Project 4b: Office Room Lighting

Goal This assignment will be in two parts. In part A, you'll be following directions to light a provided room. In part B, you'll be choosing one of the provided paint-overs or use your own reference to create some kind of mood with your light setup.

Prerequisite Exercises

Resources

Part A

Before lighting any type of shot, you must think about the mood of the scene and what you want to the audience to focus on specifically in the overall composition. How you light a shot will determine how the audience's eye will be guided around the composition to the focal point. You can create compositions by the angles or shapes of different light values from elements such as shadows or highlights. (READ "LIGHTING FOR CINEMATOGRAPHY" to get more information about this particular topic). Colors are also very significant in the mood or the overall feeling of the shot. Color can heavily influence how one feels mentally and/or physically. For example, when a person sees the color red, they become more alert, their blood pressure rises slightly, and can become more aggressive in the way they talk or feel. However, when a person sees the color blue it has the opposite affect. People can feel calm, peaceful, or sad.

Lighting is an art form, but is also very technical in software programs, as well as a science in the real world. In the real world, you have to think about how light waves mix, reflect, or get absorbed. Software can't capture all realistic attributes that light does in the real world, but there's definitely a lot of control and ways to make a scene feel believable. Because it's an art form, it means that there is more than one way to light a scene. Like painting, there is more than one way to create a painting from start to finish. Artists have their own techniques and methods, which is the same for lighting.

Overall when you begin to light:

Think about the composition and mood. Where is the focal point? How can shadows and highlights be used to add interest and direct the eye towards the focal point?

What time of day is it?

Photo by Dirk Rabe: www.360cities.net/image/day-and-night-germany?

Where is the main source of light coming from?

Other things to keep in mind:

Where is there bounce light?

"https://support.solidangle.com/display/AFCUG/SSS+Layers"

How soft or hard should the light and shadows be?

How will two colors of light mix? It's slightly different from mixing paint.

"http://sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Light-and-Sight/Science-Ideas-and-Concepts/Colours-of-light"

There is more than one way to light a scene.

Consider why you're creating each light and it's purpose in the composition. Things quickly get costly when trying to render. If there is a shot of 200 frames and it takes 2-3min to render one image out of 200, it would take several hours to finish rendering that one shot.

Let's Start!

ATTENTION: THERE ARE BUGS TO KEEP IN MIND!!!!!!

1) You can only link lights by object > Centric (light)!!!! Not Light > centric (object)!!!!!! Lights won't link properly.
2) When you create a light, make sure you click on the light and move it around a tiny bit before putting in the lights values (scale, rotation, etc.)

Open up the image, Office Room Lighting Reference and open the provided office scene.ma file.

Think about where the focal point is and where the main source of light is coming from. There isn't a particular mood for this scene for the sake of demonstrating how all the lights work.

The main source of light will be from the lamp, not the window. It's later in the day and overcast, so the lamp will have a stronger source of light. The window will add in a soft fill light and will be less intense than the light from the lamp. Allowing the light from the lamp to be the key light will also create a nice diagonal shape, to guide the audience eyes from the lamp to the papers on the desk (the focal point).

Notice how aspects of three-point lighting is still being kept in mind; We're keeping in mind about the keylight and how we're going to fill in shadows that are dark in value.

We also want to create a group of main lights that will get an overall sense of the scene, then add extra lights to make the composition more clear.

Create a point light and name it "keylight".

Point lights are great for simulating lights from a bulb or star, because light shines evenly in all directions from a particular point. When we place it in the lamp and turn on the light's shadow attributes, the light will act more realistically bouncing light within and outside of the lamp. Other techniques would be creating a spotlight in the lamp to face the surface of the desk. Then using other lights to create natural looking bounce light from the lamp. When using the point light, there will be less control where the light will shine when placed in the lamp, whereas you'll have more control when setting up other lights where you think bounce light is needed.

Move the point light around in the lamp until it looks right.

X: 49.159 Y:74.072 Z: 197.105

Go into the light-linking attributes using "Object centric light linking", to disconnect the light from certain parts of the room. Usually you can use "Light centric light linking", however the relationship editor is being a bit troublesome with this scene. It works best in this file using "Object centric light linking".
VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!
(During the process of lighting parts of the room, lights already created would be later disconnected from certain objects, if it made sense to. For some people during the lighting process, sometimes they don't unlink certain objects from a newly created light until later on when they realize it needs to be unlinked from certain things. Or they realize the light should actually be lighting other objects than just what it's titled to light. They're usually flexible when setting up lights.)
Change the color to a mustard or golden yellow color.
Change the intensity to 2.

