I used a search engine and I got some old pictures and drawings from ancient labs.
I looked at these images for a few minutes, and later I got the idea to create my own lab, getting visual references from each one.
Modeling
I decided on the lab shape without any planning in advance, by simply adding elements and creating combinations, until I got an appropiate shape to show the idea I had in mind -which was to make an ancient Lab, with apparatus and ancient tools while the fire has an interesting spot in the scene, escaping to outside.
I used both fire items, a fireplace and a stove.
Architecture
First I modelled the fireplace, later I put the floor and some cubes, and from the fireplace I've taken some elements to make the arched walls, moving and replacing elements (improvasing), until I got the shape that allowed me to show all these elements that I liked.
The most common techiques were used to create all the objects:
Lathe was used to create jars, amphores, lamps.
Sweep for the fireplace tools, aparatus, rope,...
Extrude for the archs, and arch together walls,
Mesh Objects for the book, the chemical ingredients...
Privitives (some deformed) like cylinders, spheres, cubes, for the ceiling sticks/rails, walls, tables, bricks, etc...
Many objects are really deformed copies from other existing objects. I saved more time than creating each object from scratch, modifying any existing object already scaled and placed in the shelves, or on the table; moving only in the X-Z plane.
When the shape is modifyed a bit and re-textured, it looks like a new object, by at the same time I reduced the iteration of objects in the scene.
For this I created a Lathe main shape, and a Loft main shape to obtain all the jars and apparatus moving/deforming their splines.
From a single deformed cylinder i got the bars on the ceiling window, 80% of the chair,
A re-scaled version from the fireplace arch was used for the main archs.
The hard work was to handle all this amount of objects, and of course the Texturing and Lighting stages.
Smoke
The smoke was created using an emitter and a volumetric shader (Pyrocluster for Cinema4D plugin).
In order to get the shape I like (scaping to the aperture), I went the other way around. I used a path for the emitter, and I animated it. If this was an animation instead of a still image, we could see how the smoke goes from the aperture to the stove, (like a flaming meteor) :)
This way was faster than doing a larger amount of tests with deflectors and wind - an advantage for still images :)
I tried different adjustments/tests to find an appropriate aspect. I got the aspect that I liked, using a secondary emitter for the flame with a dense smoke, and leaving the first one only for the thin smoke.
Volumetric shaders took some unnecessary computing time in the shading/lighting stage.
Since Cinema4D users usually don’t wait more than a few minutes for a render, it was hard for me to use this volumetric shader which takes several hours to render, but the results are very satisfactory for me.
I left the smoke emitter for use only in the final image. Also, some no-volumetric smoke was added in the lighting stage.
Texturing/Shading
I used fractals, maps and materials with special properties to create all the textures.
Fractals are appropriate to create the rough stone texture, additional dirt, bumps, etc
Mostly textures used are stone maps, and wood maps.
Any materials were painted, like the amphors texture, the book, jar tags, oxide on the wood, dirt, etc.
In addition some materials are special materials like the small door in the stove, which is a material with luminance and glow (inside fire). The glass/liquid material which is a material (90-95% transparency) whith raytrace reflection, enviroment map, and refraction, also a bit of Fresnel (gradient ramp for the edges) was loaded in the luminance channel, to give the adequate aspect for the porcelain jars and sulphur materials.
Texturing/Shading (cont.)
To map the porcelain jar tags, first I placed the tag onto the main texture, in order to place an appropriate adjustment. Once the first tag is placed, I duplicated the jar, and I replaced only the tag texture. I used only three different tags, when I placed it in the scene, I rotate the jars in order to show a half of each word in the tag, and this made it look like many different tags due that not all are fully readable.
This way saved alot of time, instead of placing/adjusting a new texture for each jar, and the results are non-iterative, too.
DirtyNut (an automatic dirty) was used for the stone elements to give a more credible aspect for the stonework since this shader places dirt where two surfaces are contacted. This kind of dirt could be created using BodyPaint but this automatic dirt was faster than painting it in the stone walls maps.
BodyPaint was a great help to paint any textures (like the book texture) directly into the objects becauset some objects can’t be textured using the typicall mapping projections (plain, cylindric, cubic, etc). BodyPaint allows to paint in all directions and so, I can paint the sheets edge and the sheets body for the book paper object, or retouch some woods (selves and table) which not looks nice at borders using typical projections.
The most unknown material for me was the volumetric shader for the fire/smoke (Pyrocluster) but finally seems I get success with the appropriate parameters.
Lighting
For this scene there are four main sources to simulate. The Sun, the Sky, the Fireplace and the Stove. Each source needs some lights to show its full and rich nature.
(For Photoshop users, I suggest downloading all the images that follow and place them in separate layers (sorted) in a single document. Hidding/unhidding the layers will show a more noticeable changes between stages, rather than seeing it separately.
