Tutorials

So I have found some tutorials and am in the process of doing them. It is a lot harder than I originally thought.

Here is an image from a tutorial I did.

This tutorial was more about studio lighting and reflections.

I have now completed and read through many tutorials about studio lighting and realise how important it actually is. Most of the lighting I have been using has been spot lights with area light enabled. I have also been rendering with mental ray.

The main thing I have realised is that it is all about the settings. Most of the time the settings will dictate how the final image will look. As long as the lights are in the correct places, the settings and values determine how the final picture will look. It can make the flattest image look amazing and HDR images have specific settings to make it look good.

I have been developing my own image using these tutorials and transferring what I have learnt to my own images.

Here is my own HDR image that I have been working on.

It still needs a bit of work and to be improved but it is heading towards the right direction. 

I chose pool balls because they are simple but give a really nice effect with the right settings and materials. They are also slightly reflective so are good to use in a HDR image. 

I need to continue with the tutorials to make it even better. The more I learn, the better I can improve my skills and help me learn lighting even better.

Terminology

I think the most important part of the research I have done so far, is the terminology. When I collected my research together, I realised that I didn't have a clue what most of them were going on about. I decided to use the Maya help website to look up some terms.

The terms that were most used were global illumination, final gathering, caustics. Some tutorials talked about depth map shadows and maps such as reflection maps and specular maps but even though I found out what they were, they are less likely to be used in the tutorials. Mainly because these are far more complicated to use and create than other methods.

The tutorials also talk about raytracing and refractions so explaining these will be critical. There is also a lot about the lighting attributes such as penumbra angle. These seem obvious once you start using the settings and experimenting but it may need explaining if someone has not used lighting before.

The next stage will be to use what I have learnt and start the tutorials. Now that I have a better understanding it will be easier to accomplish.

Collecting

So over the past week I have been collecting as much research as possible.

I subscribe to 3D Artist magazine which has lots of tutorials inside. I have literally ripped out all the tutorials to do with lighting with lighting in Maya and 3DS Max and filed and archived them (after reading them of course). Even though some of it is not relevant, it has given me a good insight into lighting and a better understanding.

The next thing I am going to do is to do some of these tutorials to get some desired effects because HDRI lighting begins with good lighting setups.

I have also managed to find a book called the HDRI Handbook. There is a new version coming out in August which is obviously too late so the first version will have to do. It is still a very good starting point. From the reviews, I have discovered that it is for photographers and CG artist so thought it would be a good idea to get hold of it and have a read. I have actually bought the book because I have not been able to find anyone that has it or a library with it in. It will be useful to have anyway as I am interested in photography so can only improve that as well.

Talking of libraries, I went to the library at Ravensbourne but had no clue where to start. There are lots of books about lighting but almost none that were relative to CG. I had a good root around but then decided to go elsewhere. All the books I found were far too big to rifle through, especially as not even a chapter would help.

I have also looked at some photography magazines. This was mainly to get a better understanding of HDR. The CG tutorials and magazines tend to not explain what it is as they assume you know. I looked into articles about HDR images just to get a good basic understanding of HDR. I did not really learn much as I knew what it was already but it helped me understand how to explain it better.

I have looked on the internet for existing tutorials. I have found several but they are very hard to understand. This is purely due to the technical language. I have no idea what most of them are saying most of the time so I soon realised that the first port of call was to look up some of the vocabulary.

This is my main focus for the next week. That and getting a simple scene setup so I can play around with some basic lighting tutorials to then build up to creating a HDRI lit scene.

New Project, New Ideas

I have just been given a new project. The project has three components. The first is to create a tutorial, the second to create a production plan using Shotgun software and the final thing is to create a blog to accompany it all.

The first thing that I had to do was to think of an idea. This is the hard bit. I want to do something that will help me with Alex's work but also in my future career.

The first thing that came to mind was rigging. It is something that I really want to learn. I have basic tutorials already but I really want to explore this further.

Another idea I had was lighting. I recently did some freelance work but I had massive trouble with lighting. I managed to get it as the client wanted it but with great difficulty. I thought this would be a chance to get me up to standard.

I know that I want to push myself and there are loads of tutorials online about rigging. This has lead me to the conclusion that I am going to do a tutorial about lighting. This is also going to benefit me more when doing Alex's work too.

I have now chosen to do HDRI lighting because I think this will push me further and get me to really research well and hopefully improve my skills.

The first thing I am going to do is research, research and research.