This five part series will focus on the topic of setting up a variety of lighting rigs that reflect natural lighting at different times of the day and manmade interior lighting. Each of the chapters will use the same base scene as a starting point, and will show a step by step guide to finding a lighting and rendering solution that best reflects the desired lighting
Chapter 1 | This Issue
situation.
Sunset / Sunrise
Chapter 2 | Next Issue The tutorials will explain the type of lights used and how to set up the
Broad Daylight
parameters along with talking about the different methods of tackling
Chapter 3 | August Issue 060
the subject. The manipulation of textures may also be covered in order to turn a daylight scene into night scene for example, as well as a look at some useful post production techniques in Photoshop in order to enhance a final still.
Artificial Light - Bright over head light at night
Chapter 4 | September Issue 061 Artificial Light (Night-Time) - Mood Lighting (Low-Level - Romantic)
Chapter 5 | October Issue 062 TV-Lit (Night-Time) with Low-Level Lighting
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 1: Sunset Chapter 1 - Sunset/ Sunrise Software Used: Maya
Introduction: Welcome to this new lighting tutorial series. This time we’ll be covering interior lighting in different situations. In this first part we’ll create a sunset lighting rig for our interior scene. Open the scene file and let’s have a look at what we have. (Fig.01) This is quite a complex scene, with a lot of detailed objects and materials. The scene has been divided into two main layers (Room and Objects). (Fig.02) We’ll start working on the lighting having only the Room layer active. To hide the Object layer, just uncheck the layer as shown in Fig.02. We’ll be using mental ray’s Physical Sun and Sky. So open the Render Settings panel and make sure that mental ray is selected in the Render Using menu. Switch to the Indirect Lighting tab and click on the Create button next to Physical Sun and Sky. (Fig.03)
A new direct light will be created at the origin of
to manually select the direct light and scale it up
the scene. This will be our main light source (the
to better see and select it easily. Scale the light
sun). Since this is a large scene, you may have
and position it like shown. (Fig.04)
Indoor Scene - Chapter 1: Sunset Environment Lighting Now, with the light still selected, go to the Panels menu in one of the viewports and select Look through Selected. This way we’ll be seeing the scene from the light’s point of view. This will come in handy to correctly position and rotate the light to get the lighting situation we’re after (Fig.05). In (Fig.06) you can see the light’s position and rotation used for the final image of this tutorial. The spots marked in red define the areas where the light will be passing through and thus illuminate the room. Before rendering the scene, open the Render Settings and switch to the Quality tab. In the Frame buffer section, set the Gamma value to 0.454. (Fig.07) Render the scene to see what’s happening with the light. (Fig.08) As you can see, we have our main light source (the sun) passing through the windows and casting shadows into the room. Don’t worry about the dark spots all over the image we’ll take care of that later.
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 1: Sunset
The sky outside is still too cold, so let’s change some values for the Physical Sky. Select the camera and find the mia_physicalsky node. Change the settings as shown in Fig.09. Set the R Unit Conversion value to a higher value, since we need more warm and reddish colors for our sky. Also, set the Horizon Height value to -1. (Fig.09) settings to better fit with our scene size. First
a brighter picture, change the F Number and
Now we need a better control over the exposure
of all, change the Cm 2 Factor value to about
Camera Shutter values.
of the image. Open the Hypershade and
2.000. Then change the Camera Shutter value
select the camera in the graph. Create a new
to 50 and the F Number to 4. You can also add
Once you are happy with your settings,
mia_exposure_photographic node and connect
a vignetting effect increasing the Vignetting
unhide the Objects layer and try to do some
it to the camera node (drag it with the middle
value. Don’t forget to set the Gamma value to 1.
test renderings. You may need to change the
mouse button over the camera node and choose
(Fig.11)
mia_exposure_photographic values accordingly.
default for the connection). The mia_exposure_
(Fig.12)
photographic node can be found in the mental
Take your time and play around with the values
ray nodes (Lenses section). (Fig.10)
in the mia_exposure_photographic node. You
When you are happy with the result, you
can achieve really nice and realistic effects.
