Tutorial 7: Different kinds of Light and shadows provided in Blender

Author: Anne Gutmann

Light and Lighting have a main role within all kinds of animations. The use of light does not imply that all parts of the animation are placed within the same kind and intensity of light. Usefully applied, lighting has major impact on spacial depth and the three-dimensionality of the objects.

Light:

Film and Television works with the so called three-point-system. This means that 3 main light systems are used to create the general impression of the pictures. These systems are:

Main light – it simulates the natural light of a scene

Fill light – this should help to soften or remove shadows created by the main light.

Back light – this is place above or behind the main object within the take, but should

not be visible in the image section of the camera

Why is it important to use Light within your animations :

• Important Scenes and objects should be highlighted
• You can intensify dramatic and atmosphere
• You can accomplish and intensify spacial depth of a picture
• Light underlines the character of a scene

Blender offers you 5 types of lamps:

You can select them by clicking Add => Lamp

Lamp: Point-light, that shines in all directions consistent with the same intensity.

Sun: Create sunlight, the intensity not on the distance from the light source and therefore the position of the light source makes no difference.

Spot: Spotlight, the intensity is calculated according to the specific object

Hemi: Produces evenly spread light that e.g. creates the impression of a clouded sky.

Area: It is used to produce smooth leveled off shadows or if you want to simulate light shining out of windows or from a computer screen

Blender offers also an additional type of light, the so called ambient light. Ambient light emerges if an object reflects light and seems to become a light source itself. Ambient light can be selected with F8. Selecting the intensity of the primary colours within the ambient light can be controlled with the AmbR, AmbG and AmbB modulators.

Shadows:

Basically there are two options for calculating types of shadows within Blender:

Raytracing-Shadow and Shadow-Buffer.

Raytracing-Shadow:

All light sources exept the hemilight sustain the raytracing-shadow. Therefore you have to select the ray shadow for every light source and activate global ray by selecting F10. Raytracing shadows are rough shadows. Allthough they are not too natural, they are quite easy to apply.

Smooth shadows can by created with area-light by multiple refraction and subsequent cross-fade of the shadows. Area-lights are quite sensitive regarding the distance of the light source

Shadow-Buffer

The advantage of shadow buffer are that they can be calculated quite fast. But the correct setting of the light source requires lots of experience in order to avoid interferences within the shadows.

So called Halos facilitate that light cones of a strong light source under water or in a dusty or fogy surrounding can be simulated in Blender.