Understanding Lighting & Improving your 3D Renders

In this video we're going to try and decipher lighing. In order to do that we're going to first see how light works in the real world and take a few hints from how real photographers are doing things!
You can download the scanned head from Ten24's site:ten24.info/tag/free-3d-scan/
The nice glass setup can be found on:
www.diyphotography.net/glass-...
Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Host & Creator: Dimitris Katsafouros
Website: www.marvelousdecay.com
TWITTER: / marvelousdecay

[@mohammadsuliman6181]

great video , one of the best I've seen in this topic , keep going

[@unparticularnoise9021]

Couple weeks ago I found myself reproducing photography tricks in my scene with Redshift. Even though I didn't learn too much from you, I will definitely try to reproduce some complicated light setups now. I think it's a great training. Thank you for your video.

[@kennethcop9734]

Awesome, just subscribed. Love your teaching, simple and to the point !

[@JJ-pi4zj]

Excellent work. Much appreciated.

[@prakash0107]

Really an intelligent explanation. A great help to all the 3d artists.

[@mostafaelgammal]

loved it really simple and easy to understand and make you relax that was awesome

[@snowman1722]

Great video! This is really helpful.

[@jeffbriant47]

dude, awesome notes, loved this video

[@davida5136]

Wow this was amazing mate, thanks so much !

[@fahim618]

I always struggle with lighting and this video is definitely going to help me light my scene better. Thanks a lot

[@IlyaAndreev-1]

Perfect tutorial , specially effect of back light shader 💥

[@DononovanKeith]

Great video. I love how you showed how all of this plays out with a real-world example.

[@marvelousdecay]

Hey Donovan. Glad you enjoyed it!

[@3dcinetv]

GOLD! Thank you!

[@khushipadale4109]

nicely and simply explained would love to see more

[@brandonkalyan]

Love it! Thank you so much

[@YellowDogltd]

Great video - we've subscribed and look forward to more.

[@joshuaolunoiki5341]

Great tutorial! Thanks!

[@HeshamElshipli]

This video is great.Thank you.Please make other videos about lighting.

[@zahid_bhat]

Very informative. Thanks!

[@seane5288]

very easy to understand .Thank you

[@lazarosp350]

Very nice !!! understand explanation in lighting thank you :)

[@mudamudisain]

great tutorial, thankyou

[@mikeoug7033]

great tut φιλε

[@Grimeaper]

This actually has already helped me some though still am unsure of outdoors. I can only find indoors, portraits but outdoors it is always well you are on your own.

[@marvelousdecay]

Nothing really changes with outdoors scenes. You just need a bigger light source. So physical sky could work or an HDR or a very big panel. You might want to check this tutorial from Marijn Raeven helloluxx.com/product/cinema-4d-training-natural-environments/ Might be what you're after.

[@Mr_Steve3D]

I Use Blender and was able to apply all of these procedural workflows so thanks for improving my skills :)

[@marvelousdecay]

Great to hear!

[@facadevhive]

very helpful! Thanks

[@evrismode]

Damn it, Dimitris! I will adopt you! :) Essential, as always! Ευχαριστούμε (Thank you).

[@mzaack]

Excelent video!

[@Alexander-em7kn]

Thank you so much.

[@rubenscheer]

Thank you!

[@josiahduncan4077]

Glad I found your channel

[@ManlioRocher]

Damn, awesome video.

[@samjose2294]

It's great Man.. ♥️

[@ringoman08]

very good tutorial indeed

[@ulysse6916]

Damn your tutorials are something else

[@ParabhdeepSingh]

thank you so much,

[@antonioreynoso8824]

Very good video

[@jeremydelastreet]

Best explications ever

[@ericgenesis5367]

concise, clear, demonstrative, not too fast, not too slow. thank you!

[@julienjean6329]

It's super useful, thanks ! :)

[@marvelousdecay]

Glad to hear that!

[@altberg__]

superb

Great video, there are some good resources on the broncolor website on how they made different photographs complete with lighting diagrams, could be useful.

[@marvelousdecay]

Hey Oran thanks for the suggestion. The website does have some nice, how-to setups! Here's the actual link for the rest. The photos link is very nice so make sure to click on that. www.bron.ch/broncolor/how-to/

[@trm245]

Light intensity matters. with more intense light, the rays will attain more bounces before decaying, meaning you get more indirect lighting (you can appreciate that if you look really hard when you show the comparison between the two images 3:30, the shadows in the right image are slightly more lit) i know it sounds like a stretch but in outdoors oriented scenes this is important to achieve realism

[@RobertFletcherOBE]

exactly. The goal should be to use physically plausible values so the renderer can handle the subtle stuff. Saying intensity doesn't matter is teaching bad habits and moving people away from realistic results.

[@worldz_of_visions]

Thanks. Sometimes you gotta go back to basics. I use DAZ Studio with Iray. Your setup concepts work the same. I played with the mesh sphere, backdrop plane, light block plane, light bounce plane setup just as a quick test, and it looked pretty darn good, pretty realistic. Maybe I'll have to check out fantasy portrait photography for setup tips, maybe look at what Boris Vallejo uses. It's a start.

[@jaredcrown5812]

Subscribed!

[@TheEleventeen]

Thank you Dimitris for making such wonderful videos !

[@Shteuf]

Dude, this is huge! Very interesting. The parallel with photography is crucial. Did you use Pro Render? I'd like to hear your thoughts about it.

