Well, I got a good start on the lighting. A few more adjustments to make but I am pretty happy with it so far. Really tried to get some dramatic mood to the lighting without going overboard. Really want the foreground to be kind of dark but warm.

6 lights used in total to light the scene, 4 mr omni and 2 mr spot lights. Two of the spot lights and 1 of the omnis make up the light from the lamp. The 2 spot lights have volume added to them to get the cone effect. The volumes have some noise added to make them kind of grainy, which will be critical later when I get to painting in the spiderwebs and such in the doorway.

For mental ray settings I used a final gather solution set to low quality and I also used a basic GI solution. The two used together help give the nice shadows and the bounced light effects. I will use an AO map later in the process to further enhance the shadows.

Next up is to start heavily into the textures. I am going to start with the boy and go from there. Also need to work on the chair a bit to make it look a bit more comfortable. After textures and materials are done, its on to rendering a final image which I will then take into photoshop and add in the cobwebs and such. In the end it should appear as if a light breeze is blowing up through the door, sending dust and old air through the spiderwebs and into the library.