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The Wonderful World of Lights: A Tutorial

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#1

I may not be one of the geniuses of ZBrush (I hope I can get to their level one day! ), but I do want to share with you some of the stuff I know. Lately, I have been playing around a lot with lights. I know many people have done this before me, explaining different light settings, etc. Well, I thought my little tidbits might be able to help someone out, and if they can help just one person, that’s good for me.

Okay, with the intro complete (lol) we can get down to it. In most of my works, I have vibrant colors and highlights to make the image stand out. Below is an example with the default lights and then with my favorite lighting set up I call Bright Outline.

As you can see, there is a major difference. The second shows more color and also highlights the outline of the figure, giving it a bright cheery look. Okay, let’s beak this down.

:white_small_square: :small_blue_diamond: :large_orange_diamond: :red_circle: The Lights :red_circle: :large_orange_diamond: :small_blue_diamond: :white_small_square:

All the lights I use are suns. There are four in total. The main one is set to the full intensity of 2. One other sunlight is set to .3 intensity and the other is set to .93. One is white, the other is blue in this case and are both set opposite the main light. Finally, there is a radial sun. This one is positioned to illuminate the edges and is set to 2. That’s pretty much how I use my lights. Moving the main light can change where the most light is coming from and changing the others can add color highlights wherever you wish. Good luck with light experimentation!

#2

Nice Tutorial! you are right, creating the scene is only half the work, correct lighting is the other half. I share your affinity with bright colors.

If you have 1.5 you can save your light settings and share them. I would be interested in your setup if you can upload it.

#3

I like this contribution also :slight_smile: Thanks for sharing :+1: :+1: :+1:
DeeVee,
Joe.

#4

Hi Tishinina
What an enlightening and illuminating explanation.
And what charming cats smiley :cool:
Pilou

<font color="#949494" size=“1”> November 16, 2002 Message edited by: Frenchy Pilou </font>

#5

I personally don’t subscribe to overlighting in 3d. But for cartoon characters, I’ve found that you can get a good toon look by cranking up the intensity and lowering the ambiance of 2 lights on either side.

#6

lighting is very important indeed. If you’re going for realism, ambient light should be off, seeing as there is no ambient light in the real world… and if youre doing an image with say, fire, the lighting needs to be placed and colored correctly.

David

#7

I love bright colours too, but I prefer a little more shading and difference than you have on your second one. I would probably strive for something inbetween. Or perhaps add shadows for dynamics.

:wink: