🧵 Lighting your scenes
Anonymous at Fri, 2 Aug 2024 19:24:25 UTC No. 991405
Hello /3/! I need your help.
> TL;DR - How do I make set up good lighting in my 3D scenes?
For the longest time this has been my biggest weakness as a (aspiring) 3D artist and I think this is what preventing me from delivering more professional tier results.
Honestly you can be the best artists ever but if your lighting is bad it doesn't really matters
>What do I need:
>Tips
>Resources
>Articles
>Tutorials
>Examples of great lighting in 3D scenes
Anything that can help me make lighting that doesn't sucks
And hopefully great lighting on my own scenes
>Please help me suck less
Anonymous at Fri, 2 Aug 2024 19:52:44 UTC No. 991407
The biggest issue is that brainlets (not necessarily you) always seek for the EXACT ways how to make "things look good" in their particular software of choice instead of simply looking up basics that artists have solved and documented literally hundreds of years ago.
If you know what makes a good painting you'll be able to translate that to your 3D work
Anonymous (OP) at Fri, 2 Aug 2024 20:10:27 UTC No. 991409
>>991407
Well you do make a good point but at the same time the more I try to set up good lighting in my scenes the more I just realize there isn't a "method" or science behind it, truly.
In 3D this gets even more complex because we can basically just straight up "Light Linking" and literally break photon physics for artistic purposes.
>Not to mention I am truly very bad with lighting
So I wanted to listen to opinions from people who had more time trying to figure out lighting
>Please help me modify my retarded thinking
Anonymous at Fri, 2 Aug 2024 21:25:36 UTC No. 991413
I'm also trying to learn lighting and I've found the best beginner resources seem to be from the photography profession. Youtube has lots of tutorials on types of portrait lighting for example that I found really helpful.
Anonymous at Sat, 3 Aug 2024 07:37:14 UTC No. 991440
>>991405
Fuck it, let's see if I can give good advice :P
Looking at your first two examples you have your key, fill, and your rim light which makes you about 60% on track for "professional results" lol, stop getting lost in the pursuit of perfection you'll never find it. Honestly it's these three that make the very base for even film production anything more(in regards to just lighting) is just adding more lights under these three categories until it looks balanced out enough for whatever the scene calls for.
As for tips, like I said you have the right idea but your execution is a bit off. You've got your key(your primary that doesn't get out valued by anything else). As for your fill light, it's in the opposite direction of the key which is the right idea but it should be much bigger in terms of scale and very diffuse and subtle to the point that it shouldn't be so obvious where that light source is coming from. As for the rim lighting you'll find better results with two directional lights(key side rim being slightly brighter than the fill side rim), it's better seen from the color in your second example that the light is spilling over the sphere too much and should be reduced by at least half if not more. Rim lighting should mainly be used to help with popping characters or objects that need attention from a busy background and using rims while rendering in the black void of nothingness helps to just make it worse unless it's being used with extreme subtly. Lastly would be the dome light which is the hdri in your third example, or a fake hdri if you want to use something quick, this light is basically just a 360 degree sphere of light that usually doesn't cast any shadows and it's main function for your first two examples would be to lighten up the darker areas on the sphere to help sell the idea that this ball is in a room and not the emptiness of 3D space(think of it as faking tiny traces of light bouncing off of all the surfaces of a room).
Anonymous at Sat, 3 Aug 2024 07:38:15 UTC No. 991441
>>991440
And that's the basics anything else will be the settings in your rendering engine, materials and textures, and any final compositing like Nuke or Photoshop.
"possible_tutorial.jpg" learning isn't going to hurt but just going off the image what your seeing is more materials and render settings than lighting, that image is showing off sub-surface scattering more than anything. I'd start with the sphere and just don't use any color, get use to your luminosity values first then start playing with day and night set ups by adding in a little bit of color, once you have that down then start exploring hdris, ray-tracing, material settings, sub-surface scattering, global illumination, render engine settings and what they relate to, compositing, and so on. Best way to learn is to fuck around and find out, seriously, find a slider or numerical value you can change in your render engine, fuck around with it and see how it affects your render. It really is the best way to learn. Lighting is much more rendering and troubleshooting than it is moving lights around.
For an example that has aged better than most hollywood movies check out "The Third and The Seventh", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ-
it's basically a showcase on what is achievable when you strive for photo realism and have a solid grasp on not just lighting values but materials and textures, render settings, and compositing.
Good luck :)
Anonymous (OP) at Wed, 7 Aug 2024 02:11:05 UTC No. 991723
>>991413
>>991440
>>991441
Thank you for the help! I will try to heed your advice.