Check Use Ray Trace Shadows in the Raytrace Shadow Attributes.

Light Radius: 3 , Shadow Rays: 20, Ray Depth Limit: 3

Next create a fill light to fill in the harsh shadows from the key light. You can use any type of light or many lights to do this, but for this create a directional light and name it "fill_light".

Directional lights cast light rays evenly in one direction from a distant point light source. It can be used to create light that would be emitted from something like a sun. It doesn't matter how big you make the light, or where you place it to change the intensity or direction of the light. You change the light direction solely on it's angle in the x,y,z, direction and the intensity in the light's attributes.

We want a very soft fill on the wall, desk and window, so that it's like they're receiving cool bounce light from the window. Basically we're trying to establish the look of when light enters through the window and bounces off the back wall, and returns to the window side of the room as a weaker light source.

To create more interest and a good composition, we want the room to be cool in color and the lamplight to be warm for contrast. With a lot of blue light and a little warm bright light, the warm bright light becomes more noticeable, making it easier for the eye to be directed quickly to a certain part of the scene.

Turn the direction light so that it's angled downward, facing the direction of the desk and window.

X: -4.921, Y: 92.324 Z: 103.477

X rotation: -134.322, Y: 8.265, and Z: 8.373.

Change the color to a pastel, light grey-blue.

H: 180, S: .127, V: .620

We want this to be a soft light, so turn the intensity down to about 0.7.

Make sure all shadows are turned off by un-checking any shadow attributes. This is only a fill light that will be softening shadows, not making more shadows.

In light-linking connect to: Walls, Ceiling, Window, Cabinets_group, Broken_desk, Poster, Office_chair, Ruler, Office_plant, Lamp, Stapler, Papers_group, Pictureframe, Comic, Radio, and Apple.

Now to create some rim lights to highlight the edges of objects that are blending into the background. You can also set up more than one light to create unique rims on certain objects. We're going to use a point light so objects are receiving light from a single point source from the lamp.

Create a point light and call it "spec_light_lamp" and uncheck diffuse from its attributes and keep Emit Specular checked. Emit diffuse creates soft light on objects from a light source to simulate light reflection. The emit specular option will makes specular highlights on objects surfaces. By unchecking emit diffuse and checking emit specular, then only specular highlights will be made.

Place the point light near the lamp.

X: 42.264, translation Y: 84.396, translation Z: 209.976

Change the intensity to 1.23. This number might need to be tweaked to get the right result.

Make sure shadows are turned off since this light is meant only to make specular highlights.

Connect the light to: Ceiling, Outside_view, Left_cabinet, Broken_desk, Poster, Ruler, Office_plant, Polaroid, Pencil, Lamp, Stapler, Papers_on_desk, Radio, Apple.

There is a plane with an image of a city that needs to be lit. We could change the material attributes to make the image brighter without lights, however for the sake of this tutorial we'll use a light that normally shouldn't be used for any type of lighting. Create an ambient light and name it "ambient_for_sky".
- Ambient lights aren't the best type of light to use, since they add the same color and intensity of light to all sides of an object, regardless of its position in a scene. This takes away from the dimension of objects being lit and needed shadows to add interest or richness to a scene.
- Since we're lighting a plane, it doesn't matter because it's a 2 dimensional image that we want lit.
Now the last main source of light should come from the window. This light source won't be as intense as the light source from the lamp and will be cooler in color. For this light, create an area light and name it, "fill_window_light".

Area lights are a 2D rectangular light sources that are useful for a window light or ceiling lights.

Area lights simulate realistic light and softer shadows, and are higher quality compared to other lights. The downside to area lights is that they become very costly to render when shadows are turned on.

Resize the light. After a lot of experimenting, it looked better when we created a wide area light outside of the window. Its scale is X: 43 Y: 21 Z: 4.5. Keep in mind that the size will affect the intensity and shadow values!!! The larger the area light, the more intense the light will be and the smaller the area light, the less intense the light will be. If it's a large area light, then it will need a higher raytrace shadow value to increase shadow samples. The higher the raytrace shadows values, slower the render time will be!!!

