Still Life


I figured out how to do the multiple materials and cutting/extruding, but I didn't quite figure out how to do diagonal cuts. I'm also still wrestling with the camera, but I'm really digging the lights.

Anyway, it turns out that I really do like wine. When I was going for my bachelor's, I was only allowed one elective. I chose Wine Tasting. I was an older student, so every year I'd be spending the first semester just trying to find people old enough to drink. Then, after I'd finally find a group of cool people, they'd all graduate on me and I'd have to start over the next year.

I sped this process up considerably by taking a class where you had to be 21 in the first semester. I also learned a lot about wine. Maybe I could be a sommelier. Let's pretend these green bottles are Sauvignon Blanc. Did you know the best Sauvignon Blancs come from New Zealand? Now you do. So, if you see an expensive California Sauv Blanc and a cheaper New Zealand Sauv Blanc next to each other, go for the New Zealand stuff. It's probably the better value.

I set the scene in a castle because I wanted to play around some more with materials and lighting.

24mm

This one's in 24mm. I tried going extreme wide angle to see if I could get that sweet fish-eye effect and make it look like an old-skool Beastie Boys video, but that didn't happen. I was also trying to get a shallow depth of field by playing with the f-stop and focus, but that also didn't happen.

I did, however, like how my lighting turned out. I used three points but I substituted the Fill Light for a Set Light, that way I got more shadows, more color, and nicer definition and flares on the "glass." I don't like unmotivated lighting, so let's also pretend the blue-ish backlight is a window. I do like how the backlight hits the standing bottle on the left side. That's nice.


42mm

As you can see by the extreme shadow, I bumped up the intensity of the far right lamp and used it as the Key. The shadow of the table lines up directly with the angle of the Backlight. That one also had to be bumped up quite a bit because of the distance. No unmotivated lights.


100mm

Telephoto lens. I don't see any noticeable lens distortion here, either, which was kind of a bummer. I like how the angle kind of makes it seem like the Fixture Lighting is sitting inside the cones. I used point lights for all of the "torches" and an Area light for the Backlight/"window."



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