Week 11- Finishing touches to my image of October

So far this image has come quite a long way; however at the start of the week I did feel it needed some more changes. Firstly I increased the intensity of the light in the background to draw the viewer’s eye to this section of the image as I want this to be the main focus point. However, I made sure not to make this part of the image too bright as I wanted the lights in the Diwali candles to be the brightest so these objects are not forgotten due to their size. By setting the candle light intensities to 1, the foreground light to 0.2 and the background light to 0.65 I feel I created the effect I was looking for.

Next I changed the material I used for the trunk of the tree as I felt the current one was too dominant in the scene due to the shade of brown. I found an image of bark on the internet which was a more suitable and applied it as a diffuse and bump map to get the uneven texture.

I made sure the maps were the same size and then set the bump output amount to 35. When I applied it to one of the trees and compared it to the original material I felt it was much more suitable and so applied it to all of the trees.

Lastly I made adjustments to the shape of the trees as in several cases the roots did not make contact with the ground while others were submerged. Instead of the roots being perpendicular to the trunk of the trees I changed the angle so each one sloped down into the ground slightly. This allowed all of the roots to be visible without the trees hovering above the ground.

I am pleased with the outcome of this image in general. The background of the scene has turned out well as the structure of the trees is quite realistic and the changes in the colour of the leaves are apparent. Also I am pleased with the lamps in the window as the shapes turned out well and the glow of the lights look effective. However, I do feel the material I used for the grass in the background does not work that well and if I had more time I would work on this.

I tried to base the theme of this image on the colours of red and orange and the feeling of warmth as these are the first thing which come to mind when I think of October. The two subjects I included in the scene which relate to October link to one or both of these themes, the subjects being autumn which link with the colours and Diwali which link to both.