>Pic. related is a classic 3 Point Lighting
>Just learnt this today
>Seems to be a good "starting point"
Anonymous at Wed, 7 Aug 2024 06:11:44 UTC No. 991734
Iunno but don't ignore tonemapping and color grading. These two postprocessing operations can account for a HUGE portion of the "vibe" of your work - all by modifying the raw output of the render without rerendering anything - and are used extensively in professional media to dial-in the feel of the finished product.
Blender already comes with a tone mapper enabled (as of 4.2, it's Khronos, and before that, it was AgX, and Filmic), which operates in real-time to produce the final view that you see when modelling and rendering, but you can change it to other tone mappers with their own characteristics.
Anonymous at Wed, 7 Aug 2024 10:12:43 UTC No. 991741
>>991405
depends what you're trying to light and how and what software, maybe a bit more infos..ya know?
I don't think a tutorial will help you, you just gotta try and experiment a lot of things and have some ref
I'm a lighting artist at an AAA company
Anonymous at Wed, 7 Aug 2024 15:21:00 UTC No. 991750
>>991734
>Blender already comes with a tone mapper enabled (as of 4.2, it's Khronos, and before that, it was AgX, and Filmic),
I think the default is probably still just Standard tone mapping but IDK I haven't updated in a while.
But khronos isn't an alternative or upgrade to AgX or Filmic, khronis is used when you need to reproduce colours more accurate to the albedo than to the scene.
For instance, shots of a product label where the colours of the branding are very important.
AgX or Filmic should be used when you want the colours to be more accurate to real life.
Anonymous at Wed, 7 Aug 2024 17:19:33 UTC No. 991768
>>991723
nta, photography indeed, and art, and cinematography, etc. don't forget advertisement! be it animated or still compositions, these fucks have lots of money to burn on their hands
Anonymous (OP) at Wed, 7 Aug 2024 18:46:48 UTC No. 991773
>>991734
Bruh, a simple thing makes so much difference!
Thanks anon I feel less retarded now thanks to you.
>>991741
Fair point. I'm currently using Blender and I plan to maybe use Blender's compositing within the same software or should I use Photoshop?
I know how to use Photoshop, but not Blender's compositor or Nuke.
What do you think about it?
>>991750
I've seen the new Color Tone Mapping in 4.2 called Khronos, it's amazing.
I recommend everyone to use it, it's great! You won't be disappointed.
>>991768
Thanks! Do you know any good sources explaining that? or should I just look
on Slop Tube?
Anonymous at Sun, 11 Aug 2024 01:01:22 UTC No. 991986
A good resource is looking up how scenes for video and film are light. Look up making of videos for commercials filmed inside living rooms. Where/what kind/ what settings they use for their lights are analogous to the lights you'd set up in 3D.
Anonymous at Sun, 11 Aug 2024 01:04:15 UTC No. 991987
>>991409
>there isn't a "method" or science behind it, truly.
No there totally is. Lighting is like the biggest and scienciest part of cinematography behind maybe lenses.
I just looked this up
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/f
All of this information is valid in 3d
Anonymous at Wed, 14 Aug 2024 20:31:08 UTC No. 992147
>>992141
A B
C D
E F
>A and B
Nice enough to show to another artist so he can see all the details in a mesh. The Rim light on B adds some dynamics to it but these wouldnt impress normies. Great for showing off a product to technical people for technical feedback
>D
Back lighting is a good idea for drama, but the fill light it blowing out the details on the sides facing us. The roundess of the cone and the texture in the ring are all gone. The cube is getting a lot of reflected light and thats all everything else needs. More disparity between the key and fill lights.
>E
Drark and brooding. It's a start toward making a dreery deep scene that could make you sad or scared. What it's missing are intense shadows. Something 3D people can do that live action people can't is turn off shadows on some of the lights. Just 1 light casting long dark shadows would make this one look more professional
>E
It's very close to being good. Your key light is washing our some of the details, but there's a good amount of contrast all over the place. I can really see the cube, ear, foot, and sphere really well.
>G
This one's my favorite. It's very dynamic. Like how C was trying to be. You could event stand to increase the rim light by a lot and make the fill light a bit darker for more drama.
Anonymous (OP) at Tue, 20 Aug 2024 22:51:26 UTC No. 992511
>>992147
Hey thanks for the feedback! I specially like the F setup.
>Today I have found out Blender has:
>Light/Shadow Linking
>Light Groups
>AOVs
I've used Maya's Arnold (render engine) before
Thankfully I am familiarized with it, as well.