Looking at interesting shots as well as reflection:

Below......

Some interesting light effect renders.. I was just experimenting with the lights I created for the inside of the buildings while twquicking them and seem to have effected the external of the scene as well, but in a positive way. I think i managed this while using final gather in the render setting of mental ray.

Really happy with these renders even though accidental.. but then again accidents happen sometimes when u least expect them and you end up creating something incredibly beautiful..!!

Slight change on the arches lighting on top left building.

Adding a point light..wow too bright

I waned to try and experiment by adding a point light in the actual street lights and animate the glow but due to the fact I already had a material assigned on the faces (mia x) which originaly gave it a with glow but at the same time it a material that would bounce off light cause of being reflective like glass or a mirror.

Rendering different light times as to check on water reflection on each shot.

Midday Lighting Experimentation:

After having sort out the issue with the bump maps being to hard and rough I started experimenting trying ti get that bright warm light of midday as done as my first amateurish render when i had fist created the default Sun.

going on to see what

-later stages look like after..

even later..

Really happy with the midday results was a bit more easier then night cause of night havig to many lights as well as interaction and animation to flesh it out more.. even though I care more about creating the mood/atmosphere..!!!

Indoor Lighting issue-sorting out bump map issue:

Bump map still looking very rough..

Glowing building from backwards..=S

As u can see from all the above images light is projected in the wrong way.. I thought I had it pointing in the right way when I created the in my scene but seems to have made an emaresing mistake in doing so.. The other problem I also noticed was that my building where also brighter in terms of where the light was projecting which alternatively meant I had a problem with my surfaces aka textures. I saved my textures PNG's for the reason I wanted light coming out from the window area but If I saved them as jpeg's I would have not been able to have that.. which leaves me in a tough spot..!!=/

Light sorted out pointing in the right direction..!!!>>>

Bump map looking much better now..!!!=D

Light reversed the right way of projection and also changed the bump maps and lowered down the harshness and made the look a bit smoother now.

So am happy I turned things around so now I have to try and get a midday look for my other lighting shot..!!

Last rendered shot as you can see the textures still seem a bit rough and harsh but it's an other issue am still trying to resolve which probably has to do with my texture files being PNG's and not jpeg's.. cause png are are a bit transparent then jpeg which are more solid..!!=/

Adding Bump Maps and water shader Imput:

Added a bump maps to some of to the building to enrhanghs it even more.. unfortunately they were ti rough so had to try and fix it.

during this recreation I can't believe I forgot where the main setting where as to twiquick the textures.. so annoying..!!=/

Later also imported my water shader I created a while ago in term 1-2 as to see the main results as to see a bit of reflection..!!

Really happy with this one even thought didn't mange to fix the bump maps yet but really like this piece.

The colours/reflection and lights are the best I've done so far.. really think it might be coming along now...!!!!

Lighting experimentation:

After having built my scene I started experimenting with lighting for it, as to go for the right look. The first scene had to be dusk.

Normally the procedure would be to create light and manually build it up from scratch. But due to a lack of time I found out that I could create a default sun which you can manipulate as to get the appropriate sun exposure for the environment.

So I decided to create the default sun to save time.

These are some of the first renders which were created using the default sun in autodesk Maya 2010. As a first result it was kind of more or less set to a very bright sunny day like a midday shot.

Later on I started playing around with the actual sunlight by rotating it right to left and figured out how to use it.

As I proceeded I added a mia x material on my street lights faces where the light would glow so that when it goes darker it would have the glow effect as well as change to the right colour I chose.

Getting close to the right look of nighttime falling =dusk

Experimentation on my textures by editing them on the window shutters and also converting them into PNGs so that they can have a transparency look for the light to break through from indoors.

Adding and tweaking the indoor lights by giving subdivisions in each section so the light wouldn't go through all of them. But I found it hard enough due to some technical difficulties I still haven't figured out.. =/