Are you stuck with your 3D lighting, getting inconsistent renders and don’t really know what you’re supposed to do with your lights? Then during the next 3 minutes, you’ll find a simple and easily applied solution, that will solve that problem once and for all, regardless what 3D software you’re using…
Having been teaching lighting for over half a decade, to thousands of artists, I see this happen over and over…
3D artists tend to overuse lighting in an uncontrolled manner, simply resulting in random results and tons of canceled renders.
I’ve learned this by studying nature with my video and photo camera. When walking around in various environments, I’ve noticed that the scenery looked at its best when the main lighting came from the side, slightly from behind and slightly from above. This is also called “back-light”. Suddenly, there was more definition, more contrast, more shape, more depth and everything looked more cool and interesting.
It doesn’t really matter what light type you use either, as long as it’s coming from a similar angle.
This simple trick will save you tons oh headaches and honestly, produce consistent great looking renders. Of course, you need to back up the mainlighting with some kind of additional lighting from the front, but now that you know what to do with the main light, the rest becomes a simple task of filling in the blanks.
Just don’t over-do the blanks… Let the main light be the MAIN light and focus on one light being the “hero” in your 3D scenes. Note an interesting scenario going on in the example render above, by my great friend and fantastic 3D artist Mursil Butt; it’s not just where you put the lights, but really how you CAPTURE them using your 3D camera.
If you do this, you’ll quickly see a dramatic shift in the quality of your renders… and people WILL notice that when you start posting on galleries.
Now, if you want to get even more cool free lighting tricks & tips, then click HERE for my free ebook: “5 Steps 2 Stunning 3D Lighting In Any Software”.
Yours in a bright 3D future,
Val Cameron a.k.a. Waldemar B. / Dreamlight
P.S. Click HERE to download my free ebook: “5 Steps 2 Stunning 3D Lighting In Any Software”, for more cool lighting tricks & tips.
Great information.