Light Setups

VIArts

What's your favorite lighting setup?

 

i only know the 3-point seup, so I'm wondering what else there is .

3Diva

HDRIs. 

I typically just use HDRIs these days. I think it's just easier, faster, and less resource-intensive than setting up individual lights. It's not for everyone - some swear by their lighting rigs, x-point lighting, etc but I just, personally, prefer HDRIs. You can get a WIDE variety of lighting from HDRIs. Heck, even the x-point lighting can be made with HDRIs (making hand-made EXRs is super fast and easy).

JVRenderer

HDRi as ambient, 3 - 5 point setup
 

Kevin Sanderson

3Diva said:

HDRIs. 

I typically just use HDRIs these days. I think it's just easier, faster, and less resource-intensive than setting up individual lights. It's not for everyone - some swear by their lighting rigs, x-point lighting, etc but I just, personally, prefer HDRIs. You can get a WIDE variety of lighting from HDRIs. Heck, even the x-point lighting can be made with HDRIs (making hand-made EXRs is super fast and easy).

+1

nemesis10

HDRI as ambient, eye light (I use Fabiana's).

Hylas

HDRI + 1 warm point light to put an accent on the character's face.

VIArts

okay, twao questions:

1. Is HDRI any good in animation?

2. i thought HDRI was mostly for outdoor scenes? can it work indoors?

TheKD

Really depends. Sometimes I am rendering in a specific scene, so I want the lighting to look more true to like a snapshot in the real world, rather than a cinimatic/photo studio perfect setup. Other times I am looking for a pro portrait look, and try to set up classic lighting like rembrandt variants or 3 point or whatever.

There are hdri's of indoor settings as well as outdoor. I tend to only use hdri if it's outdoor, or if I am looking for a fast render for an example or something.

kyoto kid

...well for working in 3DL it is AoA's Advanced Lights and Parris' IBL Master hands down. UE rendered about as slow as Iray on the CPU. 

As for Iray, not super fond of HDRIs as most include background scenery (I like to build my scenes with geometry and maybe an occasional photo plane as a backdrop).  The only HDRI sets I tend to use the most are the Fast Production Lights for character portraits and IBL Skies as they don't include ground scenery (the latter reminds me of LDP2).

nemesis10

MAJourney said:

okay, twao questions:

1. Is HDRI any good in animation?

2. i thought HDRI was mostly for outdoor scenes? can it work indoors?

The short answers are

1. HDRI are resource light so they should be excellent for animation
2. HDRI's can be used in two separate ways; you can use them as a light source i.e. light probe (the store is full of abstract HDRI's which are almost purely light sources such as https://www.daz3d.com/iradiance--light-probe-hdr-lighting-for-iray--expansion-6} so that you can light up a room and character, or they can be used to light the scene and provide a backdrop (https://www.daz3d.com/platinum-pack-one-16k-hdris-for-iray).  You get to choose.

I want to plug the use of an iray section plane or iray xray camera if your room is a closed box. Basically, a section plane is a primitive that tells the iray renderer to disregard anything on one side so that a virtual "hole" is created (watch this to see the concept in action). People have parented them to cameras so that if you are in a closed box room and have a light source like an hdri outside, the light always shines in the room while retaining the ability use the full 360 ° room since the "hole" is always behind the camera (like trying to see the back of your head!). Here is an example of a free one: https://www.deviantart.com/heroineadventures/art/Iray-Interior-Camera-V1-4-758604718

JVRenderer

kyoto kid said:

As for Iray, not super fond of HDRIs as most include background scenery (I like to build my scenes with geometry and maybe an occasional photo plane as a backdrop).

You can always turn off 'draw dome' in the render setting and still take advantage of the HDRi lighting without the background in the scene.

Sevrin

MAJourney said:

okay, twao questions:

1. Is HDRI any good in animation?

2. i thought HDRI was mostly for outdoor scenes? can it work indoors?

1. HDRI is excellent for animation

2. You can make your own interior HDRIs for extended shots.  This works especially well if you use DOF to isolate your subject(s).