Lighting

Having never had much experience with lighting i was keen to learn. However it quickly became apparent that although i could get good results some times, it was proving hard to keep the same look over the whole environment. My main lighting tests were with the tent and i felt like i was producing some good results.


The story of the film relies on the fact that the prospector has had a hard day at work before we see him, this would imply that our scene needed to reflect lighting that would show it was the end of the day and coming towards the evening. the sky would play a big part here but that was to be comped in, and colour corrected. I went for long shadows as the sun would be getting lower in the sky.

I used a fairly basic three point light system to get the highlights on the tent , but added an ambient light in to soften it all up and give the shadows. Looking pretty good i thought.

However when it came to rendering the scenes we were left with some slight issues. The lighting was not consistent all over the scene. The lights were only really set up for this area.

I was there fore left with inconsistent renders, where some scenes were lighter than others.
image1

In image 1 the lights were far too dark and compared with the next shot (image2) were not consistent. This was no good.






image 2

image3

The only was i could get the lights to be consistent was to light for each shot. This meant going in to the scene and moving the lights around so that they would match the other scenes.

I kept the basic set up still, by leaving the ambient light alone, this would act as the sun and then just having three directional lights placed to show highlights of the model, and to try and replicate real lighting.


Im sure there must be a better way to do things but i did not have the time to spend days or weeks learning lighting techniques. Although moving the lights took time it was probably quicker this time around. With a deadline approaching fast i had no time to spare,

Lighting is definitely one area that lets the final film down. If i was to do this project again i would either spend alot of time learning ways to light an outdoor scene, or i would outscource this part of the film


One scene which was completly different from the rest would require its own unique lighting.

The under water shot

(See Technical Folder.)


This scene required me to find a way to get an underwater look. Lighting was key here. There would naturally be a thickness to the water which would mean that vision would be limited. To start with i experimented with environment fog to try and achieve this.

I kind of like the look so decided to put some  different props in, that would be more liek the final thing.

although it looks a little like underwater it does not look nearly good enough for hat i wanted.
















instead i opted to go down another route. I attempted to approach the scene i a more technical way and decided to look at examples to help me see what i would need.

The main focus in each of the is the lights reflecting in the water. The Caustics.

I would need to get the ripple effect on the floor as well as having the light highlight the underwater plants and rocks  as well as the seabed.

For this i created a spot light. I then made the light so it would only emit photons. but no lights. these photons would be what we see as the reflected light.

I would need somethig for it to pass through to show up and moce though. Fo this i just created a ocean shader and played with the settinguntill i got the waves looking how i liked.

When projected through the ocean shaer i was getting the Causics effect that i wasted, howver it was only on the floor.

To solve this i had to line the scene with more of these ocean shader planes so that the light would hit more to pass through.

 Im very happy with the way this scene came out, considering this is the first time ive ever made a shot like this i was pleased with my results.

I t was interesting to see how certain lights reacted with different surfaces in this. I had never really considered this concept before.

Lighting is definitely something which i feel i would like to experiment more with. Im sure there is plenty for me to learn too.

My only slight criticism if this scene is the highlights on the plants, it would have been nice to get a better spread of light moving around. I think i would have to play with the surface i was sending the photons through to get this to change. if i was to do it again.