Lighting Techinques>Books?

[silvia]

Actually, there is a new version of that book, that is even better than the original.
As far as I know, that is the only book that deals specifically with lighting for Maya
unfortunately.

[soulburn3d]

I'd recommend a software non-specific book...

http://www.amazon.com/Painting-Light-John-Alton/dp/0520089499/sr=8-1/qid=1159897731/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-9144755-4492937?ie=UTF8&s=books

Plenty of great lighting techniques and ideas, but you'll have to figure out how to implement them in maya on your own.

- Neil

[Fess]

silvia, soul...

Thanks for the input. I'll research the suggested books.

Didn't know about the 2nd edition of the book I mentioned. Great! :)

Regards
Fess

[Andrew W]

I wrote this years ago, but the list of books is still what I'd recommend, even now.

http://andrew-whitehurst.net/graduates.html

Hope that's of some use to you.

AW

[silvia]

Nice article on a lighting demo reel Andrew, thank you.

[Fess]

I saw your work on troy back when it came out Andrew. Ship scene was stunning.

Yes, that article really covers all bases. Appreciate your input, thanks for sharing....

:thumbsup:
Regards
Fess

[tedious]

For me the internet is the biggest best resource on rendering, and watching a lot of movies and freezing the DVD at cool shots is the best way to develop a sense of how lighting can work. For some things, like help with specific Mental Ray shaders, I find myself turning to google before I even bother looking in the docs.

I agree with Silvia, you should NOT buy the old first edition. Don't get me wrong - it was a great buy when it first came out, and helped me get started with my career - but right now it is a total rip-off that amazon is charging $50 for the outdated book, when the even better new edition is twenty bucks less than that! Just get the new edition (http://www.3DRENDER.com/), you'll be glad you did.

I read "Painting with Light" too, and that was kindof interesting to hear what someone who did lighting in the 1940's had to say about it, but only expect general interest, not really much in the way of actually helping you with lighting and rendering. I think some people are quick to recommend the classics just as a way of reminding us that they are really classically inspired artists... ;)

That's my $0.02, anyway.

Tedious

[soulburn3d]

I think some people are quick to recommend the classics just as a way of reminding us that they are really classically inspired artists...

Maybe some do, but I recommended it because it actually has a lot of really useful information that you're not likely to see in a cg related textbook. Simple tricks like in a Hazy Environment, your actors should be wearing dark clothing to add contrast to the image, or in snow shots add dark things (figures, trees, moutains, foot prints) to contrast the white snow. Or the theory behind vignetting. Or discussions of fog and what it does to your lighting (it dulls highlights, for example).

It's like recommending someone do some life drawing before they try to replicate a cg figure in the computer. You can be easily distracted by all the technology, and forget the basics. When you have pencil and paper, the basics are all you have, and it builds a strong foundation so when it does come time to use the technology, the results will be that much better.

- Neil

[neuromancer1978]

Actually, there is a new version of that book, that is even better than the original.
As far as I know, that is the only book that deals specifically with lighting for Maya
unfortunately.

Well not really, yes there are obvious Maya references in it but if you take that away the general techniques really apply to ANY 3D app. Lighting is lighting, no matter what program you use. True you might have to rethink the issue in terms of your own app, like say Lightwave or Blender - but despite the Maya screenshots and the occasional reference to Maya, I think the book was well written and intended for ANY app (and I think Jeremy Birn actually mentioned that in the book). In any way the book is a good investement, and if you do some good google searching there are several websites with great lighting tutorials and techs....

[silvia]

Well not really, yes there are obvious Maya references in it but if you take that away the general techniques really apply to ANY 3D app. Lighting is lighting, no matter what program you use. True you might have to rethink the issue in terms of your own app, like say Lightwave or Blender - but despite the Maya screenshots and the occasional reference to Maya, I think the book was well written and intended for ANY app (and I think Jeremy Birn actually mentioned that in the book). In any way the book is a good investement, and if you do some good google searching there are several websites with great lighting tutorials and techs....

Of course, I agree with everything you said, just that the person that started the thread mentioned Maya. I have also read books that used Max as reference 3D application and they
were overall useful, although some settings they had just could not be easily ported to Maya. That is why I try to go for books that discuss lighting in general and then apply the concepts rather than memorizing settings and numbers.
On the web you can find the usual lighting formulas, like 3-point lights, but I haven't seen any tutorials on more creative settings. Like soulburn3d mentioned, how about tutorials on recreating hazy environments, snow, vignetting, etc?

