kinda looked like a map with those colours so I assumed the ones on the sides were as well...anyway, a bit of actually looking and zooming in, cleared it up for me.  

[Theme]

this is a fast experiment


Many factors influence the final result
the colors of walls and the intensity of ligth coming thru the hole

o/

[Ryan Timothy B]

The thing that bothers me most about this image is that it's symmetrical to hell and back.  First, the camera is staring at the pillars and doors with complete symmetry on both sides.  Then to make it worse, you've got a cannonball that happened to land smack dab in the center of the poles and in the same direction as the camera and lines in the floor.

Unless your game is about the path of life, life's purpose or fate or whichever, the symmetry doesn't work for me.

So I played around with it quickly, I'm not a pixel artist so I've broken all rules.


Also took a quick stab at the light beam (didn't really want it to aim at the cannonball, but I said what the hell).


Edit: Don't get me wrong, I do like the circle of light around yours, I just wanted to play around with the light beam itself.

[Khris]

Helplines for the construction of the shadow's edges:


Final lighting:


shadow layer

[Jakerpot]

Wow Khris... That's awesome 

Maybe a secondary lightsource would work, because it is too dark there (IHO).

[Crimson Wizard]

Yeah, Khris, that actually gives me idea how to make this properly

I am thinking of placing a brazier with flames before one of the fresqos.