Wiley Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting, 2nd Edition
Contents
1. Understanding Lighting Color and Composition Lighting is a cornerstone of any 3D project Although you can easily create and position lights within a scene an understanding of lighting theory will help you make aesthetically solid choices The history of art and cinema is full of inspiring examples to choose from Although 3 point lighting is a mainstay of 3D 1 point 2 point and naturalistic lighting provide alternative lighting methods that better match the real world and the art traditions of the past On the other hand stylistic lighting can free an artist from traditional bounds and thereby place no limits on expression Chapter Contents Common lighting terms An overview of 1 2 and 3 point lighting An exploration of naturalistic and stylistic lighting A quick review of color theory monitor calibration and composition techniques Lighting examples NOILISOdWOD ANV YOTOO DNILHDIT DNIGNVLSYAGNNA B CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E N Understanding the Art of Lighting Like every aspect of 3D lighting must be created from scratch Unfortunately the techniques for emulating the real world are not always obvious or intuitive Luckily a wealth of lighting theory exists in the form of historical artwork photography and motion pictures For the sake of clarity Pve broken the discussion of lighting theory into the following categories 1 point 2 point 3 point naturalistic a2. 2 2s ee Figure 1 18 Giovanni Battista Moroni 1520 78 The Tailor c 1565 Oil on canvas National Gallery London Figure 1 19 Naturally occurring examples of rim lighting PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION PHOTOS 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION _ VI ONILHOIT AO LAV AHL NIANVLSAAANA CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E amp Using Naturalistic Lighting Naturalistic lighting is an adaptable scheme that matches the natural lighting scenario of the subject location Any light that is visible is logically driven by a recognizable source Naturalistic lighting is sometimes called transparent in that no artificial lighting methods can be detected Another way to define naturalistic lighting is to list what it lacks Unmotivated shadows Impossibly distinct rim light Perfectly placed lights that never permit a character to fall into shadow or be unglamorously lit In the field of motion pictures there are numerous examples of non naturalistic lighting Many films feature stylized or exaggerated lighting This is particularly evi dent with musicals which are fantastic by their very nature Such films as The Band Wagon 1953 and Silk Stockings 1957 employ high key lighting in which the fill light is intense and there is a low key to fill ratio The characters in these films are therefore evenly lit and carry a minimum number of deep dark shadows High key lighting is also
3. primaries produce black having absorbed all visible wavelengths of light Modern printing techniques follow the subtractive model by utilizing cyan magenta and yel low primary inks with the addition of black ink CMYK where K is black Cyan magenta and yellow happen to be secondary colors on the RGB color wheel Maya s Color Chooser window represents the RGB color wheel as a hexagon shape primary and secondary colors are located at the corners of the hexagon For more information on the Color Chooser see Chapter 6 Despite the disparity between color theory models methods of using a RYB color wheel are equally applicable to RGB color wheels As such the goal of color selection is color harmony which is the pleasing selection and arrangement of colors within a piece of art The most common methods of choosing harmonic colors pro duce the following color combinations with the RGB color wheel Complementary colors A pair of colors at opposite ends of the color wheel For example in Figure 1 30 the blue cyan body and red orange head of a bizarre charac ter compose a complementary color set Lr gt g 7 7 se ee Te lt gt s ay i pn n y AD a lt P H Sit gt ei 3 a D i ep a ev 2005 LEE LANIER Figure 1 30 A blue cyan body and a red orange head form complementary colors This still is taken from 7 Deadly Sins for the 21st Century 2005 Splitcomplement One color plus the two color
4. 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION MANNEQUIN MODEL COURTESY OF KRISTEN SCALLION Figure 1 9 Left Film noir photo Right 1 point lighting re creation in Maya The scene is included onthe Das 1_point ma Using 2 Point Lighting The 2 point lighting scheme matches many of the lighting scenarios we encounter in our everyday lives The scheme often involves a strong key and an extremely diffuse fill The following are examples of 2 point lighting Sunlight streams through a window The light bounce from the interior walls serves as a fill Office workers sit in a windowless room lit with overhead fluorescent lights The light bounce from the walls desks and floor serves as a fill A couple walks down a sidewalk on a sunny day The light bounces off the con crete providing fill to the bottom of their hands the underside of their chins and their eye sockets see Figure 1 10 Yov ll often see 2 point lighting in painted portraits For example in Figure 1 11 a man is lit by a strong key light arriving from the left A second light source delivers fill from the right thus no part of the person or his outfit is left unlit This painting was created by Frans Hals 1582 1666 a baroque painter whose loose powerful brushstrokes inspired the impressionism movement This style of lighting is called short lighting in studio photography the side of the head facing away from the camera receives the key The opposite style of lightin
5. For example in Figure 1 13 a watercolor street scene portrays a strong key light in the form of the sun An even fill along the backs of the house and other structures represents the bounced sunlight which serves as the second light source E 1 1 1 k i wea E ee fet X Mie ea PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 13 Harry Leith Ross 1886 1973 Untitled c 1945 Watercolor on paper Whereabouts unknown Using 3 Point Lighting Perhaps the most commonly discussed and applied lighting technique is 3 point light ing Descriptions can be found in numerous 3D film and video instructional materi als Although 3 point lighting is a reliable way to light many scenes it has inherent drawbacks In the standard 3 point lighting scheme a strong key is placed to one side of a subject approximately 15 to 45 degrees off the camera axis A fill light is placed on the opposite side and is at least half the intensity of the key see Figure 1 14 A rim light is placed behind the subject so that it grazes the subject s edge Figure 1 14 Standard 3 point lighting applied to a mannequin This scene is included on the CD as 3_ point_man ma ONILHOIT AO LAV AHL NIANVLSAAANA CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E The 3 point lighting scheme is popular in the realm of 3D because it lends depth to a potentially flat subject For example in Figure 1 15 a sphere is giv
6. If you are creating an animation for video it s best to check the resulting edit on a pro fessional broadcast monitor If you are creating a render for print bring the render into Photoshop or a similar program convert the RGB color space to CMYK color space and choose the correct color profile see the next paragraph If you are creating the animation for motion picture film calibrate your monitor based on the sugges tions of the service transferring the frames Larger animation houses often maintain their own transfer equipment In many cases a lookup table LUT is developed to properly map the gamma of the computer monitors used by animators Portable cali bration hardware is also used to check the calibration result The color displayed by a monitor drifts over time Although this process may be too costly for an indepen dent animator calibration shortcuts can be taken Many digital imaging programs are bundled with calibration software Adobe Gamma is perhaps the most common Launching the program will step you through an interactive calibration process Although useful Adobe Gamma is designed for print projects so it might not provide accurate settings for some animation In addi tion Photoshop along with other digital imaging programs offers multiple color pro files based on the color standards of the International Color Consortium ICC Color profiles represent the color reproduction capabilities of a device Hence y
7. cluded on the CD as RGB_whee ma The red yellow blue RYB color theory model evolved in the 18th century and was based on color materialism which assumes that primary colors are based on spe cific indivisible material pigments found in minerals or other natural substances The popularization of specific RYB colors was aided by printmakers such as Jakob Christ offel Le Blon 1667 1741 who developed the color separation printing process The color wheel itself was invented by Sir Isaac Newton 1642 1727 in 1704 although his variation contained seven hues visible when white light was split by a prism The development of computer graphics however has added a new set of pri mary colors red green and blue or RGB This produces its own unique color wheel see Figure 1 29 Through an additive process computer monitors mix red green N w NOLLISOdWOO ANV YOTOO NIANVLSAAJANNA E CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E N and blue light to produce additional colors Added in equal proportions RGB pri maries produce white In contrast the RYB color theory model is subtractive in that the absence of red yellow and blue produces white assuming that the blank paper or canvas is indeed white In this case if colored paint or ink pigments are present they absorb certain wavelengths of light thus preventing those wavelengths from being reflected back at the viewer When combined in equal proportions the RYB
8. e One cru cial component is color Unfortunately it is beyond the scope of this book to cover the bulk of color theory However a discussion of the RYB and RGB color models color wheels color space color temperature and light color is worth a look At the same time composition is a critical component of any animation that is rendered Composition the aesthetic arrangement of objects within a frame can be reduced to the golden mean and the rule of thirds Color Theory Overview In the traditional color theory model red yellow and blue are considered primary colors As such they follow these rules No combination of any two primary colors can produce a third primary color Combinations of all three primaries can produce a wider range of colors than any other combination of colors You can form secondary colors by mixing together primary colors which produces orange green and violet purple You can form tertiary colors by mixing primary colors and secondary colors the resulting colors are generally given hyphen ated names such as blue green The primary secondary and tertiary colors are often represented by a 12 step color wheel see Figure 1 29 P Primary colors S Secondary colors T Tertiary colors Figure 1 29 Left Red yellow blue RYB color wheel re created in Maya The scene is included on the CD as RYB_whee1 ma Right Red green blue RGB color wheel re created in Maya The scene is in
9. en addi tional roundness with three lights A spot light which serves as the key is placed screen left An ambient light which serves as a fill is placed screen right A directional light which functions as a rim light is placed behind the sphere The balance between the key and fill creates a slightly dark core down the center of sphere The bright edge created by the rim helps separate the sphere from the dark background Figure 1 15 Standard 3 point lighting applied to a primitive sphere This scene is included on the CD as 3 point_sphere ma Three point lighting was developed in the Golden Age of Hollywood which refers to the period between the advent of talkies and the years immediately follow ing World War II Studio cinematographers developed the technique as an efficient way to light scenes when time was somewhat limited and production schedules had to be met When lighting actors cinematographers often sought out the Rembrandt patch which is a triangular patch of light on the cheek opposite the light source see Figure 1 16 The patch was named after the painter who often featured such a pat tern in his portraits LEFT PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 16 Left Rembrandt Portrait of an Old Woman c 1650 Oil on canvas Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts Moscow Right Modern photo with similar Rembrandt patch on subject s left cheek Rim lights in particular were develo
10. er The oldest form of stylized lighting can be called 0 point lighting In this case lighting plays no part in the artistic representation You can see this in prehistoric art as well as in the art of ancient or primitive cultures see Figure 1 27 To this day 0 point lighting survives as line art cartoons Figure 1 27 Petroglyphics and hieroglyphics carry no lighting information N _h ONILHOIT AO LAV AHL ONIGNVISUAGNNA E CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E Le You can find stylized lighting in numerous pieces of modern art Many times this style is evident even when distinct modeling is given to the subject That is the subject is painted to have three dimensional form For example in Figure 1 28 a man is completely disconnected from his environment Although it can be assumed to be night there is no way to tell for sure No shadows of lighting clues exist to establish a real world lighting scheme PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 28 Vincent Willem van Gogh 18590 Portrait of Dr Gachet 1890 Oil on canvas Whereabouts unknown Stylized lighting is well suited for 3D animation since the medium places no limitation on the type of lighting employed For 3D examples of this style see the section Step by Step 3D Lighting Examples at the end of this chapter Understanding Color and Composition Successful lighting is not dependent on appropriate light placement alon
11. eratures listed for each light source are an average depending on the circumstance or the method of manufac ture color temperatures can easily vary by hundreds of kelvin N N NOLLISOdWOO ANV YOTOO NIANVLSAYAJANNA E CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E id Noon daylight direct sun 5000 K Cool white fluorescent 4200 K Metal halide bulb 4000 K Figure 1 33 Color temperatures of common light sources This image is included on the CD as color_chart tif Setting a White Point In the case of monitor calibration color temperature is used to set the white point of the hardware A white point is a coordinate in color space that defines what is white If a monitor is given a white point with a high kelvin value the display has a blue cast If a monitor is given a white point with a low kelvin value the display has a yellow cast The flexibility of the white point is necessary to match potential output formats For example graphic artists who use offset printing might set their monitors to 5500 K For 3D animation intended for video 6500 K generally works because broadcast quality video monitors have a hardware white point set to 6500 K In con trast older consumer televisions may have a white point set as high at 9300 K Many plasma and LCD televisions now offer the option to switch to 5400 K to better match motion picture film When lighting in Maya you do not need to know the kelvin temperature o
12. evident in many television sitcoms in which it is necessary to keep a character well lit at all positions on the set Similar lighting is employed for advertis ing and catalog art see Figure 1 20 PHOTOS 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 20 High key lighting demonstrated by ad photography In other situations non naturalistic lighting is a result of technical limitations or time and budget restrictions A common problem with older motion pictures is the unintended creation of unmotivated multiple shadows For example light represent ing the sun casts multiple shadows of a character on the ground More commonly a lamp casts multiple distinct shadows of its own fixture see Figure 1 21 This is caused by a need to illuminate a set with multiple lights to attain correct exposure even though the desired light source in terms of the story is singular Figure 1 21 A lamp unrealistically casts three sharp shadows of itself as seen in a frame blowup from a 1950s motion picture In contrast naturalistic lighting is often found in post 1950s historical dramas particularly those set in times before the advent of the lightbulb Prime examples include Barry Lyndon 1975 directed by Stanley Kubrick 1928 99 and 1492 1992 directed by Ridley Scott 1937 In these works lighting is motivated by com binations of sunlight moonlight candlelight and firelight Keys fills and their result ing shadows are often ex
13. f a light source What is important however is that the color of the light logically fits the type of source For example daytime sunlight varies from white to blue Firelight var ies from red to orange Incandescent lightbulbs are yellowish If a light color is out of place a scene may appear incorrect to the viewer This should not be confused with the way colors are recorded on film where colors are often exaggerated For example daylight film balanced for 5500 K will make the yellow of an incandescent bulb more orange Tungsten film balanced for 3200 K will make sunlight extremely blue Professional photographers and cinematographers reduce this problem by employing color corrective filters and gels However the end result is rarely the same as the way it was originally perceived by the human eye Obviously if you are matching 3D to a live action plate colors should be replicated regardless of what they might be How ever if the 3D is only meant to look real colors as they re perceived by the human eye should be matched For more information on color manipulation see Chapter 6 For information on color bit depth see Chapter 10 Applying the Golden Mean The golden mean was extolled by Pythagoras 580 500 BC and his fellow Greeks The mean is a number 1 618 that is irrational and cannot be converted to a fraction The golden mean defines a golden rectangle which has an aspect ratio of roughly 1 618 1 Mathemat
14. fill w ONILHOIT AO LAV AHL NIANVLSAAANA CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E gt Film noir is closely related to German expressionism which was an art move ment popular in Germany from 1905 to 1925 German expressionism was dominated by the dark sinister aspects of the human psyche The movement is known for its bold simplified woodcuts see Figure 1 3 and its atmospheric horror cinema for example The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 1919 PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 3 Emil Nolde 1867 1956 Prophet 1912 Woodcut print The roots of expressionism can be traced to the chiaroscuro painting style of the 15th and 16th centuries in Italy and Flanders Chiaroscuro is defined by a bold contrast between lights and darks the word is Italian for light dark This is often characterized by figures in bright pools of light jutting through dark spaces Chiar oscuro reached its pinnacle with the baroque art movement 17th and 18th centuries in Europe and is exemplified by master painters Caravaggio 1573 1610 and Rem brandt 1606 69 For example in Figure 1 4 Jesus and his disciples are lit by the light of a single high window from the left A fill light reaches the front of the table and the sides of their faces however the result is fairly subtle When painters push for stronger contrast unlit areas of the scene are rarely painted with pure black In Figure 1 5 an unidentified key ligh
15. fined rims are not generally painted in In many cases a portion of a sub ject that is dark is allowed to blend into a dark background see Figures 1 4 1 5 and 1 6 In other situations the chosen background is bright enough to delineate the outline of the subject In Figure 1 18 the man s dark hair and the shadow on his left shoulder are offset by a pool of light on the back wall This strategically placed pool serves the same function as a rim light but isn t part of the modern 3 point lighting method On the other hand rim lighting can often be found in nature For example in Figure 1 19 a cloud covers the sun and picks up a bright rim Intense sunlight strikes a cactus from behind thereby illuminating its spines A woman s hair is lit from light streaming through a window These natural occurrences however do not fit the standard 3 point lighting system None of the subjects are affected by more than two distinct sources of light Many contemporary cinematographers and videographers consider 3 point lighting either antiquated or unsatisfactory for many lighting situations The necessity of specific positions for key fill and rim lights guarantees that 3 point lighting does not match many real world situations The alternative to 3 point lighting is thus natu ralistic lighting a ee n a SER x gt A J5 X ae lt 3 er us r D s poera oJ Medi t NTS ji d n ee e Pe Pjer lt e
16. g is called broad lighting in which the side of the head facing the camera receives the key PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 10 A couple receives sunlight from above and as a bounced fill from the sidewalk The lighting is a 2 point setup Figure 1 11 Left Hals The Laughing Cavalier 1624 Oil on canvas The Wallace Collection London Right 2 point lighting re creation in Maya The scene is included on the CD as 2_ point ma LEFT PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Ce ONILHOIT AO LAV AHL NIANVLSAAANA CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION amp The intensity of the key light as compared to the fill key to fill ratio should vary with the subject and location The optimum intensity of any light used in a scene depends on its position and the qualities of the materials involved Nevertheless as a rough rule of thumb for an initial lighting pass you can set the intensity of a fill light to at least half that of the key For the 3D reproduction illustrated in Figure 1 11 a directional light serves as the key The directional light s Intensity value is set to 1 75 An ambient light which serves as the fill is placed screen right with its Intensity value set to 0 6 see Figure 1 12 Figure 1 12 Two point lighting set up for the Hals painting re creation The 2 point lighting scheme is not limited to portraits Many outdoor scenes exhibit two distinct sources of light
17. ghting Many shots pos sessed only a single key with a limited cone size and no fill In Figure 1 40 a woman is lit with a single spotlight from screen left The shadow directly behind the woman was fabricated in the composite and is hence less dense than other shadows in the shot Mirror was created with the original beta release of Maya LL EMONHEAD ag LR RER 2000 LEE LANIER Figure 1 40 Mirror 2000 A QuickTime movie excerpt is included on the CD as mi rror mov w w SHTIdWV XH ONILHOIT CE dd LS AG ddLS E CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E rN In Day Off the Dead a combination of naturalistic and 2 point lighting was used For exteriors one to four lights were placed to emulate a bright sunlit day see the top of Figure 1 41 For the interiors rarely more than two lights were used in each case there was always a strong key Many of the shadows were created during the composite which allowed the shadow shapes to go off in unrealistic and inap propriate directions see the bottom of Figure 1 41 This lent a dreamlike feel to the piece Depth of fields were added for many shots in postproduction 2003 LEE LANIER AND JEFFREY DATES Figure 1 41 Day Offthe Dead 2003 A QuickTime movie excerpt is included on the CD as dotd mov Weapons of Mass Destruction employed high key lighting with supersaturated colors The film was constructed as a series of short vignettes many of whic
18. h served as bizarre commercials from the future In one shot see Figure 1 42 a worm was lit with a strong key from the front The ambience and incandescence of the character s material prevented the need for any additional lights The background which started as a 3D piece was eventually converted to a digital matte painting Little Dead Girl made use of stylistic lighting In many cases the light hitting the characters had little to do with the environment In the two shots featured in Fig ure 1 43 the Little Dead Girl the Lab Frog and the Eyeball Child were given their own sets of key lights fill lights and rim lights The goal of the lighting was simply to model the characters in an interesting fashion In the end the animation took on the feel of stop motion cinematography 2004 LEE LANIER Figure 1 42 Weapons of Mass Destruction 2004 A QuickTime movie excerpt is included on the CD as womd mov 2005 LEE LANIER AND THE BRONX CASKET Co Figure 1 43 Little Dead Girl 2005 Ww ui SHTIdWV XH ONILHDIT CE dod LS Ad d ALS
19. ht source For example midday sunlight creates hard edged parallel shadows see Figure 1 25 An artificial source close to the subject such as a lightbulb produces a shadow that widens and softens over distance See Chapter 3 for information on shadow creation in Maya PHOTOS 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 25 Left The sun creates parallel shadows of stone columns Right An artificial light source creates a shadow that widens and softens over distance Color is equally important when reproducing a particular location Different light sources create different wavelengths of light which in turn produce spe cific hues that are perceived by the human eye or recorded on a medium such as film or video See Chapter 2 for information concerning Maya light color For information on color temperature see A Note on Color Temperature at the end of this chapter For practice you can always re create existing images For example in Figure 1 26 the lighting of a Vermeer painting is replicated in 3D LEFT PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 26 Left Vermeer A Lady Standing at a Virginal 1673 Oil on canvas National Gallery London Right Naturalistic lighting re creation in Maya The scene is included on the CD as naturalistic ma Using Stylized Lighting Stylized lighting pays no heed to the real world but fabricates fantastic sources of light or simply ignores the lighting information altogeth
20. ically a golden rectangle is a rectangle that can be partitioned into a square and a smaller rectangle that has the same aspect ratio of the original rectangle see Figure 1 34 The golden mean is represented as the Greek letter phi and is commonly referred to as the golden ratio golden section or golden proportion Although the Greeks are often given credit for discovering the golden mean some historians suggest that it was employed by earlier civilizations for example Babylonia and Egypt 161654 Pea en Figure 1 34 The golden rectangle Greek architects determined that the golden rectangle was aesthetically superior to other ratios and employed the shape in many building designs This determination has persisted for the past two millennia in the architecture of Western civilization As for fine art the golden mean was rediscovered by artists of the Renaissance including Leonardo da Vinci 1452 1519 and Raphael 1483 1520 Variations of the golden mean can also be found in Medieval Islamic architecture and tile work Many 19th and 20th century artists including Georges Seurat 1859 91 Piet Mondrian 1872 1944 and Salvador Dali 1904 89 applied the compositional technique see Fig ure 1 35 The golden rectangle survives to this day as the approximate aspect ratio of credit and debit cards 1 6 1 The 1 66 1 motion picture aspect ratio used exten sively outside North America also comes close to the golden rectangle For
21. iffuser or a large ring of fluorescent lights is placed around beside or above the camera This setup creates evenly lit faces with little sense of additional lighting see Figure 1 7 PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 7 A fashion photograph displays 1 point lighting Modern painters have also made use of 1 point lighting For example in Fig ure 1 8 a boxing match is lit by a single strong source from frame left As with the work illustrated in Figures 1 4 and 1 5 there is an extremely soft fill present the fill lights the back of the rightmost boxer The painter George Bellows 1882 1925 was a member of the Modern School movement he sought to portray the gritty reality of urban life PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 8 Bellows Club Night 1907 Oil on canvas National Gallery of Art Washington D C ONILHOIT JO LAV AHL NIANVLSAJANNA E N CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E It s easy to set up 1 point lighting in 3D The most difficult aspect of the scheme is the creation of aesthetic patterns of light and dark For example in Figure 1 9 a film noir style photo is re created in Maya A series of trial and error renders were necessary to position a directional light in a satisfactory manner The intensity of the key should be high enough to illuminate the parts not in shadow but not so high as to blow out or overexpose some areas LEFT PHoto