Position the light like in the provided image and use the manipulator:

X: -16.284, Y: 80.729, Z: 250.015

X: 713. 248, Y: -53.369, Z: 720

Change the color to a pastel, light grey-blue hue.

H: 182 S .078 V: .725

Change the intensity to 1.5. When playing around with the values, 1.5 wasn't too dark or too bright to ruin the composition. This light is acting like a secondary source of light and a fill.

Under Area Light tab in the attribute editor, check "Use Light Shape". By default when area lights are created, its mental ray attributes for shadows are turned off. Checking Use Light Samples under mental ray, will turn on its mental ray attributes for more accurate rendering.

This light is connected to: Floor, Walls, Ceiling, Left_cabinet, Poster, Ruler, Office_plant, Papers_on_desk, Pictureframe, Comic, Radio, Apple.

Now we move on to the extra lights(like sprinkles on a cake). These lights will further enhance the shot to add more shadows, lighten objects that are important to the composition, create more depth, and add interest to the composition.

Group all the existing lights so far and name the group "main_lights".

The number of extra lights might seem overwhelming

For this portion, it's best to start thinking about how to direct the audience's eye to the papers on the desk, as well as certain areas that would require more realistic lighting.

Create a spotlight and name it "left_cabinet_warm_fill". Then put it in a new group called "extra_lights".

To start framing the composition, the left side needs to be lit more. We also want the left cabinet to look like it's receiving some bounce light from the lamp.

X: 29.093 Y: 77.748 Z: 183.963

X: 164.223 Y: -81.066 Z: 180

X: 4 Y: 4 Z: 4

Make sure the light is connected only to the cabinets group and the poster.

It should be a dim soft light, so the attributes need to be adjusted a little bit. Change the intensity so that it's .250. The value should not be too bright. Change the attribute if it's not like the target image.

Change the color to medium orange color.

Value: H: 31 S: 0.67 V: 0.911

Adjust the cone angle and penumbra so that the edges are very soft and form no shape.

Cone angle: 49.5

Penumbra: 5.6

We want the light to have a horizontal degrade as it moves farther up the cabinet. To do this we turn on the barn door attributes under Light Effects, and adjusted the barn doors to these attributes: Left barn door: 19.5, Right barn door: 19.5, Top barn door: 36, Bottom barn door: 9. Barn doors will close in sides of the light.

Turn off Shadows.

Make sure the light is connected to: Cabinets_group, and Poster.

Creating the right_cabinet_warm_fill spotlight

For the other side of the frame there is a right cabinet. It needs to be lit a little, but not too much that it's distracting. A highlight would be nice along the edge of the cabinet to define it from the wall.

Duplicate the "left_cabinet_warm_fill" and change the position so that it's aimed for the side of the right cabinet.

X: 75.799, Y: 119.898, Z: 169.404

X: 872.97, Y: 84.317, Z: -180

X: 4, Y: 4, Z: 4

The light should be very soft:

Cone angle: 158.3
penumbra angle: .445

Change the color to a light pale yellow to have it not stand out too much.

H: 47.8, S: .228, V: 0.937

To get some nice shadows for more dimension in the cabinet, turn on the Use Ray Trace Shadows and set the Light radius to 5, the Shadow Rays to 5, and Ray depth Limit 3.

Make sure the light is connected to: Cabinets_group, and Poster

Creating floor_light spotlight.

It would be nice to see a pool of light on the floor that might be created from the window. A soft spotlight could work.

Duplicated the "right_cabinet_warm_fill" light, and positioned it to aim at the floor. Try to position it so that there's a soft spot around the cabinet and desk, but isn't too bright by the edge of the walls.

X:-36.794, Y: 144.749, Z: 374.054

X: 336.164, Y: -23.909, Z:0

X,Y,Z: 4

Keep the pale yellow from the original right cabinet light.

H:47.834 S:.228 V:.937

Change the intensity so that it's not too dark. An intensity of 1.203 seemed fine. It depends on your screen.

Set the Cone angle at 158.342, and change the penumbra angle to 10.

The light should degrade as it travels towards the floor, so change the dropoff to around 24.925.

