Marc-OlivierBouchard
03-28-2005, 01:15 AM
Last year I remember spending quite a lot of time on Cgtalk and others, trying to find information on what it is like to work as a lighter. For cinema first, where I found good pieces here and there and then video games. I found nothing about what it is like (workload, duties, softwares and techniques used etc.) to be a lighter for video games.
Since I now work for a big company in Vancouver, I thought I might share some infos.
They are only depictions of my (rather short) personal experience but maybe will serve as an anchor point for discussion.
1-What did I put in my reel ? What got me hired
I'm not sure what exactly they saw in my reel. I haven't spoken to my bosses about why they hired me. My guess is that they liked my use of color schemes for each scenes. They maybe also liked the originality of the lighting setups and the drama it brought to the actual scenes. It leaned toward the faking of FG and GI more than the fine tuning of it.
What I had going for me was my experiences as a real life lighter for TV and photography.
But mostly I thik I was a the right place at the right time. "Pure" lighters aren't that common and this company is in a process of departementalization. (if that's ever a word)
2-What do I do ? How much creative freedom do I have ?
I have a lighting director who, in consort with the Art director decides the color schemes, look and mood of the level I'll be working on. (I'm an environnement lighter).
For example, lets say a level's a forest. They'll go...Canadian October Forest Red Crimsom Orange.
I get several documents they put together, photos, color schemes, studies.
These docs give me the palette I have to work from.
The lighting solution I use, what kind of lights etc. Is all up to me.
I light the scene (we use a proprietary software), bake the lightmaps then wrangle (resolution compromises, contrast intensity, fix bugs, harness weird shadows etc) them (in another proprietary software) to be exportable to PS, Xbox, Gcube etc.
Done
I also sometimes have to adapt the geometry, fix textures, rename stuff etc.
3-Techniques (Do you use final gather, GI, prelighting, vertex painting etc.)
The mot d'ordre seems to be: get the job done. It depends on the software used, the capacities of the game you're working on, the amount of production time you have.
(Sometimes you'll have a week to experiment with Image Based Lighting, but other times you'll just be reusing a previous, efficient rig.) I feel like this varies a lot. And will change with Next gen stuff. Like me, you,ll spend lots of time learning learning techniques you'll never use, hoping they'll get you hired. It's all good. It strengthen ryou learning instincts.
4-Do you work a 100,000 hours a week for a loaf of bread and a line of blow?
I don'tOf course it will depend on the company, the schedules they set, troubles in the pipeline etc. From what I gather from colleagues, lighters seem lightly envied. It is only an impression though. I like hard work. I like being challenged. (For a full fledged debate about abuse and exploitation in the gaming industry, do a search. Lot's of opinions have been expressed) I say it's still a lot better than any low paying job I've done before and is very worth the 1 year of schooling. See it this way, for a creative job, It's darn good money and you learn a lot. (This point of view doesn't take into account the effects abuse have on the general worforce and it's future...)
5- What's the best advice you can give to an aspiring lighter?
First thing that comes up to mind: Get rid of your TV. Get rid of your video games.
At least until you're working. TV is one of the worst time suckers ever invented.
What is the last vital thing you've learned on TV? "But I've watched a great documentary about such and such".
Get a book.. It'll go deeper. Discuss, it'll evolve...Experimement...do research on the internet if you really want to learn. Try it for a week. It makes it possible to have a life. It is hard for the first few days...you're tired, you just want to crash and do nothing. Instead you do a small something, you grab a piece of paper and draw your hand. You go for a walk. Get good sleep. Take time to cook something healthy so you live longer.
I'm confident you'll find that the most succesful folks around aren't waching much TV either by lack of time or thanks to personal discipline.
Dropping TV had a huge influence on my artistic output. Give it a go. (About the contradiction of not playing games and working on them, I takes about two weeks of intensive play to get up to date. No need to play 3 hours everyday. Years of experience do the rest)
6-Can you fly and shoot lasers from your eyes?
I can't fly and read somewhere that it's bad for you to have laser in your eyes.
Kids, wear sunscreen and a helmet, for god sake.
This all is a very loose account written in one blow.
Use it as a starter. You can ask me questions I'll do my best. I'm just trying to put back into thisd forum after having taken so much.