can move on and prepare Maya for the final
If you render the picture now, you’ll probably
For example, you can try to play with the Burn
rendering. This is a trial and error phase, just
get a full black image. That’s because we need
Highlights and Crash Black values, to get the
try to raise the overall quality of the rendering
to change the mia_exposure_photographic
right “mood” for your picture. If you need to get
without having unaffordable render times. Raise the Accuracy value in the Final Gathering section and play with the Point Density and Point Interpolation values until the dark spots go away. (Fig.13) Also, don’t forget to set the antialiasing values to have a sharper image and enhance the details. Open the Render Settings and switch to the Quality tab. Change the Max Sample Level to about 2. (Fig.14)
Indoor Scene - Chapter 1: Sunset Environment Lighting
In Fig.15 you can see the final rendering used for this tutorial. Don’t forget to save the final rendering with the alpha channel (just use the TIF or TGA file formats), as we’ll need it later in Photoshop. Now we need an Ambient Occlusion pass for compositing purposes. Create a new Render Layer and call it AO or something like that. Assign all the geometry to this layer (select all the objects then right click on the AO render layer and assign them). (Fig.16) Open the Hypershade and create a new Surface Shader material. Create a new mib_amb_occlusion node and connect it to the Out Color of the Surface Shader. Select the mib_amb_occlusion node and change its settings like shown in Fig.17. Render the AO render layer and save the picture. (Fig.18) Open both the color and AO pictures in Photoshop. Copy the AO layer and paste it over the color one. Set the blending mode for the AO layer to Multiply and change the Opacity value as desired. Use a layer mask or a soft brush to slightly remove the AO over the spots marked in red in Fig.19 (the windows).
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 1: Sunset Find a nice sunset sky picture and paste it over the other layers (Fig.20). Select the Alpha Channel and delete the selected part of the picture. (Fig.21) Duplicate this new layer and assign a new Layer Style (Outer Glow) to it. Copy the values shown in Fig.22. Try to play around with the exposure control and the Hue/Saturation tool to get the desired look for your final picture. (Fig.23)
Tutorial by:
Luciano Iurino For more from this artist visit: http://www.pmstudios.it Or contact them:
[email protected]
+ mental ray
Scene Created by: Viktor Fretyán | Tutorial Written by Luciano Iurino
This five part series will focus on the topic of setting up a variety of lighting rigs that reflect natural lighting at different times of the day and manmade interior lighting. Each of the chapters will use the same base scene as a starting point, and will show a step by step guide to finding a lighting and rendering solution that best reflects the desired lighting
Chapter 1 | June Issue 058
situation.
Sunset / Sunrise
Chapter 2 | This Issue The tutorials will explain the type of lights used and how to set up the
Broad Daylight
parameters along with talking about the different methods of tackling
Chapter 3 | Next Issue
the subject. The manipulation of textures may also be covered in order to turn a daylight scene into night scene for example, as well as a look at some useful post production techniques in Photoshop in order to enhance a final still.
Artificial Light - Bright over head light at night
Chapter 4 | September Issue 061 Artificial Light (Night-Time) - Mood Lighting (Low-Level - Romantic)
Chapter 5 | October Issue 062 TV-Lit (Night-Time) with Low-Level Lighting
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 2: Broad Daylight Chapter 2 - Broad Daylight Software Used: Maya and Mental Ray Welcome to the second part of the Interior Lighting Tutorial. This time we’ll be creating a daylight rig for our 3D room. Let’s start by opening the Daylight_START.mb file. The scene is pretty much the same as for the first part (Fig.01). Before we can actually start lighting the room, we need to change the rendering engine to Mental Ray. Open the Render Settings panel and in the Render Using menu click on Mental Ray (Fig.02). The first thing we need to do is to create our main light source (the Sun), so switch to the Indirect Lighting tab in the Render Settings panel and click on the Create button next to Physical Sun and Sky (Fig.03). This will create a new directional light representing our sun at the origin of the scene. The light icon may be too small, so just select it and make it bigger to see it better. The only thing that really matters about this directional light is its orientation, since it represents the sun. So try not to rotate it too much, or it will light the scene like the sun at sunset; just try to keep it almost perpedicular to and Sky has already activated all the necessary
because of the blue sky in the environment
features to illuminate the room: it created an
and a pale warm light coming through the right
If you open the Render View and do a quick
environment for us and activated the Final
window (Fig.04).
test render, you’ll notice that the Physical Sun
Gather. There is a strong cold color component
the ground.
Indoor Scene - Chapter 2: Broad Daylight Environment Lighting Let’s start changing the Physical Sky parameters to get more light into the room. Set the Multiplier value to 3 and the Horizon Height to about -0.5. The room looks brighter now, but it’s still too dark (Fig.05). Create a new Area Light and position/scale it as shown in (Fig.06). It has to be close to the right window and pointing inward. Make sure it’s not touching the window’s mesh. We’ll use this Area light to shoot GI photons inside the room, so we don’t really need it to act as a “normal” light. Set it’s Intensity down to 0 and make sure that it emits photons in the Mental Ray > Caustic and Global Illumination tab (Fig.07). Open the Render Settings panel and switch to the Indirect Lighting tab. In the Global Illumination section, make sure that Global Illumination is active (Fig.08). If you do another quick render, you’ll notice no changes at all. That’s because the Area light
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 2: Broad Daylight
photons’ intentisy is not strong enough with the default values (Fig.09). Increase the Photon Intensity value to 100.000 and the Global Illum Photons to 100.000 (Fig.10). Now we start to see more light into the room, and we also see some spots all over the walls and objects: those are the photons emitted from the Area light. Don’t worry about that at this stage, we’ll take care of it later. Duplicate the Area light and rotate/position it on the opposite window (the left side one) (Fig.11). Create another copy of the Area light, but this time position/rotate it near one of the windows in the back of the room (Fig.12). Now we have a total of three Area lights shooting photons inside the room. Let’s do another quick render in the Render View and let’s see what happens. Now there is a lot of light inside the room, and a lot of photons all over the place (Fig.13).
Indoor Scene - Chapter 2: Broad Daylight Environment Lighting Now that we’ve set up the desired amount of light for the scene, we need to use some kind of exposure control to avoid over-exposed and burned areas in the rendered picture. Open the Hypershade and select the Camera we’re using for the rendering. Drag it into the Work Area and connect a mia_exposure_photographic node to it (Fig.14). We can now control the exposure of the picture just like a photographer would do with a professional camera. Change the Cm 2 Factor parameter to 2000 (Fig.15). Open the Render Settings panel, and reach the Frame Buffer section in the Quality tab. Set the Gamma value to 0.454. Go back to the mia_exposure_photographic node and set the Camera Shutter to 250, the F Number to 4, the Vignetting to about 2 and the Saturation to 1.2. (Fig.16). Try to play with these parameter to get the right exposure and look for your picture. Once you’re happy with the result, you can set the parameters for the final rendering. In the
Quality tab, set the Max Sample Level to at
Open the Hypershade and create a new Surface
least 2 (it’s a good compromise between anti-
Shader material. Connect a mib_amb_occlusion
aliasing quality and render times). In the Indirect
node to it’s color value and set the Samples
Illumination tab, set the Accuracy for both Global
to 256, the Spread to about 2 and the Max
Illumination and Final Gather to 500. Also, set
Distance to 40. (Fig.20)
the Radius value to 30 and the Merge Distance to 20. This sould take care of the spots problem
Assign this shader as an override material for
(Fig.17).
the rendering pass, and Batch Render the scene again. In Fig.21 you can see the final Ambient
Set the desired image resolution and Batch
Occlusion pass.
Render the scene. Don’t forget to save the alpha channel along with the final picture. You
Open the AO pass picture in Photoshop and
can use a file format like .TGA, for example. In
paste it over the color pass. Set the AO layer
Fig.18 you can see the final color pass.
blending mode to Soft Light and try to play with the Levels to get the desired amount of detail
As usual, we also need an Ambient Occlusion pass for the compositing. Create a new Render Layer and call it AO (Fig.19).
(Fig.22).
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 2: Broad Daylight Flatten the two layers together, and import a background picture like the one shown in Fig.23. Since we saved the rendered picture with the alpha channel, we just need to put the background layer below the main layer. Fig.24 shows the final composited picture.
Scene Created by:
Viktor Fretyán Textures Supplied by:
3DTotal Total Textures Tutorial by:
Luciano Iurino For more from this artist visit: http://www.pmstudios.it Or contact them:
[email protected]
www.3dcreativemag.com
Page 159
Issue 059 July 2010
+ mental ray
Scene Created by: Viktor Fretyán | Tutorial Written by Luciano Iurino
This five part series will focus on the topic of setting up a variety of lighting rigs that reflect natural lighting at different times of the day and manmade interior lighting. Each of the chapters will use the same base scene as a starting point, and will show a step by step guide to finding a lighting and rendering solution that best reflects the desired lighting
Chapter 1 | June Issue 058
situation.
Sunset / Sunrise
Chapter 2 | July Issue 059 The tutorials will explain the type of lights used and how to set up the
Broad Daylight
parameters along with talking about the different methods of tackling
Chapter 3 | This Issue
the subject. The manipulation of textures may also be covered in order to turn a daylight scene into night scene for example, as well as a look at some useful post production techniques in Photoshop in order to enhance a final still.
Artificial Light - Bright over head light at night
Chapter 4 | Next Issue Artificial Light (Night-Time) - Mood Lighting (Low-Level - Romantic)
Chapter 5 | October Issue 062 TV-Lit (Night-Time) with Low-Level Lighting
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 3: Artificial Light Chapter 3 - Artificial Light Software Used: Maya and Mental Ray Welcome to the third part of the Interior Lighting Tutorial. This time we’ll try to create a light rig for a night time environment with a strong artificial light coming from above. Open the NightTime01_START.mb scene file. You should already be familiar with it: it’s the same scene from the previous parts of the tutorial (Fig.01). Our main light source will be the big swinging lamp in the main room. Create a Point light and position it right over it, like shown in (Fig.02). Before continuing it’s time to set the render engine. Open the Render Settings panel and choose mental ray as the renderer (Fig.03). We won’t use a precise color for this light; instead, we’ll just plug a Mib_cie_d node into it’s color channel. This way we’ll have a realistic color for our light (Fig.04). The lower the Temperature value, the warmer the light’s color will be. For this tutorial we’re using a Temperature value of 5.500, and an Intensity value of 2 (Fig.05). Let’s go back to the Point light’s attributes. Set its Decay type to Quadratic and increase its
Indoor Scene - Chapter 3: Artificial Light Environment Lighting
Intensity to about 500. Also, enable Use Ray Trace Shadows, since strong artificial lights like this one usually cast solid and hard shadows (Fig.06). In Fig.07 you can see a quick preview render. While there’s a nice shadow in the upper part of the room, the lamp is casting too many shadows around the scene. It may be realistic light behaviour, but it’s not so pleasant to see. Select the lamp structure shown in Fig.08 and turn off the Cast Shadow feature in its Render Stats. Now it’s much better; the bigger shadow is still there, in the upper part of the room, but there is much less clutter (Fig.09). Now it’s time to add some light bounces, to make the dark corners look brighter. Open the
tab (Fig.10). Also, select the Point light and
Photon Intensity to 1000, the Exponent to 1 and
Render Settings panel and enable the Global
enable its Emit Photons option in the mental
the Global Illum Photons to a quite large value
Illumination feature in the Indirect Illumination
ray/Caustic and Global Illumination tab. Set the
(for this tutorial, a value of 5.000.000 was used).
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 3: Artificial Light
Render the scene again. Now it’s much better. If you get strange spots and splotches all over the walls, try to find the right values for the Radius and Merge Distance in the Indirect Illumination tab (Render Settings). These values may change from scene to scene, and it strongly depends on your scene size and measure units (Fig.11).
requires longer render times; just use lower values and lower resolution while doing test renders to avoid wasting too much time. Now that we’ve set our main light source, let’s add another light to the scene. This light will represent the cold light coming from outside the windows. Create a new Area light and position/ scale it as shown in Fig.13. Don’t forget to make it point inward! Set its color to a very dark blue and its Intensity value to about 1.2 (Fig.14). Now open the Render Settings panel once again Let’s add some more realism using Final
and reach the Quality tab. Set the Gamma value
Gather. Go back to the Render Settings/Indirect
to 0.454 in the Framebuffer section (Fig.15).
Illumination tab and enable Final Gather. Leave its parameters as they are at this stage.
Open the Hypershade and select the
Do another quick test render (Fig.12). The
active Camera. Connect a mia_exposure_
resolution and general quality of this render are
photographic node to it (Fig.16).
lower than the previous one, since Final Gather
Indoor Scene - Chapter 3: Artificial Light Environment Lighting
In Fig.17 you can see the values used for the mia_exposure_photographic node, but feel free to experiment with different values and try to find the final look you desire for your rendering. Before rendering the final color pass, make sure to take care of the Anti-Aliasing quality. Set the Max Sample Level to at least 2 (or try with even higher settings if you have a powerful PC or a lot of time to waste waiting for the render to finish...). In Fig.18 you can see the final color pass. Make sure to save the picture with its alpha channel enabled. It will be useful later in Photoshop for the compositing task. As usual, we also need an Ambient Occlusion pass. Create a new render layer and name it AO (Fig.19). Create a new Surface Shader in the Hypershade and connect a mib_amb_occlusion node to it. Finally, assign the Surface Shader to the render layer you created in the previous step (Fig.20). Make sure you have selected the AO render
Saturation tool to make it more yellow-ish
layer and render the AO pass (Fig.21).
(Fig.22).
Open both the color pass and the AO pass in
Paste another copy of the AO pass into the
Photoshop. Paste the AO pass over the color
picture. Set its blending mode to Soft Light and
one. Set its Opacity value to about 65%. Set
its Opacity to 70% (Fig.23).
its blending mode to Multiply and use the Hue/
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 3: Artificial Light
Find a nice background picture. We need to put it on another layer below the main color one. Try finding a nice picture of city lights on Google and paste it below the color layer (Fig.24). Select the Alpha channel you saved earlier together with the rendered picture and invert it (Fig.25). Create a new Layer Mask (from the Layer menu) using the Alpha selection as shown in (Fig.26). You can also use the same Alpha channel to select and duplicate the inner part of the windows (make sure to be on the background/city lights layer) (Fig.27). This way you can apply a Glow filter to add a nice effect (Fig.28).
Scene created by:
Viktor Fretyán Textures supplied by:
3DTotal Total Textures Tutorial by:
Luciano Iurino For more from this artist visit: http://www.pmstudios.it Or contact them:
[email protected]
+ mental ray
Scene Created by: Viktor Fretyán | Tutorial Written by Luciano Iurino
This five part series will focus on the topic of setting up a variety of lighting rigs that reflect natural lighting at different times of the day and manmade interior lighting. Each of the chapters will use the same base scene as a starting point, and will show a step by step guide to finding a lighting and rendering solution that best reflects the desired lighting
Chapter 1 | June Issue 058
situation.
Sunset / Sunrise
Chapter 2 | July Issue 059 The tutorials will explain the type of lights used and how to set up the
Broad Daylight
parameters along with talking about the different methods of tackling
Chapter 3 | August Issue 060
the subject. The manipulation of textures may also be covered in order to turn a daylight scene into night scene for example, as well as a look at some useful post production techniques in Photoshop in order to enhance a final still.
Artificial Light - Bright over head light at night
Chapter 4 | This Issue Artificial Light (Night-Time) - Mood Lighting (Low-Level - Romantic)
Chapter 5 | Next Issue TV-Lit (Night-Time) with Low-Level Lighting
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 4: Artificial Light Chapter 4 - Artificial Light Software Used: Maya and Mental Ray Welcome to the fourth part of the Interior Lighting Tutorial. This time we’ll be creating “mood lighting” with soft, warm lights. Open the “NightTime02_START.mb” scene file (Fig.01). The scene is pretty much the same as for the other parts of the tutorial. The only difference is that both the laptop and TV screen materials have been blackened out; since we want a “romantic” atmosphere we’re going to turn them off (Fig.02). This time our main light source will be the big fireplace in the middle of the room (Fig.03). Before we can start dealing with the lights themselves, make sure that you’re using the mental ray renderer. Open the Render Settings panel and pick mental ray from the drop-down list next to Render Using (Fig.04). Now create a Point light and position it right into the fireplace. Set its color to a full reddishorange. Set it’s Decay Rate to Quadratic and its Intensity to something like 100. Also, make
Indoor Scene - Chapter 4: Artificial Light Environment Lighting
sure to enable Raytrace Shadows for this light (Fig.05). Let’s do a quick test render (Fig.06). The light is coming from the fireplace and it’s correctly casting sharp shadows all over the room. Now we need a couple other lights in the bed area. Create a new Point light and position it right into one of the bed lamps, as shown in (Fig.07). Set its Intensity to 20 and its Decay Rate to Quadratic. Enable Raytrace Shadows for this light as well.
its color channel. This particular node allows you
Now repeat the process and add another point
to set a light’s color warmer or colder using a
light into the other bed lamp. Do all the previous
This time we won’t use a simple color for the
Temperature parameter. In this case, a value of
steps, included connecting the “mib_cie_d” node
light; instead, we’ll plug a “mib_cie_d” node into
4000 (warmer) was used for the light (Fig.08).
into its color channel (Fig.09).