22. ism as an art movement appeared in the mid 19th century and placed a premium on an accurately portrayed world with no hint of idealism or romanticism Realist artists include George Caleb Bingham 1811 79 and Jules Breton 1827 1906 both of whom are noted for their accurately rendered outdoor scenes Impression ism centered in France in the 1860s and considered a branch of realism sought to faithfully portray light and color as perceived by the human eye This attention to light is illustrated by Figure 1 24 A woman stands at a bar in front of a large mirror The painting was created at a real location and was not staged in the artist s studio this preference was known as plein air or open air Although the scene is quite cluttered with detail little attempt has been made to separate the woman from her surroundings That is there is no artificial rim light or artifacts of a specific lighting scheme This is equally true of the bottles at the lower left their forms begin to merge into a single mass Although the lighting is accurately portrayed the mirror s reflec tion lacks the artist and skews the entire background for compositional convenience Famous impressionistic painters include Edgar Degas 1834 1917 Claude Monet 1840 1926 Pierre Auguste Renoir 1841 1919 and Edouard Manet 1832 83 PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 23 De Hooch A Musical Party in a Courtyard c 1677 Oil on canvas Na
23. it emits the same wavelength of light and the same color of light as a black body radiator heated to 5500 kelvin A black body radiator is a theoretical material that absorbs 100 percent of the radiation that strikes it when the body is at absolute zero 273 C Although there are no true black bodies in the real world graphite and various met als come close In the original experiments by William Kelvin 1824 1907 a block of heated carbon was used The kelvin on the other hand is a measurement of tempera ture that adds 273 to the temperature read in Celsius The kelvin measurement only refers to the thermal temperature of the theoretical black body radiator and is not the actual temperature of a light source In other words a fluorescent lightbulb does not have to reach a real world 4000 degrees kelvin to produce the same color of light as the black body radiator at 4000 kelvin instead the color of the bulb is roughly corre lated to the color of the heated black body When a material is heated to a temperature above 700 K 700 kelvin it emits visible light At temperatures close to 700 K the light wavelength is long and the per ceived light is red At temperatures above 6000 K the wavelength becomes shorter and the perceived color shifts to blue The chart in Figure 1 33 indicates the color temperature of various light sources and their perceived colors The colors represented are only a rough approximation In addition the color temp
24. more information on aspect ratios see Chapter 10 N Ce NOLLISOdWOO ANV YOTOO ONIGNVISUAGNDA E CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E Z My z a b a oy pe Te ai is t f e de a i a A er ee oe mn PANETT ty gt p F e Ta r k papt sinks a m eih ag ir 2 Pi IFE an Pa Poe TT i re a V E RA sai PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 35 The golden mean and golden rectangle used in a composition by Seurat Circus Sideshow 1888 Oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art New York The painting is repeated twice The golden mean has many natural occurrences For example the Fibonacci series a series of numbers in which the division of any two adjacent numbers is roughly the golden mean can be used to accurately predict the growth of flower petals seeds seashells pine cones and various plant leaves Numerous psychological studies have been undertaken since the late 1800s to determine if humans have a natural bias toward the golden rectangle Conclusions have been varied on average they ve recognized the rectangle s slight advantage Nevertheless since the golden mean and its geometric corollaries have consciously or unconsciously been used in such a large body of popular art you can benefit from its judicious use In addition to the golden rectangle the golden mean can be expressed as a golden triangle a pentagram or a decagon F
25. most closely emulates 1 point lighting is film noir Film noir is a style historically associated with crime dramas of the 1940s and 1950s The style is typified by black and white film stock sparsely lit characters and deep black shadows Aesthetically the lighting stemmed from stories with cyni cal paranoid or nihilistic outlooks Technically the stark lighting was the result of placing only a few lights on the set in some cases because of budgetary restrictions Although multiple lights were generally needed for any given shot for proper exposure the result often appears as if a single light source exists see Figure 1 2 PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 1 A theater audience is lit by a movie screen in a 1 point lighting setup A 4 LARSA AJ AK x a Ss x j 2 bad a 7 an E olf l i e ew ow Ae A a GS A i sy ZN j E ig M H i E tea a A wey e y ear PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION vow Ce we Figure 1 2 Stark lighting in a film noir style film Classic film noir films include The Maltese Falcon 1941 Double Indemnity 1944 and Touch of Evil 1958 More recent examples include Blade Runner 1982 and Sin City 2005 The lighting style employed by film noir is often referred to as low key lighting where there is a strong key light and little if any
26. nd stylistic The first three categories refer to the number of lights employed The last two refer to a par ticular style Before delving into 1 point lighting however Pll define a few common lighting terms Key The most intense light in a scene The key light s source is generally identifiable the sun a lamp and so on The key light usually produces the strongest shadow in the scene Fill A secondary light that is less intense than the key This light fills in the dark areas of a subject and the shadows produced by the key Fill lights often represent light from a key that has bounced off a surface such as a wall Rim An intense light source placed behind a subject that strikes the subject along the edge Rim lights are often employed as hair lights These lights are commonly known as backlights or kickers Using 1 Point Lighting The 1 point lighting scheme is dramatic sometimes stark and often foreboding The lighting involves a single easily identifiable key light source with no significant sup plemental sources You can find 1 point lighting in the following situations A man lights a cigarette in an otherwise dark alley A woman drives a car down a dark country road lit only by the car s instru ment panel Sunbeams burst through the window of an otherwise unlit interior A theater audience is illuminated by the light of the movie screen see Figure 1 1 The motion picture genre that
