Spotlight rotation and position play roles in your scene. The most commonly used lighting type, spotlights can be used for directional lighting, such as canister lighting, headlights on cars, studio simulation lighting, volumetric lighting, and more. The size of the light is important too it affects the sharpness of the shadow.
Light is more concentrated to a sphere and less streaked than, say, a point light. Simliar to a point light, a spherical light might prove a better source of light for bulbs or special effects. Unlike a distant light, a point light's rotation does not matter in your scene only its position matters. You can use a point light to create sources of light that emit in all directions, such as a candle, lightbulb, or spark. You can find more about these file types at This type of light uses a predetermined file called an IES file. Photometric lights have become more common in 3D applications over the last few years. Linear lights can have realistic shadows but consume additional rendering time. You can use linear lights as elongated light sources, such as fluorescent bulbs and neon tubes. Used for creating a pseudo-environmental lighting environment, the dome light encompasses the entire scene. A distant light's position does not matter to your scene only its rotation matters. You can use a distant light for simulating bright sunlight, moonlight, or general lighting from a nonspecific source. They do, however, take longer to render than spotlights, distant lights, or point lights. The best choice for creating true shadows, area lights create a brighter, more diffuse light than distant lights and therefore result in greater realism. Do not let that fool you, because it has nothing to do with your final lighting setup. While you're working in LightWave's Modeler, you will not see a light source illuminating your shaded model in a Perspective viewport. Check out the Lighting Basics video on the book's DVD to see them in action. Distant lights use only rotation for their effect, whereas point lights use only position. The area light, for example, can be scaled, but the spotlight can't. One thing to note is that each light has variances in settings. Each has a specific purpose, but none is limited to that purpose. Understanding basic lighting principlesĮight light types are available in LightWave Layout.This chapter instructs you on the following:
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Take that knowledge and move through this chapter to learn how to light your models and scenes. The previous chapter introduced you to LightWave 10's surfacing capabilities, including the Node Editor. The look of a texture can change significantly based on the lighting associated with it. However, don't worry LightWave makes it easy to apply complex surfaces and get instant feedback. This is probably one of the areas animators struggle with the most, and an area that can often make or break your project. OK, maybe it's not evil, but it can be challenging, and understanding texturing and how it's affected by lighting is one of your main goals as a 3D artist. But you need to be aware of some basic real-world principles before you can put it all together. Basic lighting can make your renders hot or cold in other words, the color of the light you choose, where the lights are placed, and other aspects of lighting play a role in the final image. Lighting is vital in film, photography, and of course, 3D animation. It can convey a mood, a feeling, or even a reaction. Lighting can completely change the look of a shot. Lighting can be used for so much more than simply brightening a scene. But lighting is crucial to your success as an animator, and fortunately it's not that hard to set up once you learn a few basic rules. And like many, you might consider lighting to be one of the less important aspects of your 3D animations, or simply an area that's outside your comfort zone. As a 3D animator, unless you're working in a big animation studio, you do your own lighting. You're a draftsman, a 3D modeler, a producer, a painter, and even a gaffer-the person on a film set who takes care of the lighting. Working in 3D animation requires you to wear many hats.