My Basement image

Finally I got some time to post my Basement image, I did for the last Weekend Contest at Blender Nation.
The image is inspired by a picture of “Auerbachs Keller” at the time around 1900: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/3/32/Auerbachs_Keller_1900.jpg
It is a place that Goethe often visited while studying in Leipzig and a scene in his drama Faust.
But the simple reason why I chosen this picture was, that I was inspired by the light and the perpective and I could already imagine how it could look in color. So I tried to catch the mood and not perfectly rebuilding the image.

At last I didn`t had much time, so I submited an image in a rather small resolution and with a lot of noise. So I rendered the image again. The final image you see here is rendered in Cycles with 2000 samples and it took 7 hours. A second image was rendered with different light situation, to get the best result for the post.

Modelling wasn`t too complicated - a lot of repitive parts and I only modelled what is seen through the camera. The Tables and chairs and the piano I modelled some time ago. Only the books were taken from Blender Guru (thank you Andrew Price!) but I changed some textures.

But the hardest thing was to get the light right.
A lot of the mood was done in the post, for that I used Photoshop.

After all I`m saisfied with the result, but let me know what you think about it - what could have been improved?

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You’ve done well to create an atmosphere in this piece, Vince. I’m especially impressed that you were able to complete this work for a Weekend Challenge!

I think you’ve done a very good job with the lighting, and with detailing the scene in general. If I were to make any suggestions, it would be that some of the edges look a little sharp; one example is the wooden paneling on the columns. You could use the Bevel tool to help soften those edges (I think VRay has an option in the render settings to render sharp edges as though they were soft, I wish Blender had such a render setting!) I also feel that the wood texture used on those columns and along the walls may be scaled a little too big.

You could also add a bit of particulate into the air to give some extra atmosphere, but that is really just an artistic choice, and not necessarily everyone’s cup of tea. You already have a good image, excellent work!

Thank you James!
Good points, yes the wood scale is a bit too big, thats right and also the sharp edges.
Sometimes I don`t realise things like that no more when working on a project over hours and looking on the image again and again to find things to improve. And that is why I wanted to hear what other people say.

Pretty amazing render. :slight_smile:
Really nice color pallets.