I am trying to find a tutorial for lighting a chor. I have found Yves but that seems to be more for a still scene. Rendering a three minute animation with some of the settings in those tutorials would take a great deal of time and horse power. I am looking for a compromise.

Also, still learning AM, is it better to build the lights in the model such as lamp in a room or in a chor?

Any help is appreciated.

Steve

I just ran across these tuts on lighting, not AM specific, but usable nontheless: http://www.3drender.com/light/3point.html
and : http://www.andrew-whitehurst.net/3point.html

It's a good start and easy on the render time.

Hope that get ya going in the right direction.

Excellent!! This will be a big help

Steve

Steve,
Lighting is a huge part of the animation.

What type of look are you trying to acheive?
I have had great luck using the 8 light skylight rig in combination with regular lighting.

Also, try to think ahead and decide what you can composite.
You can create stunning results by compositing.

David

Hi David:

Not to move too far off this thread, but could you give a link to a practical compositing tutorial? Thanks

Thanks guys. As one that comes from a video background lighting a scene in the real world is harder than most people think but the effort is well worth it!

So I lot of the things I have learned about animation has not emphasized the lightning. So, that is the next area I want to begin learning. I am embarassed to say I don't even know how to put a light in a model such as a lamp or front lamp of a car! I have used all the presets to date. Even a tutorial on putting a light in a lamp would be helpful for me.

Here is a shot of the model I have created and want to light it correctly on the inside of the model. We use after effects to composite the video. I have just begun to follow the threads on compositing with AM.

Any help?

Steve

Steve,
Unless I missunderstand your question, are you trying to place a light "in" a model or inside the chor to light your model?

We also use AE for compositing (btw, we bought a killer particles package at SIGGRAPH).

The only time I add a light to a model is for head lights (or was it head lice?), otherwise I add all my lighting in the chor.

David

Hi David

For example, on the shed is is best to light the lights on the outside of the building in the chor or on the model itself? What is the best wayt to place the lights? These are the answers I am looking for.

What particle system did you buy? For AM or other?

Steve

Steve,
In my opinion it is best to place all lighting in the chor.

Use separate lights inside if you are going to have a camera in there.

To light the outside use a combination of key lights (hard shadows) Fill lights ( I usually turn the shadows off on the fills lights) and a sun (if it is an outside shot).

Is there going to be anything else around the barn?
You can also use a klieg light where you enable z-buffered shadows (softer shadows).

There is also AO if you want to get the realistic look.

David

I tried AO, wow is it nice but with a 3 minute animation coming up, I am afraid the rendering would suffer. I am going to use it on the out door shots I have of a horse cow and dog.

I am currently rendering a test of about 30 sec to see how my first lighting looks. I will let you know.

Steve

Steve,
Glad to hear you are experimenting, it really is the best way to learn how to get different results.

Perhaps you can post a few stills...

David

I just stumbled on this thread.

Steve, how's the test coming along?

Hi Dhar

Things are going very well. I have played a great deal with lighting. Still learning though. I have finished 90 % of the video and have four 10 sec sections of the vidoe to complete. Should have finished last week but other things got in the way.

Steve