27. nique remains murky The rule of thirds is useful for modern media such as videography that often require quick compositional decision making The golden mean on the other hand is appropriate for painting and 3D since more time can be spent contemplating composition In any case attention to compositional detail will improve any animation you choose to tackle Figure 1 38 A golden rectangle red divided in accordance to the rule of thirds yellow Step by Step 3D Lighting Examples In this section Pll discuss the lighting approach of various independent animations The lighting style varies from naturalistic to stylized Millennium Bug featured a series of otherworldly characters inserted into pho tographs of San Francisco Simple naturalistic lighting was employed to match the cloudy overcast weather conditions of the photos In one shot see Figure 1 39 a 3D head was added to a preexisting crane A single spotlight positioned high and to the right served as a key A very low intensity fill light was placed low and to the left The shadow of the head on the building was added in the composite Film grain and an artificial camera move were also added in postproduction Millennium Bug was created with Alias PowerAnimator on Silicon Graphics machines X tay yae y gt Ga Ng wr fF WETS 1998 Pacific DATA IMAGES Figure 1 39 Millennium Bug 1998 Mirror employed an extreme example of chiaroscuro li
28. or example in Figure 1 36 the golden triangle and pentagram are used in the composition of paintings by Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci PHoTOS 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 36 Left Raphael Madonna del Cardellino 1506 Oil on wood Uffizi Florence Right da Vinci Virgin and Child with St Anne 1508 Oil on wood Louvre Paris Rule of Thirds The rule of thirds is a compositional technique developed for modern photography and videography Simply put you can take any frame and divide it into three hori zontal and vertical sections to determine the alignment of subjects see Figure 1 37 For example you can align a tree a person or other vertical element with a vertical line You can align the horizon or a building with a horizontal line The four points at which the lines cross are considered prime compositional spots and should feature important details in a shot for example a person s face the moon and so on PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 37 A photo divided in accordance to the rule of thirds w NOLLISOdWOO ANV YOTOO NIANYVYLSAAANA CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E Me The rule of thirds is not an accurate representation of the golden mean see Fig ure 1 38 However the rule may have evolved as a simplified variation of the golden rectangle subdivided according to the golden mean Unfortunately the exact origin of the rule of thirds tech
29. ou can work within the color limitations of a specific printer while in Photoshop Unfortunately the standard profiles are not designed for film or video A quick and dirty method of checking the color calibration of a monitor involves the use of a chip chart For example in Figure 1 32 a chart runs from black to white in 11 distinct steps and in a continuous gradient When displayed on a monitor a portion of the chart may appear crushed Certain steps may no longer be visible and the gradient may no longer be smooth If this is the case with your monitor you might unintentionally base a scene s lighting on an inaccurate view of the scene s actual color space The end result might be an animation that appears too dark and muddy on video or too bright and washed out on film Adjusting the brightness contrast gamma and color temperature of the monitor can alleviate this problem Although you can usually adjust the brightness and contrast through a monitor s external control panel the gamma and color temperature are usually controlled through a piece of calibration software for example Adobe Gamma For more information on gamma see Chapter 6 Figure 1 32 A calibration chip chart This file is included on the CD as chip_chart tif A Note on Color Temperature Color temperature is based on the wavelength of light emitted by a material when it is heated Technically speaking if a light source is said to be 5500 kelvin
30. ped to separate the actor from a dark or cluttered background Rim lights and other fundamental aspects of lighting design can trace their roots to early theatrical stage lighting Early examples of their use in motion pictures include but are not limited to Old and New 1929 directed by Sergei Eisenstein and the 1920s comedies of Charles Chaplin A Woman of Paris Gold Rush and so on Eventually rim lights were used to impart a fantastic glow to the hair of heroines such as Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca 1942 Rita Hayworth in Gilda 1946 and Grace Kelly in Rear Window 1954 The use of rim lights does not necessitate the use of a definitive fill light Glamour lighting a name loosely given to the lighting style of publicity photography of American motion picture studios from the 1920s to the 1940s often used only a key and a rim see Figure 1 17 A variation of this technique known as butterfly lighting or Paramount lighting places a high key directly in front of the subject thereby creating a shadow in the shape of a butterfly under the nose w ONILH TI AO LAV AHL NIANVLSAYAJANN E CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E 3 PHOTOS 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 17 Three variations of glamour lighting as seen in photographs of Jane Wyman left Ida Lupino center and Mary Pickford right Proper 3 point lighting is fairly difficult to find in the world of painting Clearly de
31. s that flank that color s complementary color for example green blue violet and red violet Analogous colors Colors that are side by side For example in Figure 1 31 the cloaks of two women are red orange and yellow orange In RGB red orange is a mixture of primary red and tertiary orange yellow orange is the mixture of secondary yellow and tertiary orange If compared to the RYB color wheel the colors correspond to secondary orange and tertiary yellow orange which are also analogous PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 31 Antonio da Correggio 1489 1534 The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine c 1520 Oil on canvas National Gallery London The women s cloaks form analogous colors Diad Two colors that have a single color position between them for example second ary violet and primary red on the RGB color wheel Triad Three colors that are equally spaced on the wheel N ui NOLLISOdWOO ANV YOTOO ONIGNVISUAGNA E CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E Pd Checking Color Calibration Maya operates in RGB color space Color space represents all the colors that a device can produce The color space available to various output devices varies greatly For example the color space that a television can display is significantly different from the color space available to a computer monitor or a printer Never assume that a computer monitor is displaying your renders correctly
32. t arrives from the left No other source of light is apparent Yet a background wall is visible due to a faint fill In addition the head of a central character is seen in the shadow Hence the paintings illustrated in Figures 1 4 and 1 5 bridge the gap between 1 and 2 point lighting Figure 1 4 Rembrandt The Supper at Emmaus 1648 Oil on wood Louvre Paris PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 5 Rembrandt The Return of the Prodigal Son 1662 Oil on canvas The Hermitage St Petersburg Note that the wall and central character in the background are barely visible PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION ui ONILHOIT AO LAV AHL NIANVLSAAANA CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E In comparison true 1 point lighting is sometimes found in portraiture For example in Figure 1 6 there is a single light source in front of and higher than the man A secondary light source is not identifiable The painter Anthony Van Dyck 1599 1641 was an influential baroque portraitist PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 6 Van Dyck Portrait of Cornelis van der Geest c 1621 Oil on oak National Gallery London You ll see 1 point lighting in contemporary photography and videography In particular this technique is used in work created for the fashion industry commercial advertising and music videos A strong diffuse key light sometimes in the form of a soft box light d
33. tional Gallery London Figure 1 24 Manet A Bar at the Foiles Berg re 1882 Oil on canvas Courtauld Institute Galleries London PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION O ONILHOIT AO LAV AHL NIANVLSAAANA CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E A Naturalistic lighting by its very nature does not dictate a fixed number of lights or specific light locations or intensities However you can use the following guidelines to assist you during setup Determine what the strongest light is and where it should be coming from Is the light source visible within the frame or is it arriving from offscreen Set one or more key lights in appropriate locations Match the type of light to the type of source See Chapter 2 for more information on Maya light types Render tests to determine the appropriate intensities of the key or keys before adding fill lights Determine what secondary light sources are needed Are these sources physical that is a lamp a candle and so on or are they actually the bounced light of the strongest light source Set fill lights in the appropriate locations If you are copying an existing location replicate the key to fill ratio If the scene you are creating does not exist in the real world apply a key to fill ratio that is similar to an equivalent location in the real world When applying shadows replicate the type of shadow that is naturally pro duced by a specific lig
34. tremely soft The naturalistic lighting approach is not limited to historical drama however Kubrick also employed naturalistic lighting in such films as A Clockwork Orange 1971 and The Shining 1980 In the world of art naturalistic lighting can be found in any of the paint ing genres that placed a premium on accurate lighting For example Jan van Eyck 1385 1440 was an early adopter of physically accurate painting In Figure 1 22 the light from several windows bounces through a room creating soft shadows along the way Van Eyck helped to establish the style of the Early Renaissance which placed an importance on the study of the natural world In addition to chiaroscuro works the baroque movement produced many natu ralistic paintings The movement placed an emphasis on emotionally and physically accurate portrayals of subjects Two Dutch painters Jan Vermeer 1632 75 and Pieter de Hooch 1629 84 were particularly successful at rendering soft naturally lit inte riors and exteriors For example in Figure 1 23 a sunset sky provides a diffuse light within a building s shadow for a threesome at a table yet brightly lights buildings in the distance y N ONILH TI AO LAV AHL ONIGNVISUAGNA E CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING COLOR AND COMPOSITION E PHOTO 2008 JUPITERIMAGES CORPORATION Figure 1 22 Van Eyck Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife Giovanna Cenami 1434 Tempura on wood National Gallery London Real
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