1. Chapter 13: Let There Be Light: Lighting Your Shot
Maya 2014 Essentials
Lighting plays a big part in establishing the feel and mood of a scene. Any given scene can be made to look inviting, scary, or any other look you’re going for simply by the type, number, and intensity of the lights you place in the scene. The basics of lighting are easy to learn and, once mastered, can be applied to a variety of scenes.
Chapter 13: Let There Be Light: Lighting Your Shot

2. Maya topics covered in this chapter include the following:
Understanding the Three-Point Lighting System
Using the Maya Lights
Lighting Your Scene
Performing Light Linking 2

3. Three-point Lighting System
Key light – main illumination
Fill light – reduces shadows
Rim light – separates elements from bg
Lighting is a trial-and-error process
The three-point lighting system is a technique for making sure elements of the scene are well lit and stand out from the background.
Although any scene can include dozens or even hundreds of lights, each light generally falls into one of three categories:
Key light, Fill light, Rim light
Key Light: is the main light in a scene and provides most of the illumination for the scene element it’s lighting. The key light is usually placed to one side of the camera and is the brightest light in the scene.
Fill Light: does a good job of illuminating the scene but creates some pretty stark shadows. The fill light’s job is to put some light in these areas so the scene doesn’t look quite so film noir-ish. The fill light is usually placed on the opposite side of the camera from the key light, and it’s less intense than the key.
Rim Light: job is to help separate the scene elements from the background. The rim light is placed above and behind the scene and is usually set at a fairly high intensity. 3 3

4. Maya Lights - Directional
Most like the sun
Location in scene doesn’t matter
Maya has several light types, each with different properties and uses. There are three that are the most versatile, and you’ll find yourself using them frequently: Directional light, Spot light, Point light.
Directional Light
The best way to think of the directional light is as being like the Sun. The Sun’s rays travel in all directions, but the Earth is so far away and so small in comparison that when the Sun’s light reaches us, the rays are essentially parallel.
The directional light is similar: it illuminates everything in the scene (unless you exclude some geometry), and the rays travel in parallel. It doesn’t matter where the light is in the scene; it only matters which direction the light is pointing.
Spot Light: is just like a spot you’d see used on a stage or movie set. It casts light in a given direction and covers a given area; anything outside that area isn’t illuminated. The rays cast by the light fan out from the light source in a radial pattern. 4 4

5. Maya Lights - Spot Like a stage or movie spotlight
Element has to be within cone to be lit
Use “Look Through Selected” to aim
Spot Light: is just like a spot you’d see used on a stage or movie set. It casts light in a given direction and covers a given area; anything outside that area isn’t illuminated. The rays cast by the light fan out from the light source in a radial pattern. 5 5

6. Maya Lights - Point Like a lightbulb Light travels in all directions 6
A point light is like a lightbulb. Light emanates from it in all directions, and there are no boundaries on the rays’ travel. Think of a point light as a lamp with the shade removed. 6 6

7. Lighting Your Scene
Place key, fill, and rim lights 7 7

8. Lighting Your Scene Adjust light intensity
Illuminates by Default on/off
IPR renders to check lights
IPR stands for Interactive Photorealistic Rendering. It’s an interactive window that shows changes to the scene as you make them. It’s very handy for setting lighting levels.
Casting Shadows: Currently, your lights don’t cast shadows. The next step is to turn on one of the two shadow options that Maya offers for one or more of the lights in your scene:
Depth map shadows use a map (similar to the texture map you created earlier in the book) to create shadows.
Ray trace shadows mean the light rays coming from the lights in the scene are tracked, and shadows are created when the rays strike an object. 8 8

9. Light Linking Lights can illuminate specific elements
Negative values remove light
Light- or object-centric
One of the great things about lighting in a CG environment is that lights don’t have to behave as they do in the real world. As you’ve seen, lights don’t necessarily have to cast shadows. You can set negative values on a light and actually remove illumination from the scene. Another option is to have a light illuminate specific objects in a scene without illuminating others. In Maya, this process is called light linking. 9 9