Lighting 101 Ted Boardman Lighting 101 Figure 1. The attenuation rollout in 3D Studio VIZ3's Modify panel. This image shows non-uniformly scaled Far Attenuation ranges of an Omni light.
Lighting can radically affect the way materials appear in any given scene.
You must budget enough time in your project for lighting, during both the planning and storyboarding stages and for test renders and changes to the lighting while setting up the model. This time budget works for a project with minimal animation, and you would need to make adjustments for a scene with complex animation, preferably streamlining the modeling and leaving the same budgeted time for lights and materials. I'll look at a few of the general lighting issues that arise in most every scene and provide a few tips to help get you started in the right direction. Each method requires a different approach in the planning stage. This column will focus on the Standard VIZ lights, but a short discussion of radiosity rendering will be helpful to set the stage.