In maya there are many different types of lighting to consider. The main setting of lighting are:
- Intensity
- Colour
- Fallout/ decay
- Cast shadows
There are also different types of lights you can use
- Area lights : an area light is used for still image rendering.
- Directional lights : a directional light is used for light sources that are far away .
- Stop lights : a stop light is a cone of light that points in one direction commonly used in theatres.
The main type of lighting technique used is three point lighting. A key, fill and back light are placed around the object that you are lighting, in a triangular pattern. You then ad just each to get the best look possible.
Key Light: Main source of illumination
Secondary (Fill) light: Highlights the details of the object
Back Light: Distinguishes the object from the background
Rendering
Rendering is when the computer creates a 2D image from a 3D model created in Maya or mudbox to name a few programs. Each image rendered can take a different time to render some are quicker than others. This can be based on how high quality the image or the quality of rendering program you’re using. It is also used in animation and film as well as games and modelling, so each frame may take a long time to render. Which is why they take a long time make. Say you’re rendering 25 frames per second and each frame takes up to 10 hours to render, that could take 250 hours for one second of a animation for example a Pixar film. That’s why big companies like Pixar have whole rooms of computers that they send things to, to render otherwise films could take years to make. Lighting is important to consider when rendering as the better the lighting of your model the higher quality the image will be when rendered. In Maya you can use the built in software that comes with it or you can download Mental ray another rendering engine. Mental ray is a more advanced renderer and is quicker at rendering producing a better quality.
Skarlet 