Successful movies rely on exciting characters, settings, and enthralling storylines to hook an audience. Visual elements such as acting, motion, and character design come together to make a complete scene. A movie’s atmosphere or emotional tone adds complexity to a scene and connects it to the audience, and one way to control this is through lighting effects.
In film, computer animation, and other visual media, 3-point lighting is the standard method of setting up lighting. It consists of three lights from three points: key light, fill light, and rim light. Each light serves to separate the subject from the background, add dimension, and can be arranged depending on the desired mood the artist is trying to achieve. Lighting also helps to make a scene and its action more dynamic, as well as cast emphasis on character expressions, dramatic moments, or changes the direction of the narrative.
Valerie Mih is the instructor for the course Introduction to 3D Modeling and Animation in Maya and is an animated filmmaker who’s animated for numerous companies such as Pixar, Electronic Arts, and Wildbrain. The Autodesk software Maya is an industry-standard program for 3D animation. In this tutorial she demonstrates how to set up 3-point lighting within Maya and render a draft of the scene.
Ready to animate your scene? You can enroll in the free course Introduction to 3D Modeling and Animation with Maya: Tradition Meets Technology below, or take a look at the first session here.
Introduction to 3D Modeling and Animation with Maya: Tradition Meets Technology
California College of the Arts