Lighting an Interior Space

To light an interior space, the guidelines are simple: use light objects with realistic values, and place them where you would in the actual building. Photometric lights are preferred for this, but to use photometric lights, it is essential that the model have realistic dimensions.

Set up the scene:

In the \tutorials\lights directory, open the file interior_unfinished.max.

The scene shows an interior living-room space, with a fireplace and entrance alcove. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the room have been frozen to make them difficult to select accidentally.

Tip: If the walls are hard to see, use Customize > Customize User Interface > Colors to make the viewport background a lighter gray.

If you were to render the scene now, you would see a plain, bare room. This is the default lighting from a single light source.

Room rendered with default lights

Add a light with a preset value to the entryway:

Choose Create > Lights > Photometric Lights > Presets > 75W Bulb.

This creates a light object with a typical wattage.
In the Top viewport, move the cursor over the alcove, and then click to position the light.

The light is now in the alcove.

Positioning the alcove light

If you look at the Left viewport, however, you will see that the light is on the floor.

By default, the alcove light is created at the level of the floor.
Right-click the Left viewport to activate it. Turn on Move, and then move the new light up to the level of the ceiling.

Alcove light moved to ceiling level

If you were to render the scene now, it would be very dim.

Room lit only by the alcove light

Adding a light turns off the default lighting. Once you add a light, all the lighting for the scene must come from light objects that you place yourself. (The rendering also shows what appears to be a bit of a light leak above the door frame. Don't worry about this: it won't be apparent once you add more lights.)

Add an overhead fixture:

For overhead lighting in the living room, you will use a prepared light assembly from a separate MAX file.

On the Create panel, turn on Lights. Choose Photometric from the drop-down list, turn on one of the light object buttons, and then turn on the AutoGrid toggle.

It doesn't matter which button you turn on. You are not going to create a light from scratch. However, AutoGrid should be on so the merged light-fixture assembly will align with the ceiling.
Move or resize your 3ds Max window so you can also see a Windows Explorer window.
Right-click a viewport and choose Unfreeze All from the Display (upper-right) quadrant of the quad menu.

AutoGrid doesn't work well when the geometry is frozen.
Drag the file ceiling.pendant.max from the \tutorials\lights directory onto the Camera02 viewport in the 3ds Max window.

A pop-up menu appears, giving you the choice of opening, merging, or cross-referencing the scene with the ceiling pendant.
Choose Merge File.

The ceiling pendant geometry appears. It is selected and because of AutoGrid, it is aligned to faces in the scene.
Drag the light fixture until it is aligned with the ceiling, and move it to a position near the fireplace.

Top plan position of the ceiling pendant fixture

Camera view of the pendant light

Now that you have a single light in the living room, you can make instances of it to provide the room with more light.

Freeze the room again:

Click to select the room object (Box01).
Right-click a viewport and choose Freeze Selection from the Display (upper-right) quadrant of the quad menu.

This keeps you from selecting and moving the entire room, when you are trying to clone the light fixture.

Make an array of light instances:

Activate the Top viewport and turn on Move.
While holding down the Shift key, move the light to the right along the X axis. (Watch the Camera02 viewport so the light ends up hanging from the ceiling, and not from the skylight.)

Top plan position of the first cloned light

Camera view of the first cloned light

The Clone Options dialog appears.
In the Object group, choose Instance, and then click OK.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 two more times, so you have a row of four light fixtures.

The first row of cloned lights
On the toolbar, make sure that the Window/Crossing toggle is set to Window, then drag in the Top viewport to select all four lights.
While holding down the Shift key, drag the four lights up along the Y axis to add another row, near the far wall.

The Clone Options dialog appears.
Make sure Instance is still chosen, and then click OK.

Top plan view with two rows of ceiling lights

Render the scene:

On the main toolbar, click Quick Render.

3ds Max renders the room.

Room lit by all lights (direct lighting only)

Now the living room is illuminated, and you can see the colors on the walls. It still looks rather shadowy, but this is only because the rendering shows direct light only. In real life, objects are illuminated by both direct light and reflected (“bounced”) light. In 3ds Max, you can add reflected light by calculating the scene's radiosity.

