The 6 Light Sources
Ambient
It is useful for simulating a combination of direct and indirect lighting.
Brightens all parts of the scene uniformly.
Directional
Even illumination of a scene using parallel rays of light.
useful for extremely far away sources, like sunlight.
Point
Light radiates in all direction from a single point, it is ideal for Omni-directional sources, like a lightbulb.
Spot
creates a cone of light in one direction, useful for beams of light, like a flashlight or a lighthouse.
Area
2D rectangular light sources, it is useful for windows and ceiling lights, but the more area lights you have, the longer it will take to render.
Volume
Light fills a 3D shape (sphere, cylinder, etc)
it is useful for a visual representation of the extent of the light.
Three-point lighting
Key light
the main source illuminating the subject.
Secondary light
(fill) highlights details of the object.
Backlight
Distinguishes the object from the background.
Attributes of light
Intensity
How much light emitted from the light source.
Fall off/decay
How much light diminishes from the source light (fall-off).
Cone angle
width of the lights cone of influence – area outside cone is not illuminated.
Penumbra Angle
Fall off at the edge cone of angle – gives a softer edge to the light source.
Drop-off
how much the light diminishes at the outer edges.
Colour
set an RGB colour for the light – affects the colour of the scene.
Light Controls
The aim from/ aim at
fall-off rate
cone radius
penumbra/umbra control
non-linear fall off
all in one control
Good ways to use lights
look to photographers for good techniques
think in terms of balance
look at natural lighting
avoid overly dramatic lights
avoid saturated lights and hues
normally only need a few lights
avoid disco colours and effects
Shadows
Hard shadows
Soft shadows
Fall out
Acts light a colour gradient, the shadow becomes lighter at the top of the object.
Shading
Every time you create a 3D object, you need to assign the right shaders, to make it look how you want it to. Materials and textures also fall under this term.
Hypershade
The Hypershade is the central working area of Maya rendering, where you can build shading networks by creating, editing, and connecting rendering nodes, such as textures, materials, lights, rendering utilities, and special effects.
Lambert
Default, matte material. Here’s a D20 die I modelled in Maya.
Blin
Metallic material. Here’s a flip lighter I modelled in Maya.
Phong
Phong is a material (shader) that represents glassy or glossy surfaces (such as car mouldings, telephones, bathroom fittings) with a hard specular highlight. Here’s a sphere I made in Maya.
Ciaran :3 