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c h a p t e r 1: UNDERSTANDING LIGHTING, COLOR, AND COMPOSITION ■
Understanding the Art of Lighting
Like every aspect of 3D, lighting must be created from scratch. Unfortunately, the
techniques for emulating the real world are not always obvious or intuitive. Luckily,
a wealth of lighting theory exists in the form of historical artwork, photography, and
motion pictures.
For the sake of clarity, I’ve broken the discussion of lighting theory into the
following categories: 1-point, 2-point, 3-point, naturalistic, and stylistic. The first
three categories refer to the number of lights employed. The last two refer to a par-
ticular style. Before delving into 1-point lighting, however, I’ll define a few common
lighting terms:
Key The most intense light in a scene. The key light’s source is generally identifiable
(the sun, a lamp, and so on). The key light usually produces the strongest shadow in
the scene.
Fill A secondary light that is less intense than the key. This light “fills” in the dark
areas of a subject and the shadows produced by the key. Fill lights often represent light
from a key that has bounced off a surface, such as a wall.
Rim An intense light source placed behind a subject that strikes the subject along the
edge. Rim lights are often employed as hair lights. These lights are commonly known
as backlights or kickers.
Using 1-Point Lighting
The 1-point lighting scheme is dramatic, sometimes stark, and often foreboding. The
lighting involves a single, easily identifiable key light source, with no significant sup-
plemental sources. You can find 1-point lighting in the following situations:
A• man lights a cigarette in an otherwise dark alley.
A• woman drives a car down a dark country road, lit only by the car’s instru-
ment panel.
S• unbeams burst through the window of an otherwise unlit interior.
A• theater audience is illuminated by the light of the movie screen (see Figure 1.1).
The motion picture genre that most closely emulates 1-point lighting is film
noir. Film noir is a style historically associated with crime dramas of the 1940s and
1950s. The style is typified by black-and-white film stock, sparsely lit characters,
and deep black shadows. Aesthetically, the lighting stemmed from stories with cyni-
cal, paranoid, or nihilistic outlooks. Technically, the stark lighting was the result of
placing only a few lights on the set, in some cases because of budgetary restrictions.
Although multiple lights were generally needed for any given shot for proper exposure,
the result often appears as if a single light source exists (see Figure 1.2).
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