Lighting Scenes Motivation

Lighting Motivation

For my three different lighting set-ups/rigs I tried to experiment not only with different tones/stylistic elements but also with different lighting software techniques that XSI provides.

For my first set-up, I wanted to continue with the stylisation of the retro 70s look I had aimed for with my texturing. I envisioned the room as being a sort of V.I.P. Section or private lounge off from the main section of a dance club (or discotheque). These rooms generally had a slightly diffuse (or 'underlit') scene, while being shaped or directional from certain light sources. The slightly dim lighting also allowed for an interesting interplay between light and shadow (which were not hard but still clearly evident). This technique helped achieve a certain ambience which was meant to invoke a 'cool' yet provocative atmosphere. Below is an reference example:

In terms of the rig, I used a slightly modified version of a three point lighting set-up. Essentially, my key light was sourced from the light 'emitting' from the dance floor outside the room. This light therefore has a warm colour temperature and it's luma has a red tinge (similar to the red ambient effect of the picture above). My fill light was a spot light placed opposite the direction of the key light (facing the window) and was on a lower intensity with a slightly pink tint. The backlight was split amongst three spot lights all pointing down the back wall, therefore providing a rounded edge to the light and also serving the purpose of working as a background light (as in a four point scheme). The final result is as below:

My second set-up was a night scene. At first I wanted to emanate the same V.I.P. room as it would be after the club closed and the lights went out but I didn't want to use the same red tones that would have had to accompany such a scenario. Instead I chose to locate the room within a starry night sky. However, in trying to keep with the 70s theme, I wanted the sky to be somewhat psychedelic as opposed to being realist, hence my final outside texture. Below is a reference for this scene:

The set-up was based on single point lighting (as in moonlight) but added extra lights to provide additional detail and focus within the scene. The key light was an infinite light to which I added a light blue colouring and angled it to make the window panes shine into the room as hard shadows (which is how I observed night light shadows to fall).  I then added a point light on the windowed wall to add some slight additional fill to the scene (as it appeared too dull with just the 'moonlight'). I used attenuation with this light to give the lighting some gradient so as not to appear balanced and therefore flat (night scenes are generally high in contrast and would not appear flat). I then used an additional spot light not as backlighting but rather to pull focus to the picture, which I felt added a little bit more character and focus to the scene. The result is as follows:

For my third scene, my main intention was to experiment with lights that would appear different visually, specifically with volumic lights. With this in mind I wanted to create a scene with a more theatrical tone in terms of lights. I wanted to create strong contrasts by using a single light set-up but with a volumic plug-in to create the feeling of theatrical lighting. I also wanted to use another single strong light to point to a specific object within the room to give the environment some sort of narrative inclination and, again, to increase the feeling of theatrical drama. Below are two references; the first refers to the nature of volumic lights that I wanted to achieve and the second shows the spot light with a very specific point/direction.   

In setting it up I used a spot light coming in from the open side of the room. I added the volumic property and tweaked it until it had an orange glow in its path (once again matching the colour scheme within the room). Adjacent to this light I aimed a second volumic spot at the wine glass on the table (to create a sort of narrative significance) but found I had to increase its intensity rather high for it to be visible in the path of the key spot. I also had to exclude other geometry which subsequently burnt out due to the high intensity of this light. The result is as follows: