How to become a lighting artist

[ndeboar]

I would start by doing some lighing, and post it up here on CG talk and get come construtive critisim. You can do some of Jeremy's lighting challanges if you dont want to model something your self.

Also look at non-cg lighting, lighting isn't exlusive to cgi, there's some great examples in every film you watch.

[NicholasZamot]

You may also want to look into some schools you would be able to attend that offer some courses for shading and lighting. Unfortunately Full Sail does not offer but one course for shading and lighting unless you take an art test to go in that direct and even then you only get like 2 more courses. Also with the last guys comment Jeremy Birn wrote a book called Shading and Lighting and its the book we receive at school here, it has some good stuff in it.

[tharrell]

Yep, that book is a great start. As Nick mentioned, Jeremy hosts lighting challenges here on CGTalk and they're a wonderful way to start out.

From there, pick your focus. Do you want to do live action VFX? Do you want to do Pixar/Dreamworks style animation? They're similar but different disciplines, but basically if you're going to be working on projects for your reel... make sure they reflect the type of work you want to be doing!

(I was guilty of that for the longest time)

After that, you'll need to get your feet wet in both physically accurate Mental Ray/VRay-style lighting techniques as well as more PRMan-style cheats (although they're moving toward physical plausibility as well lately). That subject is a pretty deep rabbit hole, and the single best thing you can do to help yourself out is to buy a camera, turn off every single automatic piece, and learn how to control it manually.

Taking pictures also helps your eye as well as your understanding of how light works.

I had the benefit of working in advertising agencies for quite some time before I made the jump to vfx work, so I got to learn how photographers (and dop's) light and shoot for the real world... I learned on-set lighting terminology as a byproduct, which has proved extremely helpful.

Work on your eye. Learn to see, learn how to get what you visualize onto the screen. Make it beautiful. :)

I'd suggest grabbing some films that have extraordinary lighting in a variety of styles. Off the top of my head: "In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai)" "Inglorious Basterds (Tarantino)" "Thirst (Park Chan Wook)" "Incredibles (Brad Bird/Pixar)" and study them with the sound off.

Ok, I'm rambling now :)

Go get your hands dirty, and best of luck!

--T

[pickcell]

Wow, thanks for all the great replies guys! I do have that book and I'm going through it right now. I hope by the time I'm done reading it for the first time I'll manage to overcome my shyness and start posting some stuff here on the challenges :-)

[tharrell]

Wow, thanks for all the great replies guys! I do have that book and I'm going through it right now. I hope by the time I'm done reading it for the first time I'll manage to overcome my shyness and start posting some stuff here on the challenges :-)

Shyness won't get you anywhere :)

Just start posting stuff, and learn how to ask intelligently for criticism. No matter what your first job is as an artist of any type... learning to ask for and receive crits gracefully is a survival skill!

Once you start working, you'll have your work utterly savaged from time to time. Takes a bit of time to learn to separate yourself from your work and take things constructively. No time like the present.

--T

[andreitt]

Well I started with photography. I watched some videos, especially Strobist . (http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/) I also benefit from having a small studio where I get to experiment with different techniques and lights. If you have a camera I strongly recommend going out and experiment. It is really important to understand how light works in real life before moving on to software.

Moving on from photography to 3D software was not easy but the base principles are almost the same so it helped a lot. Try searching for some lightning videos that show you fundamentals not just how-to (how-tos are good but you first need to learn why).
I don't have any links in my mind right now but if I come across something interesting I'll post.

[MikeBracken]

To add my advice....

Lots of hard work. You have to remember that most of the stunning images that you see out there were created by people with lots of experiance under there belt. I think that some starting out love the idea of creating beautiful images, but get discouraged when they find
out just how much work it takes to get to that point. But if you are dedicated and passionate
everything else will fall into place.

Good luck !

Regards,
Mike

[RagingBull]

(bare with me)
I was very lucky with my first 'gig' - but now the luck has ran out, I'm stuck in London with pretty much 0 contacts, and desperately seeking work, whilst trying to get a new reel on the go !

As the others have said, it's a good idea for your reel to be focused on the area you are interested in.
a) Full CGI
b) Live action & CG

For me personally, I started learning 3d at home, then I went to university, I did a foundation course in art first of all. After that was completed, I enrolled onto a BA degree that seemed to accommodate my requirements of making short 3d films.
During this time, I had made friends with a guy from another forum, we used to talk CG and stuff on MSN. He was always keen to see what I had been up to.
Once I had finished uni, he asked to see what my final project and reel was like, about 1 month later, I was offered a job from a contact of his for a lighting position on an animated feature film. :beer:

But as I said, it's not all good because my main mistake after that project was completed, was that I didn't immediately go looking for more work :argh:

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