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 4: Artificial Light
Let’s do another quick test render (Fig.10). Now let’s take care of the back of the room. Here we need a soft light on the desk. Create another Point light and position it into the desk lamp (Fig.11). Set its Intensity to 20 and its Decay Rate to Quadratic. Enable Raytrace Shadows. Plug a “mib_cie_d” node into the color channel, but this time use a colder Temperature value like 4500 or 5000 (Fig.12). Now let’s do a complete test render to see how it’s going (Fig.13). We have a fair amount of light in the room, but there are still too many dark areas. Go back to the Render Settings panel and switch to the Indirect Lighting tab. Enable Final Gathering and set its Accuracy to a low value (100) for the moment. Set the Point Density to 2 and the Point Interpolation to 100 (Fig.14). Render the scene again. Now we have more light bounces all over the room (Fig.15). To
Indoor Scene - Chapter 4: Artificial Light Environment Lighting
have more control over the final look of the
to 100, F Number to 4 and Gamma value to 1
rendering, we need to deal with the exposure
(Fig.18).
control. First of all, make sure that the Gamma value in the Framebuffer section of the Quality
Now increase the Final Gathering Accuracy
tab is set to 0.454 (Fig.16).
value for the final rendering. Make sure to set the final picture size as well. You can see the
Now plug a “mia_exposure_photographic” node
final color pass in (Fig.19).
into the Camera (Fig.17). Now we need to create an Ambient Occlusion Set its parameters as shown in Fig.18. Set the
pass. Create a new Render Layer and assign all
Cm 2 Factor value to 2000, the Camera Shutter
the geometry to it (Fig.20).
In the Hypershade, create a new Surface Shader and connect a “mib_amb_occlusion” node to it. Set the Samples value to 256, the Spread value to 2 and the Max Distance value to 40 (Fig.21). Assign this new shader to the Render Layer you created earlier and render the AO pass.
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 4: Artificial Light
In Fig.22 you can see the final AO pass. Open both the passes in Photoshop and put the AO pass above the Color one (Fig.23). Set the AO pass’ blending mode to Soft Light and the Opacity value to about 87 (Fig.24). Flatten the two layers together and duplicate the resulting layer. Desaturate the top layer and use the Levels shown in Fig.25 to enhance the brighter areas in the image. Set the top layer’s blending mode to Soft Light and apply a fair amount of Gaussian Blur filter to it (Fig.26). Colorize the top layer using the Hue/ Saturation tool to get a warmer overall color. In Fig.27 you can see the final picture. Happy rendering and see you next month with the last part of the Interior Lighting tutorial.
Scene created by:
Viktor Fretyán Textures supplied by:
3DTotal Total Textures Tutorial by:
Luciano Iurino For more from this artist visit: http://www.pmstudios.it Or contact them:
[email protected]
+ mental ray
Scene Created by: Viktor Fretyán | Tutorial Written by Luciano Iurino
This five part series will focus on the topic of setting up a variety of lighting rigs that reflect natural lighting at different times of the day and manmade interior lighting. Each of the chapters will use the same base scene as a starting point, and will show a step by step guide to finding a lighting and rendering solution that best reflects the desired lighting
Chapter 1 | June Issue 058
situation.
Sunset / Sunrise
Chapter 2 | July Issue 059 The tutorials will explain the type of lights used and how to set up the
Broad Daylight
parameters along with talking about the different methods of tackling
Chapter 3 | August Issue 060
the subject. The manipulation of textures may also be covered in order to turn a daylight scene into night scene for example, as well as a look at some useful post production techniques in Photoshop in order to enhance a final still.
Artificial Light - Bright over head light at night
Chapter 4 | September Issue 061 Artificial Light (Night-Time) - Mood Lighting (Low-Level - Romantic)
Chapter 5 | This Issue TV-Lit (Night-Time) with Low-Level Lighting
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 5: TV-Lit (Night-Time) Chapter 5 - TV-Lit (Night-Time) Software used: Maya and Mental Ray Welcome to the fifth and final part of the indoor lighting tutorial series. This time the work will be easier since we will just set up and use one light and then concentrate more on the overall look of the image rather than the lights’ parameters. Let’s get started. Open the “NIGHTTIME03_ Start.mb” file. It’s almost the same as in the previous parts of the tutorial. The only thing that has been changed is the TV screen shader to create a self-illumination effect (Fig.01). Create a new Area light and position it in front of the TV screen (Fig.02). In Fig.03 you can see the exact values used for the light’s position/rotation/scale. Make sure it’s pointing outward. Assign a blueish color to the Area light (the RGB values used in the scene are: 0.558, 0.564, 1) and enable Raytraced Shadows. Do a quick render test (Fig.04). As you can see, the TV screen is our main (and only) light source in the scene; the opposite walls are being lit by the screen, while the back
Open the Render Settings panel and switch to
wall is totally dark. This is a good starting point
the Indirect Lighting tab. We’ll use some GI to
for this kind of illumination, but we still need
make some more light bounce all over the room.
