Chapter 1
Understanding Lighting and Color

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 and monitor calibration
• Exploring 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, I've broken the discussion of lighting theory into the following categories: 1-point, 2-point, 3-point, naturalistic, and stylistic. The first three categories refer to the number of lights employed. The last two refer to a particular style. Before delving into 1-point lighting, however, I'll define a few common lighting terms:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Rim An intense light source placed behind a subject that strikes the subject along the edge. Rim lights are often employed as hair lights. When a rim light strikes the side of a subject, it's also referred to as a kicker. Note that you can refer to any light arriving from behind the subject as a backlight.

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 supplemental 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 instrument 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 most closely emulates 1-point lighting is film noir. Film noir is a style historically associated with crime dramas of the 1940s and '50s. The style is typified by black-and-white film stock, sparsely lit characters, and deep black shadows. Aesthetically, the lighting stemmed from stories with cynical, 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. For example, in Figure 1-2 a key light strikes a man from screen right, thereby creating a dark shadow on the wall; however, the horizontal streaks of light from a set of Venetian blinds originates from a weaker fill light.

Figure 1-1: A woman is lit by a movie screen in a 1-point lighting setup.

Photo © Stokkete/Dollar Photo Club

Figure 1-2: Stark lighting in a film noir-style photo

Photo © Ysbrandcosijn/Dollar Photo Club

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, fill.

Film noir is closely related to German expressionism, which was an art movement 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 and its atmospheric horror cinema (for example, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1919).

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. Chiaroscuro reached its pinnacle with the baroque art movement (17th and 18th centuries in Europe) and is exemplified by master painters Caravaggio (1573-1610) and Rembrandt (1606-1669).

When painters push for stronger contrast, unlit areas of the scene are rarely painted with pure black. In Figure 1-3, an unidentified key light arrives from above and to the left. No other source of light is apparent. Yet, a background wall is dimly visible thanks to a faint fill. In addition, the right sides of the character faces are seen in the shadows. Hence, such paintings bridge the gap between 1- and 2-point lighting.

Figure 1-3: Rembrandt, Abraham and the Three Angels, ca. 1630-1640, oil on canvas.State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

Photo © Oleg Golovnev/Shutterstock

In comparison, true 1-point lighting is sometimes found in portraiture. For example, in Figure 1-4 there is a single light source to the left and in front of the couple. A secondary light source is not identifiable. The painter Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) was an influential baroque portraitist.

Figure 1-4: Van Dyck, Princess Mary Stuart and Prince William of Orange, 1641, oil on canvas. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Photo © Oleg Golovnev/Shutterstock

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 diffuser 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 1-5).

Figure 1-5: A fashion photograph displays 1-point lighting.

Photo © Coka/Dollar Photo Club

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, Figure 1-6 shows the film noir-style photo from Figure 1-2 re-created in Autodesk® Maya®. A series of trial-and-error renders were necessary to position a spot light in a satisfactory manner. The horizontal shadows are created by shadowing primitive geometry in the foreground (out of the camera's view). 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.

Figure 1-6: 1-point lighting re-creation in Maya. The scene is included with the tutorial files as 1_point.ma.

Mannequin model courtesy of Kristen Scallion

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 cat walks down a sidewalk on a sunny day. The light bounces off the concrete, providing fill to the bottom of his neck and belly (see Figure 1-7).

Figure 1-7: A cat receives sunlight from above and as a bounced fill from the sidewalk. The lighting is a 2-point setup.

Photo © Sjallen/Dollar Photo Club

You'll often see 2-point lighting in painted portraits. For example, in Figure 1-8 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 broad lighting, whereby the side of the head facing the viewer receives the key. The opposite style of lighting is called short lighting, whereby the side of the head facing away from the viewer receives the key.

Figure 1-8: Left: Hals, Portrait of a Member of the Haarlem Civic Guard, ca. 1636/1638, oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.; Right: 2-point lighting re-creation in Maya. The scene is included with the Chapter 1 tutorial files as 2_point.ma.

Left photo © Oleg...