Very Naive Newbie Lighting Question

[Jedi Otter]

I've been going through some of the galleries in here, mostly the WIP gallery, and was really curious about the default lighting/environment setups used for things like the "Spacejet" model, as well as the "Callosy G1" truck model, not to mention the countless demo renders of incomplete models in gray.

Good ways of showing the model, and in some cases, the textures as well, but my attempts to duplicate such an environ have failed terribly, unless I pull some radiosity trick. Another thing that many people have said they haven't been using in their renders.

So I'm asking timidly, any advice anyone can offer on this topic? Just for FYI, I'm on v. 7.5, Intel, if it matters.

Thanks! :)

[Flat]

Yup : use lots of lights !
You'll need at the very, very least 3 lights, most of the times you'll end up having 8 or more to compensate for the lack of radiosity. You'll have to fake the light boucing from walls/floors/ceilings etc.
Avoid raytraced shadows if you can (use shadow mapped spots instead), or use area lights (if you have time).
Oh, and when you're not using radiosity, turn ambient light off !

There's also a neat trick invented by Dave Jerrard that involves lights that are spinning like crazy and motion blur, check for the "spinning light trick".
Or don't bother with setting up spinning lights yourself and get Eki's Overcaster, here (http://www.kolumbus.fi/erkki.halkka/plugpak/index.html) :)

Also, note that most renders don't come straight from LW. A little detour by Photoshop can do wonders.

Lighting is a very complicated matter, something that helped me immensely (though I still have about everything to learn on the subject) is the book "digital lighting and rendering" by Jeremy Birn. There's also a good tutorial here in the tutorials section.


Phil, lighting newbie too.

[fabmedia]

Uh, sorry if this is late, I just found this post.

The Spacejet lighting scheme is just 2 area lights at 60% and ambient was set at 7%.

There is a illuminated polygon that sets the reflection.

Hope this helps.

Arlen

[toby]

the book "digital lighting and rendering" by Jeremy Birn.

I'm reading this book now and it's AWESOME! A must-have for any serious 3D artist.

[Matt]

Concur with Toby, it's an essential book.

In the meantime check this little setup plugin . . .

http://mapage.noos.fr/samuelLK/Plugins/LightSetup.zip

Matt