Dark Souls - indoor scene (lighting issue)

Artwork Works in Progress
1

Hello Mina-san!! Long time no see…

Well, where should I start? Recently I have been working on a very complex scene (from Dark Souls III). And I’m glad to announce that after countless hours of ardous (and not so ardous) work I’m about to conclude it. BUT (here’s my favorite part) I came accross a final issue I’m not able to resolve. Normally I try to figure my own problems out but this case is different for I need other’s opinions on the matter.

So, here is the reference:

Dark-Souls-3-Game-HD-Wallpaper.jpg2300×1294 221 KB

And this is what I have achieved so far (needless to say that the following image is NOT the final render)

upload.png960×540 737 KB

So? Well, texturing and modeling are done (I’ll do some minor changes but that’s all) and now I’m on the 3rd step, aka lighting. As you can see there is some fog and little particles floatting in the reference image, not to mention how the light passes through the columns.

Fog and particles:

upload.jpg1080×608 162 KB

Light:

I’ve been trying to simulate it with volumetric lighting, however given that the fog is situated in the right part of the image it difficults such a task. The HUGE plane that you may see on the following image is the “fog”, you know, volume scatter nodes and so on…

1219×635 435 KB

But it does not fit as well as I expected cuz the interior lighting makes it look fake. it cuts through the fog, so to speak…

[Album] imgur.com

For further information here you have the “object mode” image.

[Album] imgur.com

In short, I’m trying to imitate the light of the reference image but I fail to do so. Do you have any idea?

Thanks for your time.

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Ok, this thread shouldn’t be here… my deepest apologies

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Have you tried using sun or area lamp for those rays?

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For the lighting, check out Volumetric lighting for the light beams.

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Yes I have tried it already though I’m not sure whether it actually works or not, I have to make a render
with a high number of samples to appreciate it. I’m proccessing the first image right now (1.200 samples)

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yes. Go for it. And keep checking the GI also

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This is a bit late, but I might as well say it: Make the volume mesh invisible to shadows in the Object pannel ==> Cycles settings. That’ll eliminate that super-grainy shadow you have on the back wall.

The reference photo also seems to have a noisy light blocker in between the volume and the light source, which creates some of those interesting streaks in the volume.

As for the lighting, I think it’s pretty good… The reference photo seems to have made the torch a little less strong, and added a cold light source behind the camera.

If other stuff seems too dark, be sure to check that you’re using Filmic, and fully utilizing the dynamic range (sun strength of 20 is not out of the question with Filmic).