Tuesday, 3 November 2015

An Attempt at Area Lights

 Leaving behind any idea of colour theory, I just have some time for a look at the different types of lighting available in Maya.


This first example uses one spot key light and a soft area light as a fill. The geometry is very basic and there is no bump mapping in the material. We can see the hard shadows cast by the key light (spot with wide penumbra) and the slightly more sympathetic shadows from the area light.


This second image was created with two area lights. A bump map has been added, the key and fill lights have been coloured to accentuate a contrast in hue and tone. The geometry of each block is exactly the same.

Besides the simple effect of a reflective floor, I've raised the blocks slightly to allow for a "natural" shadow beneath each.

The entire composition also feels more comfortable.

Is it more important though, that the area lights seem to add a touch of realism (at least beyond the last render) to the image?

Having said that, I noticed that I had no definition between the layers of blocks. I bumped them up a bit to cure that...


A round of colour correction adds some drama...


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