[Mark Whitney]

Using to LARGE soft sources on both sides shouldn’t have given any objectionable shadows. Hard sources would of course. A possible option though might have been to simply bounce hard light off the floor if you can’t get the mooks to take their hats off to begin with! Or have them be “hip & stylish” and turn the brim to the back.

[Mark Whitney]

Hey Chris,

For this sort of piece, the lighting is entirely appropriate. It’s not like you’re going to want a strong contrast dramatic look for an excercise video. While I might have hemmed the fabric to be a bit shorter, they served the purpose of knocking the window brightness down so they didn’t particularly draw the eye to them. It aslo gave those bland walls a bit of texture. Just gelling or NDing them wouldn’t have bought you much. You’d just have bright, square holes.

The VO didn’t bother me at all. She’s clear, succinct & well paced. I could point you to any number of commercial product vids where frankly I just cringe at the narration.

[Mark Whitney]

You might check the objects UV settings if you revisit the piece. Can’t recall the specific area but recall a Video CoPilot note about it some time ago.

[Mark Whitney]

Hey Ali,
Now that I see it moving, & on the reflective surface plane, I’m thinking that it is a texture issue & not lighting at all.

Nice finished piece & product. Was looking around for something like this just last week in fact.

[Mark Whitney]

[Michael Szalapski] “Does adding an ambient light make it go away?

Any chance you could share a stripped-down file that demonstrates the issue for one of us to poke at?”

T’was going to suggest that as well. Just tried this with the free VideoCoPilot IPhone 5 from a few years back in a very basic, vanilla scene set up and have no issues.

[Mark Whitney]

Do you have the check box in E3D’s Render settings under Lighting checked on to actually Use Comp Lights though is what I meant.

If so, then it might be the reflecivity setting of the object overriding diffusion for example, but it doesn’t look particularly reflective in your image. There are a number of things that affect how E3D ends up looking, that often the best course is to simplify & isolate what’s doing what. In other words, is it the object surface settings, E3D’s Environment Map, Effect Control settings, the Comps’ lights, etc.?

It’s really a 2D effect mimicing 3D and somethings won’t behave as you might logically expect.

[Mark Whitney]

You really didn’t need to zip a 50kb jpg file, but soe it goes.

I wouldn’t exactly call that a “harsh” or unrealistic shadow at all judging where the light sources are. You have your “key” from above & side and your other light is well below the model. Are those AE lights or from an envioronment in E3D? If so, try a different map or orientation. Your object texture settings in E3D might be a factor, but I’d simply try adding another light more on the same plane as the model or a simple Ambient one. Be sure to check use comp lights in that case.

[Mark Whitney]

Let Nulls and parenting be your friends Grasshopper.

[Mark Whitney]

There’s a r-e-a-l-l-y old set of tools called MicroAngelo that should do what you’re looking for.
https://www.microangelo.us/

[Mark Whitney]

See if these answer your question:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=After+Effects+Environmental+layer