I'm Having Some Problems With Lights

Maya
1

Hi guys,

I still haven't got my head around lighting my scenes in Maya - i'm trying to light the inside of a closed room, and it seems that the only light that makes a difference is an Ambient light. Trouble is, it's not that good for shadows and seems a bit flat, and it's over-illuminating everything even when the intensity is turned down to about 0.5.

I tried Area and Directional lights, but when I render the scene it's as if they don't exist - the scene is dark and renders the same way as a test I produced a while back without any lights in the room.

Any advice or opinions on the best type of light to use? Or ideas on where i'm going wrong?

Thanks!
Rez

2

Directional light is out fo the question for closed objects, unles you actually have openings, or dont cast shadows (or hhave a inverted box type object only).

Area light should work fine as long as its inside your object anfdd pointing to something interesting. Spotlights are a second choise and for windows portal lights.

Its just not a simple one sentence thing to explain, good lighting is actually HARDER than good modeling, and affects visual appeal more than modeling too.

3

did you try putting the area light inside the room?