Summer is really starting to show itself in Queensland, and in just the past couple of days it has gone from quite cold to fairly hot. So I decided to get out my old cubes and warm them up for Summer.

Normally I would smooth the beveled edges of these glass cubes, but during my experimentations I decided that the sharp edges produced a better effect. Having faces rather than smooth surfaces causes solid refractive lines through the glass, which I thought was rather nice.

As for the lighting, I wanted something really warm, which is most unlike my usual style. I increased the size of the scene relative to the lights, and toned down the attenuation of the light to eliminate the flat even lighting I usually use. I was also inspired by a Pixar trick I read about, and I got the warm light colours from the scene rather than the lights themselves. If you look at the lights, they are the coldest white of white lights. All the warmth comes instead from the materials in the scene.

3ds max, Vray, Photoshop