Room with radiosity calculated to provide bounced (indirect) light as well as direct light

The radiosity solution shows that in fact, you might want to turn down the level of the living-room lights before making a final rendering. The lesson Managing Multiple Lights shows some ways to manage an array of instanced light objects such as those you just created.

Save your work:

Save the file as room_with_lights.max.

Note: The scene interior_with_lights.max contains the completed version, and the scene interior_with_lights_and_radiosity.max contains both the completed version and a radiosity solution.

Summary

These are the main points of this lesson:

If the model is to scale, use photometric lights.
If you are lighting an indoor scene, position the lights and fixture assemblies as you would in the actual building, and use radiosity to model bounced light.

Lighting a Close-Up of a Head

To light a subject, such as a talking head or a still life, it helps to think in terms of how you would light the same subject if you were working on a stage set or in a photo studio. In other words, you can place the lights wherever you want, adjust their intensity, tint their color, and so on. There are some widely used guidelines to lighting this way, and this section introduces them briefly.

Note: As with architectural lighting, you can use photometric lights, but they do the job only if the scene has been modeled to a real-world scale. In this exercise, you will use Standard lights to simulate a 3-point lighting scenario like they do in photo studios and television sets.

Set up the scene:

In the \tutorials\lights directory, open the file pito_head_shot.max.

The scene has a camera that is set up to render a head shot of the 3D cartoon character named Pito.

Look at the default lighting:

On the main toolbar, click Quick Render.

3ds Max renders the camera view.

Default lighting of Pito

This is not a bad rendering of Pito, but we can do better.

Add a light:

On the Create panel, turn on Lights, and then click Target Spot to turn it on.
In the Top viewport, drag from the bottom left corner of the viewport to create a light that is aimed at Pito's head.

Aiming a target spot light at Pito

3ds Max creates the light. However, it is at ground level.

Light is created initially at ground level.
In the Front viewport, use the Move tool to move the spotlight so that it is slightly higher than Pito’s head.
Select the spotlight target (small yellow square and move it up to Pito’s eye level.
Select the spotlight again (the yellow cone). Go to the Modify panel, and on the General Parameters rollout, turn on Shadows. (The default method of Shadow Map will work fine.)
In the Intensity/Color/Attenuation rollout, set the Multiplier value to 1.5 to increase the light’s intensity.
Right-click the Camera view to make it current, and then click Quick Render.

We can see that Pito is illuminated on one side, but the shadow areas are too dark. In general, faces look better and more interesting if they are lit at an angle, but one has to compensate with a fill light to get rid of the dark areas. This is why flash photos usually don't look as good as studio portraits.

Add a fill light:

On the Create panel, turn on Lights, and then click Target Spot to turn it on.

In the Top viewport, click and drag to create a target spot on the right side aiming at Pito. The two lights can form about a 90-degree angle with Pito's face.
In the Front view, move the fill light and its target to about Pito’s eye level.
On the Modify panel, set the Fill light’s multiplier value to about 0.6. A fill light is usually less intense than a main light as its purpose is to simulate global illumination (bouncing light).
Activate the Camera viewport and then click Quick Render.

Here is a good, balanced portrait of Pito. Compared to the default light, it is brighter and you can see more detail, but there are shadows enough to make Pito look three dimensional.

Add a Back Light

A back light’s sole purpose is to separate the character from the background. It is a light you place behind the character to emphasize the silhouette against the background. This can be especially useful when shooting a dark-haired character against a dark environment.

On the Create panel, click the Lights button and then click Target Spot.
In the Left viewport, drag from above and to the left of the character to create a light that is aimed at Pito's head.
With the backlight selected, go to the Modify panel and notice that the backlight's intensity retained the Multiplier value of 0.6 used on the previous light in the scene. Set the Multiplier value to 0.4, as a backlight is typically the least intense of all lights in a scene.
Activate the Camera viewport and then click Quick Render.

The brighter light, which you created first, is known as the key light. The dimmer light, which you added next, is known as the fill light. For most subjects, you want to have a single key light only, but you can add additional fill lights to illuminate the background or other hard-to-see places to simulate global illumination. You can also vary the position of the key light, to make the image clearer or more dramatic. Finally, you added a backlight to separate your character from the background.

