Lighting Effects!

One of the main set pieces we had too work out was the way the set would be lit. As we could make a fantastic set filled with all the best textured, high detailed models, but yet without out the correct lighting all that would be for nothing.

In our set we had our Windmill on the edge of a cliff over looking the sea and a large field behind it. The front of the Mill was turned too face out towards sea. The Windmill it's self has more objects and the sails on the front of the mill and has little going on behind it.

With all this in mind we chose too light the Mill from the front, where all the detail is and allow for shadows too be around the back, as there is little going on here.

From the photo you can see how the light hitting the front of the Mill really gives it more of a dramatic impact and improves the detail on the mill. Also by having the light hit the mill we will get a long shadow casted by the mill. In a high rendered sense the shadow will look great and add more too the set.

Too achieve the effects in Maya, we need too create several lights. A Lambert, which we will set too a light colour too imitate natural light and a Point light too create the shadows. The point light would be set in front of the Windmill too achieve the right effects we want. The lambert will just be set in the set for general lighting.