If you are already familiar with lighting a scene in the real world then you will feel right at home with the CINEMA 4D light objects. They can do everything real lights can do – and quite a bit more. In this tutorial we will set up a 3-point lighting arrangement. This type of arrangement is used often in portrait photography to achieve an even lighting and is an excellent method for lighting an object quickly and professionally in the 3D world.
Open the file QS_Light.c4d and adjust your editor view so the entire figure is visible to you. We want to light up our little character. Create a floor object (Create/Environment/Floor) and position it so the figure is standing on it.
A 3-point lighting arrangement begins with setting a key light. As the name suggests, this light emits the main lighting for the scene and will cast the main shadows. Create a light object (Create/Light/Light). Name it Main Light (double-click on the name) in the Object Manager.
CINEMA 4D has several different types of light sources. The Omni light will always be created by default. An Omni light emits from its center in all directions. For our key light we will need a spot light which we can aim directly at the object.
To make the key light a spot simply go to the Attribute Manager and switch the light from Omni to Spot.
Now our light source has been transformed to a spot. A spot acts like a flashlight. CINEMA 4D offers spots with square and round cones of light. This cone is visible in the editor and can be manipulated. Now we will aim the spot at our figure.
Position the light at the following coordinates in the Attribute Manager:
X= 300
Y= 580
Z= –300
at an angle of
H= 45
P= –45
degrees (enter the values and click on the Apply button).
Render the scene (Cmd/Ctrl + R).
The light now falls at an angle onto our object (If this is not visible in the Editor it may be due to the fact that your display mode is set to Quick Shading (uses a single default light source) instead of Gouraud Shading (uses all scene lights)). Of course the exact position of the light is strongly dependent upon the camera’s angle.
Unfortunately the light is not casting a shadow, letting the figure look like it’s floating. CINEMA 4D’s lights have an advantage over real light in that you can choose which kind of shadow, if any, they should cast - a plus for any studio photographer.
In the General menu of the Attribute Manager, set the light’s shadow to Shadow Maps (Soft). We don’t want the shadow to be completely black so we’ll make it a little transparent. In the Shadow menu, set the shadow density to 50 %. Select 1000 x 1000 as the shadow map. Render the scene.
CINEMA 4D offers three types of shadows: Raytraced (Hard) – a shadow with sharp edges, Shadow Maps (Soft) – a shadow with soft edges and Area – a shadow that becomes softer the further it’s away from the object, resulting in the most realistic shadow effect. Try the other two shadow types. Careful, the area shadow can take a long time to render! The larger shadow map allows the shadow to be rendered more accurately.
The light’s cone is a little too small. We will change this as follows: Switch to the details menu in the Attribute Manager and set the Inner Angle to 30 degrees and the Outer Angle to 100 degrees.
You will see the result in the editor right away. You can also edit the light’s cone by dragging the orange handles. If your graphics card will support it you can set the editor’s display mode to Enhanced OpenGL with activated shadows. (Viewport: OPTIONS/ENHANCED OPENGL) Generally speaking, OpenGL offers a much more precise depiction of your scene and gives you an impression of how the shadows will fall).
Create another light source in the scene and name it Brightener. Place it at the following coordinates:
X= –360
Y= 225
Z= –230
Select Area as the type of light.
Since the brightness of the lights in the scene is additive, we must dim the brightener a little.
Reduce the Intensity in the General menu to 40 %. This area light illuminates the figure from a different angle and softens the contrast somewhat. It won’t cast a shadow since this would cause crossing of the shadows and make the object look bad.
The scene is now pretty evenly lit, but we want to give it a little more pep. Create another light source, name it Color and, in the Attribute Manager, set its type to Infinite. Set its color to turquoise and set its H angle to –160.
The position of an infinite light is irrelevant since it always lights your scene in the direction of the Z axis. This is why we will leave it at the point at which it was created. It gives our Amphibian an interesting color edge and sets him off of the background a little.
Your scene’s mood can be changed by simply changing the color of some of the lights used.
That completes our classic 3-point lighting arrangement. Now the real work starts. If the scene has a
background, which is often the case, it will have to be lit as well. With the proper use of omni lights details in the scene can be brought to light very nicely. But don’t overdo it. With good lighting, less is often more. Only add lights when necessary and if the scene can actually benefit from them. Two more tips before we end: If you have several lights in a scene and are not sure which light is lighting what, simply turn off (green check mark) all other lights in the Object Manager. The light which remains will be the only one visible.
One trick you can use while aiming lights is to view the scene from the perspective of the light. Select the desired light in the Object Manager and activate Set Active Object as Camera in the editor view’s Cameras menu. Selecting this option lets you view the scene from the point of view of an active object, in our case the light. Moving the editor view will automatically change the position of the light when in this mode. This way you can see how the change of position of the light affects the lighting of the object in real-time (Gouraud Shading must be active in the editor view). Once you have reached the desired angle and position you can return to the editor view by selecting Use Camera/Default Camera from the Cameras menu.
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