[Carrara]Negative Lights in Carrara 6?

[ronjurman]

I'll throw in a simple (maybe too simple) but straight-forward use:

You have an animated (cartoon, maybe) detective story where the bad guy is lurking in shadow near your good guy detective. You want the detective and most of the scene well lit without harsh directional lighting, but with the bad guy shrouded in shadow, even though both are in the same room at close proximity.

One quick solution: Put them both in a well lit room and then add a strong but short range negative light to create the gloom that hides the bad guy.

It's more artistic lighting than realistic (and one darned cheesy example), but having a negative light capability makes it easy.

rj

[bwtr]

A great word picture---thanks.

[ronjurman]

A more practical example (perhaps):

You're doing a realistic architectural interior animation that covers a fairly large and complicated area (maybe a combination living room, dining room, entrance-way) with all the odds & ends to make it look lived-in (plates and silverware on the table, sculptures, plants in stands, books, knick-knacks, etc.).

And a nice GI lighting scheme would make it look photo-realistic, ... except you don't have a large render farm, ... and you would like to see it rendered before your client takes your contract and goes elsewhere.

So you fake the GI, placing the practical lights first, and then place a whole collection of fill lights to give it that GI look, ... except one little problem. To bring light to the corners of the far white living room wall, the fill lights you add there, when added to the main room lighting, wash out the center of the wall.

What to do? Dim the main lights, and the corners look wrong. Replace your main lights with area lights, messes up other areas (and turns out to be too render-time intensive). Add lots of fill lights between the center and the corners? Messy.

A simple approach: Add a single gentle negative light facing the center of the wall (probably from behind, non-shadow casting), reducing or eliminating the washed out area.

rj

[bwtr]

AGAIN!---a brilliant explanitory word picture.

IF ONLY the other Negative Llight documentations around on the web sites could do as well!

This thread is now a pdf into my own "help files.

[ronjurman]

Glad those helped (see the 'negative' light).

rj

[Couerl]

Okay, I guess I finally see the light. Good examples and I suppose it could be beneficial in some cases, particularly indoors and tight shots. My own take on this though is that these same things can be achieved with spots placed correctly and angular falloffs and distances used to their greatest potential (even though it can be more work). We've also badgered the Devs about real volumetric lighting like IES in Max, Modo etc.. For me it's always been difficult trying to get a fairly real indoor lighting shot with bulbs and spots alone, they just don't cut it, even with indirect lighting.

[Aunty Betty]

Thanks ronjurman for the clarity that eluded this sleep deprived wretch.