For the raytrace shadows, set the light radius to a value of 10, shadow ray to 1 and ray depth limit to 3.

Make sure the light is connected to the floor.

Creating the plant_light spotlight

It seemed like the plant wasn't receiving enough light from the lamp, so we can use a fill light for added light and warmth on the leaves.

Duplicate the left_cabinet_warm_fill, name it "plant_light" and keep the same deep orange color.

Position the light so it's above facing downward on the plant.

Translate: X:12.762 Y: 100.911, Z: 159.882

Rotate: X:-223.478, Y: -62.54, Z: -540

Scale: X:4, Y:4, Z:4

Change the intensity to 1.6, the cone angle to 136, penumbra to 5.6, dropoff 1.

Make sure shadows are turned off since it's only a fill light.

The plant_light should be connected to: Office_plant, and Stapler.

Creating the shadow_light

There's some deep shadows missing on the chair and under the desk. We don't want to add extra light, only shadows. So that's when a shadow light is used.

There are a few ways to create shadow lights:

How Shadow Lights work:

If you create a spotlight and have it pointed on an object, it will cast light onto the object and the object will cast a shadow. Light is a positive number in the intensity attribute and shadows are a negative number. You can change the intensity attribute to a negative number to make a negative black light with a positive white shadow.

Overall, the main point is to remove light on the object's surface and keep the existing negative shadow from the positive light. To do that, we need to cancel out the light using another light.

The Setup

Making a shadow light requires two lights; One light that has a positive intensity number with shadows turned on, and one that has a negative intensity number with shadows turned off. When the positive light is set up exactly where it needs to be, has the correct cone width and penumbra settings, then you duplicate that light so that they're two identical lights on top of one another. Next you change the duplicated light's intensity number to a negative, and turn off its shadow attribute so that it doesn't cast any shadows.

As an example: If the first light has an intensity light number of +5, then the negative light will be -5, so both lights will cancel each other out when added together (5 - (-5)= 0 ).

The other way to create a shadow light is to set up a spotlight, and then click on the create shadow light button in the production shelf.

Create a new spotlight and name it "shadow_light".

X & Y & Z: 3.299

Position the light above the desk, and point down at the chair.

X: 28.021 Y: 96.97 Z: 197.856

X: -38.073 Y: -13.618 Z:0

When you set the intensity, you're really setting the intensity of how dark the shadow will be. Set the intensity to 0.8, the cone angle to 111.931, and the penumbra to 10.

Change the shadow color under the shadow attributes to a brown.(Depending on the color of the shadow, it's possible to lower the darkness value)

H:20 S: .291 V: .311.

Set the light radius of the shadow attribute to 20, and shadow rays to 15, and Ray depth limit at 3.
Click on the "Shadow Light" button on the production shelf when all attributes have been set and you know for sure that's where you want your shadows.

Make sure the shadow_light is connected to: Broken_desk, and Office_plant.

Creating the fog_light_lamp

The light from the lamp fog creates a rectangular shape that has a lighter value, which attracts the eye more to the focal point. It also adds a bit of realism.

There are a variety of ways of creating fog in Maya with lights and volume primitives.

Fog can be created with: spotlight, point light and volume lights.

First create a spotlight and name it "fog_light_lamp" (MAKE SURE TO SCALE THE LIGHT UP SO YOU CAN SEE THE CHANGES THAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN WE TURN ON THE FOG FEATURE)

- X: 3.349 Y:3.349 Z:3.349

In the light's attribute, open the light effects tab and click on the checkered box for Light Fog.
After you click on the checkered square, the attribute editor will switch to a LightFog tab with more attributes to change the look of the fog. Here you're able to change the color of the fog and it's density.

(Notice how there is now a blue cone extended from the spotlight's cone. Make a render and see what's inside the blue cone. There should be a dense white cloud within the cone, since all fog will be contained within this blue container, known as a volume primitive.)

Click on the color box and pick a color that's a pale yellow.

H: 52.561 S: .203 V: .924

Then change the density to 1.3. You can play with this density scale and see what happens when you have a lower value and a high value.

Move the light into the lamp:

X: 51.308 Y: 76.153 Z: 197.622

X: -42.006 Y: 47.859 Z: -11.67

Set the intensity to .8, cone angle to 57.002, Penumbra angle to 6.833, and Dropoff to 2.125.