Experiment:

The best way to understand how an individual light is affecting your scene is to turn off all other lights that are present. Try this:

Select the Main light (the first light you created) and on the Modify panel, turn the light off.
Also turn off the Fill light (the second light you created).
With the Camera view current, click Quick Render.

You can now see the individual effect on the back light in the scene.
Experiment by turning the three lights you created on and off, in different combinations. When you are done, turn all three lights back on before saving your file.

The effects of the individual lights on Pito: the Main light (Left), Fill Light (Center) and Back light (Right).

Save your work:

Save the scene as pito_lit.max.

Note: The three-point light version of the scene is in pito_head_shot_final.max.

Summary

If you are lighting a single subject such as a head, use a single key light and one or more fill lights. The key light is the brightest; the fill lights have a lower intensity.

You can get different effects by changing the angle of the light. Avoid lighting a subject directly from the front.

Managing Multiple Lights

Interior architectural models typically have a large number of light objects. This lesson demonstrates some ways to manage lights, both when they are instanced and when they aren't.

Managing Instanced Light Objects

In architectural modeling, it's common to use instanced lights. Instancing allows you to control the properties of all lights of a particular type by editing the properties of just one of them. However, you sometimes want to control lights individually. This section shows you how.

Set up the scene:

In the \tutorials\lights directory, open the file instanced_light_array.max.

Note: All the files necessary to do the tutorials can be found on the program disc. Before doing the tutorials, copy the \tutorials directory from the disc to your local program installation.

The scene shows a row of six light fixtures and standard free spotlights, aimed at a wall. The lights are instanced.

Render the scene:

On the main toolbar, click Quick Render.

Wall illuminated by instanced light objects

Turn off one light:

Click to select the leftmost light (Fspot01), and then go to the Modify panel. On the General Parameters rollout, in the Light Type group, click the On toggle to turn it off.
Click Quick Render.

Turning off an instance

Because the lights are instanced, turning off a single light turns off all of them at once.

Hide some lights:

On the Modify panel, turn FSpot01 back on.
On the main toolbar, click Window/Crossing to choose window selection, and then in the Camera01 viewport, drag a selection window to select the leftmost three lights and their fixtures.

Tip: If the toggle is set to Crossing, then you might select the box object as well. Avoid this.

Lights and fixtures selected
Right-click, and choose Hide Selection from the Display (upper-right) quadrant of the quad menu.

The lights are now hidden.
Click Quick Render.

Rendering hidden lights

Although the lights are hidden, they still illuminate the wall. Hiding a light has no effect on its light-casting properties.

Turn off some lights by making them nonrenderable:

Right-click the Camera01 viewport, and choose Unhide All from the Display quadrant.
Use click and Ctrl+click to select the leftmost three lights, but not their fixtures.

Light objects selected, but not their fixtures
Right-click again, and choose Properties from the Transform (lower-right) quadrant of the quad menu.

The Object Properties dialog is displayed.
On the General panel, in the Rendering Control group, turn off the Renderable toggle.
Click Quick Render.

Lights turned off using the Renderable property

Now you have the desired result. The Renderable toggle can control whether an instanced light casts light in the scene.

Save your work:

Save the scene as render_toggle_light_array.max.

Using the Light Lister

The Light Lister tool is a sort of master dialog for lights in the scene. For individual lights, it is a shortcut to controls on the Modify panel. (Its General settings also include settings on the Environment panel.)

Set up the scene:

In the \tutorials\lights directory, open the file light_array.max.

The scene is the same as in the previous section, but in this case, the lights are independent objects, not instances.

Use the Light Lister to dim some lights:

Choose Tools > Light Lister.

The Light Lister dialog is displayed. There is an entry for each unique light in the scene (instances don't appear on this dialog).

You might have to expand the dialog vertically to see all the rows. As the dialog shows, the scene contains six free spotlight objects, one omni light, and one skylight.