It’s like start from a black photographic studio and turn on each light group when the next layer is activated, try it it's fun :) )
Sunlight source
-SUN >DIRECT:
TYPE: SPOT
STRENGHT: 200
COLOUR: A BIT YELLOW
SHADOW: SOFT
FALLOF: NONE
SHADOW BIAS: ABSOLUTE 1m
SHADOW MAP SIZE:3000x3000
SAMPLE RADIUS: 2
-SUN >DIFFUSE (2 lights):
TYPE: OMNI
STRENGHT: 50
COLOUR: A BIT YELLOW
SHADOW: SOFT
FALLOF: QUAD_INV
SHADOW BIAS: ABSOLUTE 1m
SHADOW MAP SIZE:250x250
SAMPLE RADIUS: 3
-SUN >BOUNCED FROM FLOOR
TYPE: OMNI
STRENGHT: 15
COLOUR: ORANGE
SHADOW: NONE
FALLOF: -
SHADOW BIAS: -
SHADOW MAP SIZE:-
SAMPLE RADIUS: -
Fire Light sources
FIREPLACE
-FIREPLACE ILLUMINATION
TYPE: OMNI
STRENGHT: 100
COLOUR: ORANGE
SHADOW: SOFT
FALLOF: QUAD_INV
SHADOW BIAS: ABSOLUTE 1m
SHADOW MAP SIZE:150
SAMPLE RADIUS: 6
Fire Light Sources (cont.)
FIREPLACE (cont.)
-FIREPLACE FLAME (source not visible in the tests)
TYPE: SPOT
STRENGHT: 170
COLOUR: YELLOW
SHADOW: NONE
FALLOF: LINEAL
SHADOW BIAS: -
SHADOW MAP SIZE: -
SAMPLE RADIUS: -
STOVE
-STOVE DOOR
TYPE: OMNI
STRENGHT: 50
COLOUR: ORANGE
SHADOW: NONE
FALLOF: LINEAL
SHADOW BIAS: -
SHADOW MAP SIZE:-
SAMPLE RADIUS: -
- STOVE FIRE
TYPE: OMNI
STRENGHT: 90
COLOUR: YELLOW
SHADOW: SOFT
FALLOF: LINEAL
SHADOW BIAS: ABSOLUTE 1m
SHADOW MAP SIZE: 150
SAMPLE RADIUS: 5
-STOVE FIRE AMBIENT
TYPE: OMNI
STRENGHT: 80
COLOUR: ORANGE
SHADOW: SOFT
FALLOF: LINEAL
SHADOW BIAS: ABSOLUTE 1m
SHADOW MAP SIZE: 250
SAMPLE RADIUS: 3
Sky Source
- BLUE FROM CEILING WINDOW
TYPE: OMNI
STRENGHT: 85
COLOUR: BLUE
SHADOW: SOFT
FALLOF: QUAD. INV
SHADOW BIAS: ABSOLUTE 1m
SHADOW MAP SIZE: 250
SAMPLE RADIUS: 3
- BLUE FROM BACK TO CAMERA
TYPE: OMNI
STRENGHT: 75
COLOUR: BLUE
SHADOW: SOFT
FALLOF: QUAD. INV
SHADOW BIAS: ABSOLUTE 1m
SHADOW MAP SIZE: 250
SAMPLE RADIUS: 3
-EXTRA BLUE TO FLOOR (to prevent overxposition at top)
TYPE: SPOT
STRENGHT: 30
COLOUR: BLUE
SHADOW: SOFT
FALLOF: -
SHADOW BIAS: ABSOLUTE 1m
SHADOW MAP SIZE: 250
SAMPLE RADIUS: 3
- BLUE INTO STORE
TYPE: OMNI
STRENGHT: 50
COLOUR: GREY A BIT BLUE
SHADOW: SOFT
FALLOF: LINEAL
SHADOW BIAS: ABSOLUTE 1m
SHADOW MAP SIZE: 250
SAMPLE RADIUS: 3
Small Details
EXTRA FILL TO TABLE BASE (x2)
TYPE: SPOT
STRENGHT: 25-40
COLOUR: GREY
SHADOW: SOFT
FALLOF: LINEAL
SHADOW BIAS: ABSOLUTE 1m
SHADOW MAP SIZE: 250
SAMPLE RADIUS: 4
Small Details (cont.)
YARD REFLECTED FROM FLOOR
TYPE: OMNI
STRENGHT: 15
COLOUR: BLUE
SHADOW: NONE
FALLOF: LINEAL
SHADOW BIAS: -
SHADOW MAP SIZE: -
SAMPLE RADIUS: -
EXTRA LIGHT BETWEEN 2 FIRES
TYPE: OMNI
STRENGHT: 55
COLOUR: GREY A BIT YELLOW
SHADOW: SOFT
FALLOF: QUAD INV
SHADOW BIAS: ABSOLUTE 1m
SHADOW MAP SIZE: 250
SAMPLE RADIUS: 3
NON-VOLUMETRIC SMOKE
NOISE LIGHT
TYPE: OMNI
STRENGHT: 100
COLOUR: WHITE
SHADOW: NONE
FALLOF: -
SHADOW BIAS: -
SHADOW MAP SIZE: -
SAMPLE RADIUS: -
VISIBLE LIGHT: ON
NOISE: VISUALIZATION
NOISE DETAILS: HARD TURBULENCE
BRIGTNESS: ?0 / CONTRAST: 190 / SCALE: 85m
At this point, what's left is to place the volumetric fire/smoke and start the final tests. Now, with the stove fire in scene, the light from the unexisting fire for all the lighting tests, gets a full sense.
The non-voulmetric noised light gives an extra smoke around the yard and looks like real smoke, saving some extra calculations instead of using more volumetric smoke.
I think that the main work for this scene was to pay attention to every small detail, a hard work in every stage:
- An irregular (natural) modeling.
- Fair amount of small objects/details and their variations.
- Careful texturing.
- A great amount of lighting/ambient tests based on the main sources.
The final image is shown below as a wireframe and full rendered.
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