Getting started on backgrounds for scenes in our video yearbook. The first major one is in an alley. I don’t have much yet, I’ve mostly been screwing around with lighting and texturing.
This is post-pro’d in Photoshop (desaturate, higher contrast, lower brightness). The final product will similarly be post-pro’d but in Final Cut Pro.
What I’m looking for most at the moment is comments on the lighting. I’ll be posting updates as I make them.
Looking good so far. Nothing to crit yet, as there isn’t a whole lot there.
Keep it up though.
BgDM
That’s looking pretty good. I really like the lighting as well.
The only thing I would say is that the lights seem to be coming from nowhere!
Thanks both of you. I know there isn’t much in it, I was experimenting with the lighting. I’m gonna start adding detail now.
I didn’t have much time today, but a little more detail anyway. I spent a lot of time on the ground texture but you can’t really see it in this shot.
I still need to put lights in. I tried twice but they didn’t show up well.
You need a big dumpster. Some litter, grafitti, maybe some posters on the wall.
May be some colors, (if it’s not intended to stay grey) . then some bluish lights . the details are nice. the whole scene is interesting, and may give a very good final pic.
You need a big dumpster.
But there’s already two dumpsters. You mean one of the massive ones? Litter sounds good. I’m not sure about graffiti, as it’s a school project and that might be considered inappropriate or something. Our school has some weird rules.
May be some colors, (if it’s not intended to stay grey)
It’s supposed to be black and white.
Huh, I just remembered the wall on the left needs windows. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a fire escape there.
Litter, grime, broken shit, more grime, some grafitti, dim light, make it look almost slimy (high glossy spec, try using bloom.)
My partner (who I forgot to mention did the dumpster and trashbags) added more trashbags and some trash on the ground around the dumpster (which I just realized I forgot to append into my version), as well as windows (which he got from the model repository) and a fire escape for the building at the end of the alley. I added light fixtures and changed the lighting a bit, as well as resized the bricks. I also started working adding to the alley, but it’s behind the camera and not finished enough to show anyway.
I don’t know if the lighting looks worse now or I’ve just stared at it too much but it feels like it’s lost its luster.
I wasn’t sure if those were dumpsters but now I know. A big one would be cool, have lots of garbage spilling out.
The lights dont look like they are coming through windows.
Loving the back! Keep it up
Thanks for the feedback. That goes for everyone, sorry I forgot to say it before 
The lights aren’t coming through windows, they’re coming through lighting fixtures. You can see two of them towards the end of the alley.
I forgot to mention before I haven’t added much trash or grime yet but I’m still planning to. I won’t know about graffiti until tomorrow.
Looks nice! i like the BW-Style!
But the lights look a little strange. Where are they supposed to be coming from??
The normal light in an alley would come mainly from the illuminated street (from behind the camera in your case) or from the windows or maybe dull street lights…
You can see two lights in the upper part of the end of the alley. There’s just a row of lights on either side of the alley to provide dim illumination. It might not be a realistic place to find lights but it makes the scene look a lot better. The alley behind the camera is going to be long and illumination from the street wouldn’t carry that far.
I think if its a night shot which it appears to be them you should have light coming from the apartment windows at the end. Not all of them just some- and I think that it is lit up too much - are the windows at the end too small - Plus you could add moon light aswell –
Really like what you have done- looking awesome man-