more light in the scene, even if it is a night time
Enable Global Illumination, set its Accuracy
situation and we have only one light source.
value to 200 and the Radius/Merge Distance
values to 3 and 1, respectively (Fig.05). Go back to the Area light’s properties, enable Emit Photons and copy the RGB color you set earlier to the Photon Color swatch. Also set the Photon Intensity to a higher value, like 100.000, and the Global Illumination Photons value to 1.000.000 (Fig.06).
Indoor Scene - Chapter 5: TV-Lit (Night-Time) Environment Lighting
Do another test render. Now there’s much more light (don’t worry if it looks over-exposed, we’ll take care of it later) and there are some photons visible in the scene (Fig.07). Go back to the Indirect Illumination settings and enable Final Gathering. Set its Accuracy to 100, Point Density to 2 and Point Interpolation to 100 (Fig.08). Render the scene again. Now it’s much better, but the picture is still too over-exposed. We need the “mia_exposure_photographic” node to fine-tune the exposure and overall look of the image (Fig.09). Open the Quality tab in the Render Settings and make sure that the Gamma value is set to 0.454 (Fig.10). Open Hypershade and drag the Camera you’re using into the graph. Drag a new “mia_ exposure_photographic” node into the graph and connect it to the camera node (Fig.11).
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 5: TV-Lit (Night-Time) If you render the scene now, the picture will be all black; we need to set the exposure parameters. These are the parameters used in the scene: - Cm 2 Factor: 2000 - ISO: 100 - Shutter: 100 - F Number: 8 - Vignetting: 11 - Burn Highlights: 0 - Crush Blacks: 1 - Saturation: 1.2 - Gamma: 1 In Fig.12 you can see a quick test render using the previous settings. Feel free to experiment and play with the “mia_exposure_node” parameters until you get the desired result. Keep in mind that for this kind of illumination the picture should be quite contrasted and saturated, since the only light source is the TV screen and there is no other light coming from outside. Now we’re ready to render the final color pass.
and spots caused by the photons, try to increase
Just like for the other tutorial parts, we also
Set the desired resolution for the rendering,
both the GI and FG Accuracy values. In Fig.13
need an Ambient Occlusion pass. Select all the
increase the AA settings in the Quality tab
you can see the final color pass rendering.
geometry objects in the scene and assign them
(Render Settings) and if you still have splotches
to a new Render Layer called AO (Fig.14).
Indoor Scene - Chapter 5: TV-Lit (Night-Time) Environment Lighting
Create a new Surface Shader in the Hypershade and connect a “mib_amb_occlusion” node to it. You can see its parameters in Fig.15. And here’s the AO pass rendering (Fig.16). Open both the color and AO passes in Photoshop. Copy the AO pass over the color one and set its Opacity value to about 63. Also, set its blending mode to Overlay (Fig.17). This way we’ll have a nice, contrasted image, maintaining the saturation.
Environment Lighting Indoor Scene - Chapter 5: TV-Lit (Night-Time)
Use the Image > Adjust > Variations tool to
Select the TV screen (or you can just render it
inspiring for anyone following. Happy rendering
adjust the overall color and shading. In this
separately in Maya and save it) and duplicate it
and see you soon!
case, some more Cyan/Blue was added
over a new layer (Ctrl + J shortcut key) (Fig.19).
(Fig.18). Apply a fair amount of Gaussian Blur to it and
Scene created by:
use the Hue/Saturation tool to create a nice and
Viktor Fretyán
colored glow effect for the TV screen (Fig.20).
Tutorial by:
Luciano Iurino In Fig.21 you can see the final picture.
For more from this artist visit: http://www.axe78.blogspot.com/
So this is it. The interior lighting tutorial series ends here. I hope it has been useful and
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