Reply To: Sharpie’s Polybook
Lighting Submission
I worked through the Lighting course today. The course was good, I learned a lot about properly lighting scenes, especially those with a focus on a single object. When the instructor walked through the lighting for the scene in the final project, I got a bit confused. Adding all of the additional lighting to the scene to make rim lights and fill lights that ignore objects resulted in a look that felt overexposed to me. Like most things in an artistic endeavor, though, it’s probably something that’s closer to personal preference rather than a hard science?
Here Comes the Sun
I wanted to light this room so that it is warm an inviting, so I used a Sky Texture to make the sun set a rich, orange color. This is what the scene looks like with only the sun filtering through the window, which I like a lot.
Adding in More Lights
I think the warm theme I wanted is nearly achieved at this point. The long, harsh shadows cast by the chair and table near the window made the scene less inviting, so I made the ceiling light a warm color to push those shadows into a more inviting tone. The rest of the fill and rim lights for things like the statue, vase, cabinet, and sparrows were variations in power and value from the original light. All of that means the final scene is lit with a monochromatic orange lighting scheme, which I think turned out nice. It achieves an inviting atmosphere with the warm tones even though I might like the more dramatic lighting from the window-only lighting. The rim lighting on the left of the cabinet helps to show the leg of the cabinet better and the details of the front of the cabinet is better defined with this new lighting setup, using two fill lights and the center ceiling light to ensure the front of the cabinet is lit enough to see. I wanted to maintain the dark shadows from the cabinet to sell the fact that the sun is setting.
Final Render
Things started to click into place for me as I lit this scene. The really dark shadows from the sun obscured the scene and made it difficult to see the features on the center cabinet. The lights added help define the scene, and while I still think the original lighting setup for the scene in the tutorial is a bit harsh, I understand the concepts and look forward to applying them in the future.