(I know there's a lot of experienced wolves around this henhouse so feel free to drop in
touching and humane experiences. Let this thread become the Doctor Phil of lighters.)
Since I now work for a big company in Vancouver, I thought I might share some infos.
They are only depictions of my (rather short) personal experience but maybe will serve as an anchor point for discussion.
1-What did I put in my reel ? What got me hired
I'm not sure what exactly they saw in my reel. I haven't spoken to my bosses about why they hired me. My guess is that they liked my use of color schemes for each scenes. They maybe also liked the originality of the lighting setups and the drama it brought to the actual scenes. It leaned toward the faking of FG and GI more than the fine tuning of it.
What I had going for me was my experiences as a real life lighter for TV and photography.
But mostly I thik I was a the right place at the right time. "Pure" lighters aren't that common and this company is in a process of departementalization. (if that's ever a word)
2-What do I do ? How much creative freedom do I have ?
I have a lighting director who, in consort with the Art director decides the color schemes, look and mood of the level I'll be working on. (I'm an environnement lighter).
For example, lets say a level's a forest. They'll go...Canadian October Forest Red Crimsom Orange.
I get several documents they put together, photos, color schemes, studies.
These docs give me the palette I have to work from.
The lighting solution I use, what kind of lights etc. Is all up to me.
I light the scene (we use a proprietary software), bake the lightmaps then wrangle (resolution compromises, contrast intensity, fix bugs, harness weird shadows etc) them (in another proprietary software) to be exportable to PS, Xbox, Gcube etc.
Done
I also sometimes have to adapt the geometry, fix textures, rename stuff etc.
3-Techniques (Do you use final gather, GI, prelighting, vertex painting etc.)
The mot d'ordre seems to be: get the job done. It depends on the software used, the capacities of the game you're working on, the amount of production time you have.
(Sometimes you'll have a week to experiment with Image Based Lighting, but other times you'll just be reusing a previous, efficient rig.) I feel like this varies a lot. And will change with Next gen stuff. Like me, you,ll spend lots of time learning learning techniques you'll never use, hoping they'll get you hired. It's all good. It strengthen ryou learning instincts.
4-Do you work a 100,000 hours a week for a loaf of bread and a line of blow?
I don'tOf course it will depend on the company, the schedules they set, troubles in the pipeline etc. From what I gather from colleagues, lighters seem lightly envied. It is only an impression though. I like hard work. I like being challenged. (For a full fledged debate about abuse and exploitation in the gaming industry, do a search. Lot's of opinions have been expressed) I say it's still a lot better than any low paying job I've done before and is very worth the 1 year of schooling. See it this way, for a creative job, It's darn good money and you learn a lot. (This point of view doesn't take into account the effects abuse have on the general worforce and it's future...)
5- What's the best advice you can give to an aspiring lighter?
First thing that comes up to mind: Get rid of your TV. Get rid of your video games.
At least until you're working. TV is one of the worst time suckers ever invented.
What is the last vital thing you've learned on TV? "But I've watched a great documentary about such and such".
Get a book.. It'll go deeper. Discuss, it'll evolve...Experimement...do research on the internet if you really want to learn. Try it for a week. It makes it possible to have a life. It is hard for the first few days...you're tired, you just want to crash and do nothing. Instead you do a small something, you grab a piece of paper and draw your hand. You go for a walk. Get good sleep. Take time to cook something healthy so you live longer.
I'm confident you'll find that the most succesful folks around aren't waching much TV either by lack of time or thanks to personal discipline.
Dropping TV had a huge influence on my artistic output. Give it a go. (About the contradiction of not playing games and working on them, I takes about two weeks of intensive play to get up to date. No need to play 3 hours everyday. Years of experience do the rest)
6-Can you fly and shoot lasers from your eyes?
I can't fly and read somewhere that it's bad for you to have laser in your eyes.
Kids, wear sunscreen and a helmet, for god sake.
This all is a very loose account written in one blow.
Use it as a starter. You can ask me questions I'll do my best. I'm just trying to put back into thisd forum after having taken so much.
(I know there's a lot of experienced wolves around this henhouse so feel free to drop in
touching and humane experiences. Let this thread become the Doctor Phil of lighters.)