[AlphaJoe]

I just got my first glance at this book today and it appears to be extrememly informative: Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting (http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Maya-Texturing-Lighting-Lanier/dp/047179404X/sr=1-1/qid=1160509154/ref=sr_1_1/002-5911076-6392804?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Lee Lanier.

[neuromancer1978]

Of course, I agree with everything you said, just that the person that started the thread mentioned Maya. I have also read books that used Max as reference 3D application and they
were overall useful, although some settings they had just could not be easily ported to Maya. That is why I try to go for books that discuss lighting in general and then apply the concepts rather than memorizing settings and numbers.
On the web you can find the usual lighting formulas, like 3-point lights, but I haven't seen any tutorials on more creative settings. Like soulburn3d mentioned, how about tutorials on recreating hazy environments, snow, vignetting, etc?

Ah yes. I must have been drinking or smoking something really good because I just did not read both the first 2 posts correnctly untill just now.

So my apologies.... (stick foot in mouth, smile sheepishly)

[silvia]

LOL, don't worry!

[tedious]

I just got my first glance at this book today and it appears to be extrememly informative: Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting (http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Maya-Texturing-Lighting-Lanier/dp/047179404X/sr=1-1/qid=1160509154/ref=sr_1_1/002-5911076-6392804?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Lee Lanier.

I just got "Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting" as well: it's a very different book, but also recommended!

It's about time someone wrote a book that goes through node by node and describes whats going on in hypershade, exactly like the documentation doesn't. Actually, the book seems as if it was written a little while ago, alhtough there's a bonus chapter (PDF file) on the DVD that covers "new" features added to Maya 7 like Render Layers, the main book chapters describe core features from Maya 6.5 and earlier. There's covrage of Mental Ray, including some Mental Ray nodes and shaders, Mental Ray render settings, and GI and FG techniques. I hadn't ever noticed that you could visualize the photon positions from the photon maps in Maya, that function had slipped right by me before I saw it in the book, very handy! I'd say even for experienced users this is one of those books where if it teaches you one or two new things like that, it's paid for itself. There might be a few factual errors in what I've seen so far, but I guess that goes with the territory in a book that covers materials other books don't go into at all.

Also, there's a bonus chapter on the DVD (another .pdf file) that goes over artistic theory of lighting, including film stills and reproductions of paintings, so the book also has coverage of theory as well. I thought it was funny how much they put in .pdf format, even the part with the chipchart where you were supposed to compare the chipchart in the figure to the file from teh DVD you could display on your monitor, so you could adjust your monitor, it's funny they put that page on .pdf only so you were really only comparing your monitor to your monitor ... but apart from the chapters that are PDF, the main book is all nicely printed in full color, and it does get bonus points for a DVD with scene files as well. Definately something you want on your bookshelf!

Tedious

[Fess]

tedious,

Nice fat review.
I'll definately look into this book now...
Would be great if you'd just copy/paste you critique to the book's page at amazon. :thumbsup:

Regards
Fess

[tedious]

tedious,

Nice fat review.
I'll definately look into this book now...
Would be great if you'd just copy/paste you critique to the book's page at amazon. :thumbsup:

Regards
Fess

Just tried. I'm not an Amazon customer, I would have needed to buy something in order to post. :(

I'll just recommend it to people at Opamp Technical Books instead, that'll teach them! (Feel free to quote me on Amazon if you want to, I hearby release my review into the public domain.)

Tedious

[joost_db]

how about this book? Essential CG Lighting Techniques with 3Ds Max (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essential-Lighting-Techniques-3Ds-Max/dp/024052022X/ref=pd_sxp_grid_i_0_1/026-9426464-1289202)

As a 3ds max user rendering with vray would it be more useful than Digital Lighting & Rendering (http://www.3drender.com/index.html)?

[joconnell]

Just as an aside, the book that Neil mentioned and other books on lighting for film / photography are totally applicable if you use GI - Lighting with area lights and white boxes is the exact same as using soft boxes and white reflectors in real life and if you set up a 3d scene the same way as a photo shoot you'll get a really similar result - I'm liking the simplicity of GI in that regard...

[silvia]

I just bought the "Advanced Texturing and Lighting" book, and even though I gave it only a general run through, I think it is going to be very useful. I plan in finding the time to sit down and try one by one the various shading networks in the book. Very good buy if you ask me, but definately a Maya book with solutions very specific to Maya nodes and shading networks.

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