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Light Setup
Posted: 09 December 2014 06:16 PM   [ Ignore ]  
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Hi! I watched this video: https://vimeo.com/82073330 and I liked, so I was playing trying to create something similiar. At first I focused in the animation, but then my attention was in the quality of render and Illumination setup.

I know this is the science of materials and illumination. So my question here is how to create a light setup to get a similar look. Any ideas? Hope you can help me. I attach a sample file.

SceneFile: https://app.box.com/s/vjy8b91vvx1635mjcjyp

Regards!

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Posted: 09 December 2014 07:41 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]  
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Hi iaec,

OK, I watched the content of the link, but there is a vast amount of great scenes, and they certainly follow a unique artistic mindset, but not a one-size-fits-all light set up.

So, all of them?

Light is a life long exploration. Certainly nothing that works with a simple formula. I’m passionated about Light. But if you like to illuminate a scene that doesn’t look CGish, there is no short cut for the real art of lighting a scene.

Would you mind if I “move” this thread to the tutorial suggestions?

I will not check this time the scene file further, there is only a default material and not a single light. IF you like that kind of service, perhaps the 1on1 service is the way to go. However, I think that (setting it up for you) would just take away the essential work you need to do. Light is NOT at all a parameter thingy, nor can be copied from one to another. It is a triangle, material, light and camera, or should I say a tetra, with the “story/idea” as fourth element? Without camera and tis position, light will not speak as clear as it could be.
The first day on set, way back in time, I saw chaos in the studio, but got the idea about cinema magic while seeing the same chaos through the view finder. Decades ago, but never left me as guidance.

In other words, you can get this knowledge—it is all around you, every day!

Let me tell you some tips, but first a line about my background, since I started at the age of thirteen to make stage light for bands. By the age of seventeen I had ~135 events illuminated, then I sold a truck load of equipment and bought professional cameras instead. This is already too long ago to admit, hehe, but light is one major key in anything Cinematography/Photography. It is not the how, it is about the why!
However, the idea of light has never left me, many decades later I haven’t stopped taking courses and classes. ...life-long, I said already, right?

If you see “material’ that starts out with telling you “three point light” run. Never look back. Start always with a clear target and one light only, then add. To start with several lights is never a good idea. Painting with light, as I have shown it in my Cinematography series is the way to go. Each set up is unique, except for some studio-set ups in very cheap productions. In other words, the artists eye counts, not anything else, master your eye and experiment! If someone promise you a studio set up ready to use, run again. SERIOUSLY!

Use the diffusion channel in your material. Yes, it is one key to get things right.
Get clear that “100%” in many parameters are not the limit.
Check out why there is a Contrast parameter in the Light>General (Attribute Manager), if you understand what it does, you are much further than most people. ;o)
Stop using GI for a certain amount of time, and set up scenes manually with lights, reflective lights etc. Render in multi-pass, and check what each light does. This will help you to get more savvy with reading “real” light on objects.
In what light temperature do you photograph? On Auto? Well that might ruin everything, seriously. This is a key element and is as important to understand as anything else in light and capturing of it. Later white-balance will not heal things, nor it helps to ignore it in the first place.

Simply said, light is diffuse or hard (...size and distance). Surfaces are smooth or rough. Shadows are never black (except one has no idea how to shoot without crashing the blacks). Highlights are not white, again, they are: if channels are clipped.
Take a flash light in a dark room and explore. Light will shape objects, will change the mood of it. take your time with it.

Any 3D animation and scene is a simulation. You can’t simulate what you don’t know in the first place (or it is just gambling and hopefully getting what you feel inside of you)

There is more, much more, but that is in a nutshell all. Oh, and I have a longer series about light here on CV, just to avoid mistakes or to get creative with breaking rules. (Rules that are not known, can’t be broken)

OK, I guess you might say, not what I have asked… well, are you sure? Do you like instant gratification and buy a Light Kit, and stay outside of the creative process? Light is story telling. As I mentioned it in past hands-on classes, go out, photograph and study what is right in front of you and why it looks that way (...and why it looks different in the morning or during the golden hour). The answers are all there, harvest them. This is the main work, there are no presets that can replace your eye, your knowledge or anything else. It is work, but the reward is free creation, instead setting up parameter and buying the next kit.

I learn from movies, daily doses one, always a disc, never interrupted with advertisement. I love the good ones, but I learn from the bad ones much more. Both in the mix are priceless. Seriously.
(With discs [DVD or Blu-ray] I can pause at any time and explore a scene, do my guesses—but of course I read the ACS magazine or Cinefex about new work out there and have read uncounted books about…and took nearly every DoP course at FXPHD, this mix certainly helps, but yes, I studied art, film and set design at the University of the Arts in Berlin)

All in all, atmospheric elements, and grading in post normally go hand in hand these days.

My best wishes

Sassi

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Dr. Sassi V. Sassmannshausen Ph.D.
Cinema 4D Mentor since 2004
Maxon Master Trainer, VES, DCS

Photography For C4D Artists: 200 Free Tutorials.
https://www.youtube.com/user/DrSassiLA/playlists

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Posted: 09 December 2014 09:16 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 2 ]  
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Yes, please Dr. Sassi. It would be a great tutorial suggestion.

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Posted: 09 December 2014 09:29 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 3 ]  
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Thanks a lot, iaec.

Especially for not getting mad at me while replying in a way that sounds more like effort, than fun ;o)
But I get that you enjoy the quality of having skills and being savvy with the things you do, instead of just buying “stuff” and move on. I like that a lot.

We will see what 2015 has to offer. I’m certainly happy to share here or on my YouTube channel whatever makes sense to me.

Have a great day!

Sassi

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Dr. Sassi V. Sassmannshausen Ph.D.
Cinema 4D Mentor since 2004
Maxon Master Trainer, VES, DCS

Photography For C4D Artists: 200 Free Tutorials.
https://www.youtube.com/user/DrSassiLA/playlists

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NEW: Cineversity [CV4]

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