John M. Dlugosz wrote:
> 
> Xplo Eristotle <inq### [at] unforgettablecom> wrote in message
> 
> > but in some cases, a carefully-placed
> > spotlight will do the trick, similar to the way that photographers use
> > reflectors to subtly illuminate a model's face (if you've seen an
> > outdoor photo shoot, you know what I'm getting at).
> 
> That's basically what my 1m-square area "fill light" off-stage is doing to
> the main figure, in addition to providing edge-effect radiosity-like
> shadows.
> 
> > I have almost no idea what the scene's supposed to
> > look like or what's in it..
> 
> See http://www.dlugosz.com/POV/dryad_dreams.html for my notes.

Lemme see if I can say something useful.

Well, your notes call for a gleaming 50s sort of robot. Such a gleaming
robot would probably be chromed.. in which case you want more reflection
and a much tighter specular highlight. I should point out, however, that
the more reflective your robot is, the less "shape" it will have, since
it'll be more and more a warped copy of what's around it and less
affected by traditional shading.

The robot you have now has a pretty good "soft metallic" finish, but
that may or may not be what you intended.

If the robot is highly reflective, it would be an excellent idea to
finish the room by adding walls behind the camera to reflect off of the
robot's skin (if you've done this already, they must be really boring
walls). The walls themselves will never appear, but their effect on the
scene will. Also note that adding a couple of walls may change the
lighting in the room, especially if you're using a lot of radiosity.

As for the lighting itself, hmm...

Well, it's supposed to be an artist's studio, yes? AFAIK, those tend to
be pretty well lit, and not with point light either. You probably want
(a) several wide-beam spotlights, similar to track lighting, or a lot of
sunlight streaming in through windows. (I can't see it real well, but
you appear to have something like a skylight, which isn't going to do
the trick.. unless of course you WANTED that.) With that much light, it
would be safe to turn down ambient light for the whole scene to 0 and
crank up the radiosity, letting what lighting exists flood the room in a
more natural manner.

You're looking for an artificial appearance, so I'll stop here. Hope you
got some ideas.

-Xplo

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