Below is an image showing the lighting setup I used. I constructed a lighting feature to act as a "barn door" in order to more easily control how much light was hitting Frank's face. This took a lot of work and trial and error to get right. The lamp shade itself was not working well enough. I decided to remove it from the scene, after all it wasn't showing within the frame. What I was after was to effectively disguise the top half of his face in shadow so that when he leans in towards the table, his face is gradually revealed by the light.
Below was a test render. I was not satisfied with this particular result. Frank's face was still too well lit. And the light itself was to low in its intensity. I decided to switch the light from no decay to linear to get some realistic drop-off on the light and to avoid an even spread of light which was apparent in the initial test render. I also turned the light samples from 8 to 55.
This was the result after much trial and error. I needed to lower the barn door too to get it to create a shadow that was not too harsh to be cast across his face. The render below is far far better and I think this is just what I was looking for. Enough shadow to conceal the top of his face and yet enough light to illuminate the rest of his features. I think this will look stunning when rendered completely as an animated sequence with a little compositing.
Below is a composite test. I increased the contrast and darkened the shadow. I am very pleased with this. This looks great. I especially like the eye reflection detail in his eyes, it really brings his eyes to life and breathes character into this model. Credit goes to Alex for doing such a great job with the texturing of Frank's facial skin. This is probably some of the best work in the whole film. I would be happy just presenting this sequence at the degree show.
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