Note: The Light Lister cannot control more than 150 unique light objects at a time. If there are more than 150 unique lights in your scene, the Lister displays controls for the first 150 it finds, and a warning that you should select fewer lights. Select fewer lights and then use the Selected Lights configuration.
Change the Multiplier value to equal 0.3 for all the free spotlights except the fifth one (Fspot05). Leave the Multiplier for Fspot05 set to 1.0.

Tip: You can use the standard Windows Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste values from one spinner field to another.
Click Quick Render.

Only the fifth light casts a full-strength beam.

Use the Light Lister to change light colors:

On the Light Lister, change the Multiplier value for all the free spots back to 1.0.
Click the color swatch for the second light, Fspot02.

The Color Selector is displayed.
Change the color of the second spotlight to a light gold: R=255, G=191, B=52. Then click OK.
On the Light Lister, drag the Fspot02 color swatch to the Fspot04 color swatch.

A Copy Or Swap Colors dialog is displayed.
Click Copy.
Drag the Fspot04 color swatch to the Fspot06 color swatch. Once again, click Copy when prompted to copy or swap colors.
Click Quick Render.

Now alternating lights have alternating color.

Save your work:

Save the scene as light_array_with_color.max.

Summary

To control whether a light instance casts a beam, you can use the light object's Renderable property, which is set from the Object Properties dialog.
The Light Lister is a convenient overall “console” for adjusting lights in your scene.

Choosing a Shadow Type

Both photometric and standard lights use shadow-mapped shadows by default. 3ds Max offers some alternate ways to generate shadows, as this lesson demonstrates.

Set up the scene:

In the \tutorials\lights directory, open the file shadows.max.

Note: All the files necessary to do the tutorials can be found on the program disc. Before doing the tutorials, copy the \tutorials directory from the disc to your local program installation.

The scene is a classical sculpture against a plain white background. It is lit by three omni lights, but only one of them, Omni01, is shadow-casting.

Render the scene:

On the main toolbar, click Quick Render.

The statue's shadow is shadow mapped. It has a fairly sharp-edged outline.

Create a soft-edged shadow:

On the main toolbar, click Select By Name. Use the Select Objects dialog to select Omni01, and then go to the Modify panel.
Open the Shadow Map Parameters rollout. Change the value of Sample Range to 10.0.
Click Quick Render.

The edge of the shadow is softer. Shadow-mapped shadows can have soft edges, but ray-traced shadows cannot.

Use a ray-traced shadow:

On the General Parameters rollout, in the Shadows group, choose Ray Traced Shadows from the drop-down list.
Click Quick Render.

This time the shadows are very hard edged.

Note: 3ds Max offers two kinds of ray-traced shadows: Advanced and “regular.” The advanced option has more ways to adjust shadow quality; otherwise, their behavior is similar.

Make the shadow lighter:

On the Shadow Parameters rollout, in the Shadow Parameters group, change the value of Density to 0.4 (equivalent to 40 percent).
Click Quick Render.

The shadow is now lighter. Options on the Shadow Parameters rollout are independent of which kind of shadow you are generating.

Use an area shadow:

On the Shadow Parameters rollout, change the value of Density back to 0.85.
On the General Parameters rollout, in the Shadows group, change the shadow type from Ray Traced Shadows to Area Shadows.
Open the Area Shadows rollout, which is now displayed. In the Basic Options group, make sure that Rectangle Light is chosen. In the Area Light Dimensions group, change the Length and Width to both equal 5.0.
Click Quick Render.

This time the results are even more diffuse than a soft-edged shadow-mapped shadow. Area shadows simulate shadows cast by an area of light, such as a window or skylight, rather than from a point source like a spotlight.

Tip: Photometric lights also provide true area lights and linear lights.

Save your work:

Save the scene as my_area_shadow.max.

Summary

Photometric and standard lights both have the same options for generating shadows. The main choices are shadow-mapped (the default), ray-traced, or area. Shadow-mapped shadows can have a soft edge; ray-traced shadows are always sharp edged; and area shadows are diffuse, simulating shadows cast by a light-emitting area.

Each kind of shadow generator has its own settings. The settings not demonstrated in this lesson are mainly for adjusting shadow quality. They are described in the User Reference.

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