An Experiment in Virtual Lighting #1

What better way of finding out about lighting than flinging around 8000W of red hot cans? Not having an 8000W lighting rig, I settled for some virtual spots in a Maya scene and a Mudbox mannequin (who we'll call Henry).

One Spot...

I started with the basics. One key light, a spotlight directed along the Z axis (0') at an intensity of 1.0.

Henry is certainly lit but it's pretty uninspiring, very symmetrical and overexposed.

Moving the light might add more interest. I moved this single light by 45' and then 90' on the Y Axis.

At 45'

At 90'

A definite move away from the tonal symmetry. The light is at the same intensity so Henry still suffers from overexposure in the highlights. The effect is certainly more dramatic. The contrast between light and shade becomes increasingly stark as we move to 90'. We do however, lose all sense of form in the shadowed areas.

Two Spot...

Time to add a fill light to give us back some of that form.

Both the key and fill lights are at 45' (and -45') on the horizontal. As both lights are at an intensity of 1.0, Henry is very blown out. The highlights have taken over and we're back to that tonal symmetry.

With that single key, moving towards the 90' added more drama and removed symmetry. With both lights set to opposing 90', we do have a dramatic contrast but Henry is back to his symmetrical self. If we're looking for some interesting asymmetry, the lights are going to have to be asymmetrical in position and intensity.

The key light is now at 45' (Intensity 1.0). The fill light remains at -90' at half the intensity (0.5). We have that tonal asymmetry while retaining form in most of the shadowed areas. Henry's highlights are still suffering from overexposure and his silhouette could do with some attention.

Three Spot...

This is the same setup as the two spot with the addition of a back light (intensity 0.5). This has the effect of picking out Henry's silhouette. Note the crown of his head and the form of his shoulders.

The key light has also been dimmed (intensity 0.5) to address the blown out highlights. To retain the asymmetrical tonal balance, the fill light has also been dimmed (intensity 0.2).

Up to this point we've had Henry under some pretty hard lights. An adjustment in the penumbra angle value softens the edges of the spots' light cones.

More

That's a basic 3 light rig but where else can we go? Some light from below?

This image has an additional low angle fill light at an intensity of only 0.1. It has quite an effect on the result, more evenly lighting Henry overall.

By changing intensities, we swap the roles of the key and low angle fill lights. This creates low angle key (intensity 0.7) and high angle fill (moved to 45' on the vertical and intensity 0.1) lights. This dramatically alters the image and accentuates Henry's under brow. His crown and shoulders retain some form by use of the back light. This is a look reminiscent of horror and thriller films as the subject takes on a looming, ominous appearance.

While every image was taken from exactly the same, neutral angle, it's very obvious that the lighting set up has a profound effect on the resultant images.