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View Full Version : General specific question about lighting(I use C4D)

dave247
08-12-2005, 10:29 PM
hey first off let me just say that i have a very slow dial up connection and cgtalk is quite bulky these days whatwith all the darn zbrush adds lurking everywhere.. therefore i feel this justifies me being able to ask such a question without getting flamed since i didnt first search fifty threads before posting.

now my question is this. how do i get good natural lighting? here is a perfect example of what i am talking about: http://www.maxon.net/pages/gallery/pix/gallery9/desantis_spaceship.jpg

see how it is so darn photorealistic? aside from the fact that the artist uses depth of field, what are the other elements that go into creating such smooth and natural lighting?

i assume that many things go into getting light to do the right thing such as the surroundings and textures, and i also assume that its not that easy to do. if that were so, i would see many more images with outstanding lighting.

i use cinema 4d by the way..

EDIT: Im checking out this thread http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=209619
Integrity
08-13-2005, 04:20 AM
The article linked in that thread you mentioned is probably one of the best tutorials about lighting that I have found on the Internet. So follow that and your well on your way. Read their entire tutorial on lighting, not just the indoor one that's directly linked.

There are probably a hundred more you could read, plus the many books that are out there. If anything go learn lighting down to its science, and using that knowledge it should be very comprehensible.

The image you linked, to me personally, doesn't look real at all...it still has that CG look to me. I haven't seen one computer generated image yet that looks real...or at least I was still able to tell the difference. But that image looks like it uses Radiosity for its realistic quality...and thus you should really learn this term to its full extent. As well as HDRI.
jeremybirn
08-13-2005, 05:43 AM
I think the general keywords you're looking for are ambient occlusion, skylight, or image based lighting. There's occlusion (those soft shadows wherever two surfaces are near eachother) all over that image. It also has good quality texture mapping. Other than that, I agree with Integrity that it just looks CG: bad depth of field that makes it look like a miniature, lighting that includes bands of overlapping shadows that seem unmotivated while there are bright white light panels along the edges of the panels that don't appear to emit any light.

-jeremy
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