Light's

The building we see in the first scene I wanted to look somewhat like an American Diner, though keeping it simple. Again I used real world measurements where available for the doors and upstairs windows. The downstairs windows were left larger. The ground floor and the second floor are

Textured differently with one having a brick effect and the other having a stone spackle effect. On the brick effect I applied alpha maps to the bump channel to make the light reflect in between the bricks, though for the spackle on the upper floor it has not got that as it won’t be shown close up.

There are 4 types of windows in my scene, 2 transparent, 2 non transparent

Boarded windows

It made sense to me to board up certain windows near the ground and it might add a little more to the viewer’s interpretation of the area as it is meant to look urban decayed.

Transparent windows no glow

These are just plain windows with no lights behind them

Windows glow

The windows with a glow behind them to look as if the lights are on to make the scene look more lived in.

Fake windows

The fake windows are simply a max material pretending to be windows without the reflective qualities or the opacity. You can see them in 3 places in the scene, the car windows, the cafe window and the character’s glasses.

MOON light

The main light in the scene is a directional target light with a light yellow hue. This gave me more control for the shadows in the scene than a sky light would have allowed, giving it a more exaggerated atmosphere. It’s used as a natural lights source so I named it moonlight

Direct target light with a light blue colour hue: 128 sat: 32 value: 255

Also there are area shadows which have shadow quality of 10 and density of 1 and use the base black value: 0.

I made the direct light a dark blue and turned on far attenuation to create better contrast with shadows and light. I turned up the shadow integrity and quality to make the character look better in the environment as he now has shadows as somehow the shadow integrity seemed to take away the shadows under his feet.

The key light always was above the character, normally a little behind the camera and 35 degrees to the right or left depending on his positioning.

The key light used the default shadow quality and density, although the colour was a little off white to add to the environment.

Some lights aren’t there for the character; for instance this light is here to show off the door and make the stage look more believable and less vacant.

The light itself does not cast very far as I don’t want it interfering with the character or over powering the skylight. However, it has a volume effect to give it a shine, hopefully catching the eye and the door itself will help u place the character in the world instead of making it look like he’s just disappeared.

The volume light was made to be subtle so as not to draw away attention from the character in the scene.

Most of the scene will not be illuminated and I try not to show it to give the audience the feel of a tight space and a sense of isolation, which was difficult in the actual video as the setting is outdoors. I think I should have had the character kick down a door and enter a building to find the chalk outline and do his thing, but I didn’t have the time to make a second environment to change the scene.

Here is an overview of the environment. I deleted a number of pollys you would never see but some earlier ideas had you following the character to the alley in the centre of the map/overview which is why buildings surround the alley which you never see.