Right now the fog is being blocked by the lampshade. Disconnect the fog light from only the lampshade in the relationship editor. Connect to: Broken_desk, Poster, Ruler, Office_plant, Polaroid, Pencil, Comic, and Radio.

That's it for the spotlight light fog.

Here are other resources for other ways of creating fog in Maya

Fog using volume primitive

Another simple light setup

Making the chair_light spotlight

Next we want to add light to the seat of the chair, so that it looks like the chair is receiving light from the lamp.

Create a new spotlight and name it "chair_light" spotlight

X: 45.303, Y:83.036, Z: 148.624

X:1002.471 Y: 75.404 Z:0

X,Y,Z: 4

Change the color to a pale yellow.

H: 47.834 S: 0.228 V: 0.937

The Intensity should be a small number, since the chair wouldn't be receiving much light. A value of .250 worked for intensity.

Change the cone angle to 104, the penumbra to 2.3 and leave the drop off at 1.

Under light effects, we used the barn door features so that the light wouldn't be round but have straight edges as if it's being cut off from the desk. Set the left barn door to 23.9, right barn door to 19.49, top barn door to 35.9 and bottom barn door to 9.

Turn on the Raytrace shadows and set the light radius to about 8, shadow rays to 15, and ray depth limit to 3.

Make sure the chair_light is connected to the office_chair.

Making the paper_lights spotlight

The papers on the desk are the main focus in this composition. They're currently dark, however we want these to be the second brightest thing in this scene.

Create a new spotlight and name it "paper_lights".

X: 0, Y:92.927, Z: 151.224

X:126.94 Y: -53.897 Z:-180

X: 7, Y:7, Z: 7

Keep the color at white. There would be too much yellow in the scene if the color was set to a yellow hue.

Since white naturally has a higher ambient or brightens more than other colors when lit, set the intensity to 0.3.

Set the cone angle to 84.706, penumbra to 0 and dropoff to 0.

Turn off shadows.

Make sure the paper_lights light is connected to: polaroid1 and papers_on_desk.

Making the desk_back_fill spotlight

The desk and some objects on the desktop are a little dark on the right side. It would be nice to add some cool colored fill light.

Duplicate the right_cabinet_warm_fill light and name this light "desk_back_fill".

X:-100.894, Y:32.467, Z:137.998

899.3 Y: 285.564 Z:540

Change the color to a dark, grey-purple color.

H: 245.225 S: 0.089 V: 0.378

Since the light is only providing a small light source, set the intensity to 0.5.

Set the cone angle to 158.342, penumbra angle to 5.188 and drop off to 1.

Leave the barn doors at left: 19.499 right: 19.499 top: 35.99 and bottom: 9.

Set the shadow color to H:0 S: 0 and V: .109.

Without shadows, under the desk would be too light. Turn on raytrace shadows and set the light radius to 5, shadow rays to 5 and ray depth limit to 3.

Connect to: broken_desk, and office_chair.

Making the chair_light_rim

The chair needs a bit of a rim from the lamp's bright light.

Create a new light spotlight name it "chair_light_rim".

X:18.321 Y: 77.408 Z: 177.916

X: 695.859 Y: -370.039 Z: 0

X: 4 Y: 4 Z: 4

Set the color to a light peach.

H: 20.158 S: .199 V 1.0

Change the intensity to 2.200

Uncheck emit specular

Change the cone angle to 142.182, penumbra angle to 7.143, and dropoff to 1.

Check barn doors and set left barn door to 49.498, right to 55.498, top to 23.999 and bottom to 15.

Turn shadows off

Make sure the chair_light_rim is connected to office_chair.

Making the window_light

The wall and window are missing a little light from the lamp.

Duplicate right_cabinet_warm_fill light and name it "window_light".
Change the color to a warm peach color.
Change the intensity to .4 so that it's a subtle.

Change the cone angle to 142.102, penumbra angle to 5.639, and dropoff to 1.

Keep the barn values of left: 19.49, right:19.49, top:35.99, bottom: 9.

Turn off all the shadows.

Make sure the window_light is connected to the walls and window.

Making the random_items_fill area light

The random items on the right side of the desk (apple, radio, pictures and comic) need a bit of a fill light so that they look like they're receiving light from the lamp. Make sure they're not too bright since the focus is on the paper on the desk.

