Light setup

[LFShade]

I think you're discovering just how tricky lighting can be. It's an art form all its own, and apart from a few general 'rules of thumb', there are no hard and fast ways to get good results.

The three-point lighting setup falls under the category of 'rule of thumb'. It's a good way to quickly set up a lighting mood, but you really need to go further than the basics in order to get a really engaging result. This can mean anything from just changing the colors of those three lights, to using additional lights in key locations to "paint" effects in specific areas. Did you know you can use negative multiplier values to actually subtract light?

It helps to take the image you've created and just analyze it! Look at it for what it is: a composition. Think about how that composition is interacting with the result you're trying to achieve. Does it portray the mood you had hoped for? If you've had any training in color theory, you can fall back on your knowledge of how color influences mood and meaning, and you can give a color scheme to your lighting that reinforces the message your art is sending.

I know it probably sucks rocks when you read a response like this, but unfortunately there's just no magic answer to your question. Creating 3D images is, after all, an art form, and in the end you need to rely on your artist's sense to make your imagery into what you want it to be. It would help us to give you pointers if you would post an image of [i]your[/] work in progress.

That being said, I'd be happy to open a discussion (in a new forum, maybe? lildragon?) on subjects like color theory and composition. These are areas of learning in which it is always worthwhile to 'brush up' on our knowledge and understanding.

[Emporio]

Thanks for your reply, year I figured that lighting is way harder than I could ever imagine!
It would be cool to perhaps start a new discussion, I sure
the "newbiies" in the world of lighting would definately learn from that!

If you have some basics for setting up "indoor" ligting, "ourdoor" lighting and how to light a character(with no special mood..)
That would really be appriciated!
( I'm doing research for my final-project which I'm make in about 1 month..I'm definately putting efforts in modeling, but setting up some nice light would be an advantage!)

Thanks in advance,
Yep, again from the cold nothern climes..

Emporio

[LFShade]

Okay, here's just one very basic lighting setup that goes a long way toward a good lighting composition, whether used on an indoor or outdoor scene. It's used not only in CG lighting, but in real-world cinematography as well.

Place 3 (usually spot) lights in the following configuration:

1. "Key" light, should be located near the camera and usually a bit higher elevation than the camera. This light defines the primary light source, and is generally responsible for your brightest highlights and sharpest shadows.

2. "Rim" light (or backlight), usually placed behind the subject, opposite the key light. It's called the rim light because it casts a 'rim' of light around the edges of the subject, separating it subtly from the background.

3. "Fill" light. Imagine an arc running around the subject from the key light to the rim light. The fill light would be placed somewhere on that arc, usually about 45-60 degrees from the key light. It is usually set to a medium-low intensity, and serves to 'fill in' the shadows cast by the key light. You'll probably want to turn off shadow casting from this light, since you don't want too much ambiguity as to where the main light source is in your scene.

Of course you can play with the colors of each of these lights to get dramatically different moods, but this rig provides the basics: source and shadow definition (key light), simulated light bouncing (fill light), and background separation (rim light).

Once you've teased a basic mood and composition from these lights, that's when you'll want to really start looking at your result with a critical eye. Examine areas where you think improvements could be made, and try to think of solutions. These could vary anywhere from tweaking the colors/positions of the three basic lights to adding/subtracting light from specific areas by using more lights of varying color and intensity.

Don't overlook the attenuation feature on your lights! Many times, when you see a render that looks "too CG", it is because no light attenuation was used. Attenuation affects how light falls off over distance. Real light usually diffuses rapidly as it passes through an atmosphere. By using the attenuation parameters on your lights to simulate this natural property, you can obtain much softer, more realistic results.

Note about characters: It's wise to always set up one light that only affects the character's eyes (exclude everything else). The reason for this is that eye areas tend to be somewhat cavernous compared to the rest of the topology of the head. But harsh shadows in the eye areas can be very distracting unless you're trying to make the character look evil or macabre. In the real world, the light-scattering and diffusion in a person's skin naturally tend to lighten these areas up, but in CG lighting this needs to be compensated for (absent any sub-surface scattering renderers like Brazil or FinalRender). In any case, having a dedicated "eyelight" can really make the speculars on the eyes "pop", for a very pleasing effect:)

I hope some of this is useful to you, and I hope you'll share your progress and results with us. Good luck!

[ToddD]

Wow, LFShade that was a great explanation, very informative!=)

[LFShade]

Thanks:)

But it only occurred to me after reading back through this thread that I basically said the same thing in both of my posts, only in varying degrees of detail. Silly me. It also seems that when I wrote that last post I glossed over the fact that Emporio was already familiar with the 3-point setup. Hopefully, though, my explanation of it shed some new light on a familiar subject (pun intended:p ).

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