“A room is like a stage. If you see it without lighting it can be the coldest place in the world.”
– Paul Lynde
Lighting is probably one of the most important parts of completing an authentic feeling rendering. It brings life into a scene (just like entourage), it creates drama and height, and is the tool for highlighting specific areas in the scene. If the lighting isn’t executed correctly (or effectively) the image will look flat and undynamic and it will lose the interest of the person who is viewing it.
Creating the Look – How it’s done
There are many different ways of creating lighting and they differ most notably when creating an exterior vs. an interior.
Let’s first discuss exterior or outdoor lighting. A lot of 3D programs out there have specific ways that allow us to enter parameters in order to set up, the sun at a certain time of day, certain time of year, and anywhere in the world. The program has a built-in environment that is connected to the sun and then translates onto the image. So, when you change the time of day, the environment changes with it. This is called a daylight system. With the daylight system, you can add the sky environment. So, for example, let’s say a sunrise is required for a specific project. If I enter the time of day (down to the second), and then the appropriate general coordinates, time zone, month, date, and year then the sun will be set for that particular situation. 5am on June 1 in Baltimore, MD (during daylight savings time) would produce the appearance of dawn.
There is another, completely different, method of executing lighting using High Dynamic Range Image or (HDRI). This is the measurement of how much brightness information is contained in an image, so a “high dynamic range” image is an image that has a very large range of brightness, more than you can see on your screen in one go, actually. This allows you to light up a scene without using sunlight. This method provides a different feel to the visualization piece which is why I might choose to use it.
For the interiors, the built-in default lights can be used within the 3D program. If fortunate enough to have been provided a specific light – meaning I have the manufacturer name and the style # for that piece, then I can use this information to pull that light fixture up on line and locate what’s called an IES file that is associated with that exact light. The IES file is important because it provides information that can be entered into the 3D software which will enable that program to create the specific illumination provided by that fixture. As you can tell, this is a much more specific way of lighting a space and one that we use as often as possible. Very few adjustments, then have to be made, pertaining to lighting, when setting up in the interior scene using this process.
If a specific light is not available, then default lighting can be used and then manipulated based on the artist’s eye. One last option is to locate a similar IES file that can be found and used to obtain a similar lighting experience.
Every type of light has a temperature that is represented by the hue it projects and is referred to as the Kelvin temperature. We, as consumers, are familiar with this general concept. Ever since long-lasting LED bulbs entered our lives, it has become apparent how much warmer the light is as provided by our old incandescent bulbs than by these new long lasting bulbs which give off a cool (harsh) light.
Paying attention to the temperatures of the lights can enhance your renderings and give them a more realistic feel.
Time of Day
For a typical rendering (depending on our client and type of project) we generally agree upon a time of day that would best suit the final rendering.
Morning
When showing activity beginning early in the day, a scene will not be as socially charged. Like, for example, a retirement home or nursing home or a rehabilitation center would likely open earlier in the morning and wouldn’t have a sense of bustling activity at night. In this way, people can then be shown arriving at work in the morning. So, if the lighting suggests a sunrise, then you’ve successfully executed a completely different mood than that of a retail environment. The shadows of morning are also long. Having longer shadows softens those shadows. Early in the day, the lighting also isn’t as strong, indicating a warm and inviting environment.
Daytime
Daytime is a commonly requested lighting scenario as well. Eligible times of day would be late morning, midday, early afternoon, and late afternoon. In each of these instances, the sun is still pretty high up in the sky. Shadows are shorter and the activity would likely be different regardless of the type of building(s) being depicted in the scene. A daytime lighting scenario would likely make sense for a college campus or an office building. There would be hustle and bustle of midday activities that would lend themselves to midday light.
Evening
For retail for instance the best time of day for lighting that scene would be in
the evening. This way, you get long shadows. You also then have the opportunity to play with lights around the scene’s interior and exterior. Retail spaces tend to look active and inviting and if it’s done right, makes the person looking at it feels like they’d want to be there in that scene. So, the evening renderings tend to create that special moment for retail environments.
Combination
There are certain projects where there are multiple renderings being created and multiple times of day could be justified. In those instances, we determine which scenes make the most sense with each type of lighting. Then we establish the activity and entourage.
Sunlight hitting the façade is also a discussion. Clients will request which building they want sunlight to be bouncing off of. Based on that information, we are able to indicate to the client what time of day would be required in order to achieve that affect. It should be noted that the positioning of the buildings is part of this decision. We must consider whether these buildings are facing north, south, east, or west.
Seasons
Certainly, we are all aware that lighting is different depending on the time of year. Let’s say we are working on a scene that shows leaves falling and provides that autumnal feel to it. Then, the lighting for that time of day during that season will also be something we account for in that piece.
The goal of all of this is to feel that you are looking at a photograph, watching video of a specific time and place, or stepping into a certain time and space. No detail should be left unaccounted for. No detail should be too small to engage in the project.
Seasons are a part of the lighting equation just like the type of interior environment, the exterior time of day and weather.
Executing just the right lighting is no easy task. After reading this chapter, you can see why having an artist’s eye when completing this portion of the work is incredibly valuable.