Create an area light for softer, more accurate light and shadows.

X: 9.043 Y: 9.043 Z: 9.043

Position it to point downwards on the objects, on the right side of the desk.

X: 14.005 Y: 89.724 Z: 112.425

X: 162.334 Y: 20.502 Z: -180

Change the color to a warm peach hue.

H: 24.657 S: .322 V: 1

Turn on raytrace shadows and set shadow rays to 20 and ray depth limit to 3.

Make sure the random_items_fill is connected the picture frame, radio, and apple.

Making the apple_shadow spotlight

The apple needs more of a small cast shadow to make it look like it's sitting on the comic.

Create a new spotlight and name it "apple_shadow".

X:1.904 Y: 77.122 Z: 161.931

X: -214.244 Y:50.065 Z: -180

X: 9.716 Y: 9.716 Z: 9.716

Change the intensity to 1.

Set the cone angle to 77.144, the penumbra angle to 10, and the dropoff at 0.

Change the shadow color to have the values H:0 S: 0 and V: 0.151.

Click on the shadow light button on the production shelf.

Make sure the apple_shadow light is connected only to the apple and the comic.

Making the plant_light_extra_fill spotlight

We want to make the light on the plant a tad bit brighter.

Duplicate the left_cabinet_warm_fill light and name it "plant_light_extra_fill".

X: 55.983 Y: 69.199 Z: 159.882

X: -183.896 Y: -12.349 Z: -900

Set the intensity to 1.2.

Change the cone angle to 136.132, the penumbra angle to 5.639, and the dropoff to 1.

Keep the barn doors the same values. Left: 19.499, right: 19.499, top: 35.999, bottom: 9.

Turn off shadows.

Make sure the light is connected only to the plant.

Making the apple_fill spotlight

The apple's shadow needs a little bit more of a fill and a slight rim.

Create a new spotlight and name it "apple_fill"

X: -45.218 Y: 23.789 Z: 139.013

X: 35.739 Y: -149.239 Z: -360

X: 7.499 Y: 7.499 Z: 7.499

Change the intensity to .3

Change the cone angle to 109.623, the penumbra angle to 8.346, and the dropoff to 0.

H: 25.161 S: 0.114 V: 0.544

Turn off shadows.

Make sure the apple_fill light is connected only to the apple.

Making the apple_rim spotlight

Duplicate apple_fill light and name it, "apple_rim_light".

X: -8.562 Y: 68.44 Z: 189.603

X: 325.868, Y: 48.715, Z: 0

X: 3.662 Y: 3.662 Z: 3.662

Change the color to a yellow hue.

Change the cone angle to 109.623, the penumbra angle to 8.346, and the dropoff to 0.

H: 47.045, S: .392, V: 1

Make sure the apple_rim light is connected to the apple.

Render out a beauty pass of your final lit scene.

Setting up an Occlusion Layer

This can be used as extra credit as an extenstion to part A. Turn in a render image of the occlusion pass and occlusion composited with the beauty pass, for part A & B.

Occlusion is another type of shadow that occurs in the real world, but cannot be generated when reading out a scene with lights in Maya. Instead, a shader with occlusion attributes is applied to all objects in a scene and rendered out. All the objects are white when rendered out with soft occlusion shadows on them. It doesn't take too long to set up.

Save your project before starting.

Since we're applying an occlusion shader to the entire scene in a new layer, select all mesh assets and all mesh parts of the set. When creating an occlusion layer, you never want anims or other materials in the layer, or else they will have occlusion shadows as well. So be careful and only select mesh. Then in the layer box, click on the icon that looks like a sun with a blue sphere and white plane, and all the mesh you selected will be placed in a new layer.

Name that layer, "occlusion_layer".

Right-click on the layer and click on attributes.

Click on Presets, and then click on Occlusion in the list of layer options.

Rename the "surfaceShader#" to "occlusion_shader". If you look in the hypershade, you'll notice a shader node called occlusion_shader. If you didn't change the name, it will be surfaceshader#.

The Out Color attribute is where you can control the occlusion shader attributes. Click on the black arrow on the right side of out color.

Sample is the quality of the shadows. Higher the number, the less grainy the shadows will be and the longer it will take to render. Lower the number, less grainy the shadows will be. It's good to start somewhere like 250 and work your way up. If you play around with the value, you'll notice the quality change and render time changes.

