Winter 2000

Project 3 : Lighting

Date Assigned: February 1, 2000
Date Due: Thursday, February 10, 2000

In this assignment you will experiment with character and mood lighting.

As a group you will light your  group's restaurant scene from project 2 in two different ways, though you may modify these scenes however you want.  Individually you will be given a restaurant scene containing a 'hero' character.  Your task will be to light this scene is such a way as to impart two radically different moods.

Getting started

To get used to creating and manipulating lights read the lighting section of the online Maya manual entitled Rendering and perform the Lighting tutorial.

What to do

As a group, you will light your restaurant scene in two different ways:

1. Light the scene so as to convey a certain mood, e.g. a dimly lit romantic restaurant in winter or a burning restaurant w/ smoke and flame for lights in autumn.  In addition try to draw the viewer's attention to a certain interesting portion of your scene using only the lighting.
2. Using the same objects, composition, and camera, light the scene again. This time, try to make everything different: choose a different area to emphasize, and try to convey a different mood, time of day or season. It is critical that you come up with a definite mood or atmosphere that you are trying for. As in the shading assignment, the mashed potatoes defense will not stand. You may choose to draw attention to the same area from pt.1 again if you wish, though do so in a very different way.

Individually, you will be given a scene containing a main character.  Light this scene as follows:

1. Light the scene so that the main character (who will be provided) stands out. Keep the background lighting as simple as possible. Think of this as "hero lighting." Some standard lights that you might want to use include:
   Key light.

   The brightest light, the main source of illumination for the character. Chosen to make the character look good. Usually comes from the side and above.

   Fill light.

   Fills in the dark areas, softens shadows. Usually a non-specular light.

   Rim light (a.k.a. kicker light).

   Illuminates character from the non-key side. Helps to define shape and contour.

   Bounce light

   Light "reflecting" up from the floor or tabletop. Fills in dark areas on the undersides of the character.
   

2. Using the same character scene, composition, and camera, light the scene again. This time, as in the group section, try to make everything different: choose a different area to emphasize, and try to convey a different mood, time of day or season. 

Note: These three scenes should be identical in composition and camera angle, all that should change is the environment lighting.

What we're looking for

We have different expectations for the results of each part of the assignment.

• The first part is to give you practice discussing lighting issues. Focus on achieving an interesting composition and mood as well as a sense of relationship between and among the objects. 

• The second part is an exercise in character lighting. Play with the color and placement of the lights in your scene to get a feel for the kind of effects that they can have.

• Make sure the main character looks good: not too flat, not overworked; not too shiny, not too dull; not too ruddy, not too sickly.

• Make sure the main character does not fade into the background. You might do this with a kicker light, or by making the character lighter or darker than the area immediately behind it.

• Make sure that the main character looks like it belongs in the scene, as opposed to something that has been rendered separately and pasted in. The light colors and directions used for the character should match the background. Shadows help here.

Turn in

Each group member will turn in two high-quality rendered scenes (one for each portion of the group assignment) and each will individual will do the same for the character lighting portion

Projects will be critiqued in LA1 on Thursday. Before class, you should prepare for critique in the same manner as previous assignments.  Email regarding specific discussion topics for the critique will be sent closer to the due date.

Individually, copy only your a final rendered image (in .jpg, .sgi, or .bmp format) at 1024x768+ resolution for each section to the Project 3/yourname directory.  As a group turnin in a rendered image for each section to the Project 3/groupX directory.