Escape through the Sewers

Based on the beginning of Link to the Past, I made a scene of Link and Zelda making their way through the sewers beneath Hyrule Castle. I used my custom versions of the characters for this which I showed off here for Link and here for Zelda. 

So for this scene, the tricky part was trying to get the lighting right. It kept being either too bright or too dark and finding a middle-ground between them was a hassle. I wanted it to be dark enough that it looked believably like an underground tunnel, but bright enough that you could see the characters and scenery. I ended up (more or less) fixing it in Photoshop, but I'll get to that later. I also used the bloom lighting setting because I thought it looked better. For the characters, I kept Link stoic and focused while Zelda has a disgusted expression at seeing the rats. The rats were something I didn't even think to add at first until I remembered how Zelda reacted to seeing rats in Spirit Tracks. I thought it would be funny to add that here. The rest of the scenery is from the Medieval Interior Construction Kit that I've used before. It's a great resource for scenes like this. 

Like I said, I had to fix up the lighting in Photoshop. Originally, the lighting came out very flat and dull. Not only that, but Zelda's face was much darker and almost impossible to see so I brightened that up individually. As for the rest of the scene, I used Photoshops lighting effects to create some Point Lights over the torch and lantern. That kept light in the areas I wanted brighter while darkening the rest in a way that looked believable and interesting.