There are two values to occlusion. By default it's white as bright (for the non-shadows parts of the objects) and black for the dark (the color of the occlusion shadow). Sometimes it's best not having pure black shadows, because it makes the image look muddy in colors when black mixes with other colors. Keep bright at white and dark at black.

Spread is the amount of occlusion spread you want on the objects. The best value for this depends on your set size and the distance between the camera and the objects with occlusion shader. Play around and see what value looks best. 1.2 is fine.

The max distance is how far rays will travel to find objects. The farther rays travel, the wider and shadow will be. If you decrease the distance of the rays, they create tighter shadows that appear when other geometry is very close to the surface.

Render out an image when you're done and save it to composite with a beauty render of the room.

Open up the beauty render and occlusion layer in Photoshop.

Paste the occlusion layer into the beauty layer scene. When you do this, it will place the occlusion layer automatically in it's own layer. You can see the layers on the right hand side in the layers box.

In the layers box on the top, there is a drop down menu. With the occlusion layer selected, scroll down in the menu layer and select "Multiply". This will make the white disappear from the occlusion layer and all you'll see are the shadows.

Now change the opacity until you get a look you like.

Save a copy of your composition.

Making White Hole Shaders
If there's an object that you don't want to have an occlusion shader, then you need to make a white_hole_shader. This is just a shader that renders out pure white, so that it doesn't look like it has any occlusion shadow on it.

At the moment, the occlusion layer has an occlusion shader override on all the objects in the scene. If you try to apply a new material it will not be able to apply, because the layer only wants an occlusion shader. To remove, right click on the layer and under "overrides", click on remove material override.

Right-click on the object that you want white-holed and assign a new material.

Make the material a surface shader and drag the out color value bar all the way to the right. This will turn it white. Or you can change the color by clicking on the color box and setting it to white.

That's it!

Part B

For part B, you'll be establishing a mood for the same office scene. This where you're free to set up lights any way you want, as long as it invokes some kind of mood in the viewer. You may choose from the following moods: joy, sadness, anger, or fear.

You can either find your own reference (Find 3 reference images for a mood), or try setting up lights to one of the paintovers. During production, or in industry, it's common for lighters to use color scripts or concept art to help get an idea how to light a particular scene.

Render out an image of your mood scene and save it to turn in with the reference you choose.

Paintovers

Joy

Sadness

Fear

Turn In You will be graded on the following:

Following instructions
Reasonable effort for Part B
No lighting mistakes: Shadow aliasing, light leaking, linking problems, etc.
Use of three point lighting
Using a variety of light types
Lighting that supports your chosen theme (night or day) and mood
Motivated light sources
Coherent and well executed aesthetic look
A minimum of two reference images or 1 paintover
Clean Outliner

Turn the following into Collect-It on Catalyst:

Due by 10/27 at 10:00 AM for review in class:

Reference images used for your mood with a minimum of two or 1 chosen paintover:
- [lastname]_[firstname]_part2b_[mood]_ref_01.jpg
- [lastname]_[firstname]_partb_[mood]_ref_02.jpg
- [lastname]_[firstname]_part2b_[mood]_ref_03.jpg
- [lastname]_[firstname]_part2b_[mood]_paintover.jpg .

Due by 10/28 at 11:59 PM:

Note: You may create a ZIP folder with all of your files if that is more convenient. Just be sure to use the same naming conventions, and test it to make sure it unzips correctly before turn-in!

Two Maya files containing your lit scenes with the following name convention:
- [lastname]_[firstname]_partA.ma
- [lastname]_[firstname]_partB.ma
Two images of your lit scenes with the following name convention:
- [lastname]_[firstname]_partA.jpg
- [lastname]_[firstname]_partB.jpg
Any extra files linked in your scene using the exact same names. For example, you would need to include any image that is mapped to a light's color channel
A separate image for both the beauty renders and the occlusion renders (if you did them for extra credit) using the proper settings with the names:
- [lastname]_[firstname]_partA_occlusioncomposite.jpg
- [lastname]_[firstname]_partA_occlusion.jpg
- [lastname]_[firstname]_partB_[mood]_occlusioncomposite.jpg
- [lastname]_[firstname]_partB_[mood]_occlusion.jpg