MAYA LIGHTING: Simple 3-point Lighting

Overall Goal is to create 4 renders, 1-Point, 2-Point, 3-Point and a creative lighting setup. 
*All renders must have the same same camera and position.

• 1-Point Lighting
• 2-Point Lighting
• 3-Point Lighting
• Creative Setup

Watch video on 3-point lighting.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcMX1RcNRYA     

 

 
Three Point Lighting

What is a 3-point lighting system and why are we learning it?  It is basically a lighting technique that was created to simulate real world lighting in a studio environment in Hollywood. The Three Point Lighting Technique is a standard method used in visual media such as video, film, still photography and computer-generated imagery. It is a simple but versatile system which forms the basis of most lighting. Once you understand three point lighting you are well on the way to understanding all lighting.   A classical 3-point lighting scheme has three lights, a key light, fill light, and rim light.

Create a Subject to light

Create a polygon cube as the main subject.  Smooth the cube 3+ times. Mesh > Smooth - so that it looks roundish.  *You can also change the number of divisions.  Use Smooth Preview {3} to round out all the spikes.

 

 

Select your cube in vertex mode, randomly select a small percentage of vertices and scale them out using constraints.  Select > Select Using Constraints . . . Under constrain section, choose Current and Next and under the Random tab check Active and assign a percentage to randomly select.  10% would be 0.100

Now Create a ‘HUGE’ polygon plane to be used as the stage.  Scale it to the ratio shown below.

Rotate the subject shape so that it apears that it sits on the ground.  This should be done in both the front and the side views. 

CAMERA:

Create Key Camera: Create > Cameras > Camera  Manipulate each camera accordingly.  Also label the camera “Render Me”  

Initial camera position – Perspective View

Initial camera position – Side View

Now you should be looking through the camera labeled “Render ME”. We need to add one more thing, show resolution gate. There are two ways to do this. View > Camera Settings > Resolution Gate or press the resolution gate button.

While each camera is selected in one of the perspective view choose Panel > Look through Selected.

Manipulate each camera accordingly.  Also label the camera “Render Me”

LIGHTS:
Now that we have the subject, we need to add a light.  We are going to start with a simple 1-point light setup with a spotlight.  Your main light in a scene is your Key Light. 
One Point Lighting and Key Lights

The key light is the main or the strongest light in the scene that illuminates your subject.   It  is also responsible for the over all exposure and defines the most visible shadows.  It could be from any main light source from the sun penetrating in a window sill to the spotlight on a stage. In a classical 3 point lighting setup. it is generally placed 30 to 45 degrees to the right or left of the camera. This range for the key light helps bring out more texture and form (dimension) in the subject.




Here is an example of a model with 1-point lighting. She is only lit with a “key” light.

Key Lights: The key light is the main or the strongest light in the scene that illuminates your subject.   It  is also responsible for the over all exposure and defines the most visible shadows.  It could be from any main light source from the sun penetrating in a window sill to the spotlight on a stage. In a classical 3 point lighting setup. it is generally placed 30 to 45 degrees to the right or left of the camera. This range for the key light helps bring out more texture and form (dimension) in the subject.

Create Key Light: Create a spot light Create > Lights > Spot Light then while each light is selected in one of the orthographic views (I used the side view) choose Panel > Look through Selected. Also label the light“Key Light” then Manipulate each light accordingly placing it about 30 to 40 degrees to to left or right of the camera.      

Initial light position – Perspective View

Initial light position – Front View

It should now look something like this . . .

   

Great Rendering Article.
http://www.fxguide.com/featured/the-art-of-rendering/

     
Spot Light
There are a number of attributes you will need to control the spotlight.  Here are the most important:

Changing Decay Rate

Changing Decay Rate controls how quickly the light’s intensity decreases over distance.  The default setting is No Decay.  I generally try to similar real world lighting, hence I use Quadratic Decay and in Arnold Renderer, it is set by default.

Constant - no decay; light reaches everything
Quadratic - light intensity decreases proportionally with the square of distance (the same as real world light)
      

Changing the Cone Angle 
The Cone Angle setting changes the angle (in degrees) from edge to edge of the spot light’s beam. The valid range is 0.006 to 179.994. The default value is 40.   The advantage of changing the Cone Angle is that you do not have to adjust your intensity versus when moving the light farther or closer.  *This does is irrelevant if “No Decay” is set on your spotlight. 

     

Changing the Cone Angle
The Penumbra Angle setting changes the edge of the spot light’s beam by widening the Cone Angle  in degrees.  The intensity of the light falls off linearly to zero. The valid range is -179.994 to 179.994.  The default value is 0.

Changing the Dropoff

The Dropoff setting controls the rate at which light intensity decreases from the center to the edge of the spot light beam. The valid range is 0 to infinity. The slider range is 0 to 255.   Typical values are between 0 and 50.   The default value is 0 (no dropoff).