1 of 9

What is good lighting?

An examination and summary of lighting

by Robert Showalter

2 of 9

Consider these attributes for every light you place in your scene.

​

Furthermore, ask yourself why you're adjusting the light's attributes. For the answer to that, we'll look at the goals of lighting.

Attributes of light and shadow

  • Color
  • Intensity (and contrast)
  • Directionality
  • Area (hard, soft)
  • Specularity

​

3 of 9

The goals of lighting

  • Focus the audience's attention
  • Create graphic shapes/compositions
  • Reveal 3d shapes in a 2d medium
  • Set the mood/enhance the story
    • high key, low key, contrast, color theory, etc.
  • Give information about the environment
  • Enhance texture
  • Additionally, in computer animation:
    • unify multiple elements into a cohesive, final image
    • produce an artifact-free render
      • "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."

​

​

4 of 9

Color

  • Color has a strong influence on the mood
  • It can be instrumental in composition and focus, too
  • Tweaking color in post is essential, but be mindful of your white balance and try not to overdo it (search: Instagram or Michael Bay).
  • You can achieve a very strong color script without heavy color grading (see: Hero and every Pixar film)

5 of 9

Intensity (and contrast)

  • Intensity is one of the best tools to influence our focus.
  • It's also great for mood and providing information about the environment.
  • Per-light, consider their intensity. With each additional light, consider how they contrast each other (search: key to fill ratio).

6 of 9

Direction

  • The direction of lights and shadows contributes most to shaping and composition.
  • It is also instrumental to environment information and revealing texture.

*see comments for additional notes

7 of 9

Area (hard/soft shadows)

  • Hard and soft shadows give a wealth of information about the light source and environment.
  • It has a strong impact on the mood of a shot.
  • There are many different approaches in CG to give the impression of soft shadows. It doesn't have to be expensive.

8 of 9

Specularity

  • Highlights are often the brightest points in your image.
  • Our eyes are more attracted to light than shadow (eg. There will be blood). Sidebar, movement and people still attract more attention
    • Because they draw a lot of attention, it's important to consider which lights are contributing to your highlights.
    • Also for this reason, It's believed that specular maps have MORE visual impact than bump maps.
  • They reveal a lot about texture.
  • Speculars in the eyes help make CG characters look alive.

*see comments for additional notes

9 of 9

Reference

​

  • Frame Filter - browse movie stills
  • Flickr, Tumblr - search for photo reference