CGTalk - Outdoor Lighting

vfxnerd

10-13-2007, 08:55 AM

I have been experimenting with Maya's Physical Sky and Sun and Directional lights for an sunny outdoor scene. I get some okay results but my question is what is the best way to light up a sunny outdoor scene for an animation/film? I just want it to be simple but realistic in a way (faking if possible).

While using Maya's Physical Sky and Sun I've noticed that it totally blows out my material attributes. For example I am also testing out the Maya Fast Skin Shader and it works with a normal light setup but if I use a Physical Sky and Sun it renders out grey with a tint of the skin color. Would I change this in the Physical Sky and Sun attribute or the skin shader?

Any help or suggestion would be appreciated.
Thanks!

ienrdna

10-13-2007, 01:41 PM

http://gnomonology.com/group/16

vfxnerd

10-13-2007, 05:19 PM

ienrdna - Thanks for the link, I have come across that one already but I'm a student on a tight budget so I'm looking for anything from suggestions or free tutorials first, and if that doesn't help I'll probably go ahead and purchase it from Gnomonology.

1armedScissor

10-14-2007, 04:09 PM

If you're okay with not having radiosity you can simply use one directional light for your sunlight & ambient occlusion for your fill. use a 2:1 ratio and you'll be most of the way there. If you still at this point require some radiosity or the appearance of radiosity then a few carefully placed & colored localized light sources will do the trick.

relatively quick & painless to setup

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