[@marvelousdecay]

In some cases I used Pro Render which can render things incredibly fast. It's a really fast solution. At the moment though the camera options apart from the f stop are not exposed in Pro render so you won't be able to dial in the exposure. You would have to resort to increasing or decreasing the brightness of the light. Which can result in misunderstanding how light works in photography. I would say it's definitely worth using but I would definitely recommend the physical renderer first just so you have a clear grasp of cameras/lights and how they work together.

[@Shteuf]

Oh yes indeed. I've just came across Cinema 4D R19, and I've been using Cinema 4D for some years already, so I'm tired of Physical because it's so slow! I'm still new to Pro render though, and I feel very excited about it since I feel like Octane and stuff are not quite for me. Nonetheless, I feel very much enlightened (pun intended) by this video, it was very clear and so interesting.

[@marvelousdecay]

Glad you enjoyed the video! With the a nice GPU, ProRender can be very fast so I would suggest trying it out especially if you're looking for a new renderer. It comes with the program so it won't cost you anything and it will probably fit your needs.

[@Shteuf]

Absolutely. I still have to learn about it, but the fact that it comes natively with c4d is a bliss for me. I'm confident that all the camera options will come with the next versions. I just have to buy a decent computer now :D I'm on a 2013 iMac, dammit!

[@revocolor]

@@marvelousdecay great tutoring thank u ♥ btw the dropbox download link for headscan on the page u shared is not working can u re-upload pls? thanx in advance.

[@noelchrysmas1951]

hello sir, can you teach me ? how can i make flasing light sound cube, like opener this video...

[@OrestisHisHoliness]

Dimitris, this is a great setup and has greatly helped on understanding the foundations of good lighting. Quick question, but could you perhaps provide some further info on the backlight shader? I am a redshift user and trying to emulate your tutorial since increasing the size of the light to achieve softer shadows also lights the rest of the scene. Cheers from Greece!

[@marvelousdecay]

Hey Oresti. To get rid of light in the surrounding environment try employing methods photographers use in real life. So block the light with a black card or rotate the light so it doesn't hit so much the background. I'm not sure the backlight shader will work on Redshift but what it basically does is simple. It lets the light through from whatever light source is behind it. So you have the small light behind it but because you're using the backlight shader on a bigger surface in front of the light you're basically making the light bigger. I mentioned the backlight shader just to explain how real lights work with a diffuser in front of them. I wouldn't really use the backlight shader to light scenes since it's going to be render intensive. Let me know if you have any questions.

[@OrestisHisHoliness]

Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification Dimitris, your technique has helped me a lot in lighting my scenes. Cheers!

[@Jacobbrothers]

How can I convert cinema 4d standard lights to Arnold

[@highlandragdoll]

I feel personally with that first sentence - LOL. Yeah, this sounds like it's going to be the video for me!

[@Brandonbraun]

i dont wanna think about how many degrees i've rotated random HDRIs lol

[@procise1982]

Great Video thank you for this information. I never messed with the shutter speed in c4d would it not just be easier to just lower the intensity of the light then to mess with all that ?

[@marvelousdecay]

Hey Joel. You can definitely just lower the intensity of the light. I like to work with the shutter speed especially when more lights are at play. It's also very helpful if you've setup your scene the way you want to but you just need to make it a little bit brighter. Without the shutter speed you would need to manually go in to each light and increase them in an amount that wouldn't ruin the balance between them. With a physical camera you either increase the shutter speed or ISO and you're all set. I would say it's just a matter of preference. And also helps understanding how cameras work in the real world. If though you feel more comfortable by changing the brightness of the light by all means do that! There's nothing wrong with that!

[@procise1982]

ah I do see your point manually changing every light is a pain and this would be much easier.

[@13450422844]

Thanks, great tutorials. But in the glass scene, how did you make a plane glow in the viewer and no GI in render, how is that possible?

[@marvelousdecay]

Hi there. You need to create materials using only the reflectance channel. This video will help you out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWmcdnxsacZ8eZI

[@vichitxaiyavong8114]

I'm NOT LOOKING AT THE LIGHT BUT YOU HAVE A BEAUTIFUL HAIR

[@Wardztv]

Wow man, your videos just keep on giving Subscribed!

[@aftereffectstemplates15sec82]

Posted in Motion Lovers Facebook Community

[@jakobfink6007]

Can you give me the C4D file you used?

[@ycekyll8tube]

Helo! I would love to do this tutorial I realized that it offers a high level of knowledge. But I wanted to do it using the Scanned Head that you made available and it is no longer available. could you resend?

[@marvelousdecay]

Hi there. The link of the head on the description is not my own so I cannot really re-upload it. You could though download another scanned head from other resources. Just google search scanned head and you will find plenty of assets to choose from. The results will be exactly the same. You don’t need the exact head I used in order to follow along. Hope that helps!

[@ycekyll8tube]

@@marvelousdecay I understand. The one in his example was very good, very wrinkled! LOL But I will use the humanoid head available for download on your website. Grateful for the beautiful work!

[@igorseveric310]

Fantastic content Dimi, I didn’t know you have your own channel. I would like to share it at C4D Cafe if you don’t mind? :)

[@marvelousdecay]

Hey Igor! Thanks for your kind words. Sure feel free to do so!

[@HeltonM7]

Under which menu is the Geometry Light located?

[@marvelousdecay]

A geometry light is just a piece of geometry (sphere, plane, cube etc) with a luminance material. So just drag a piece of geometry and add a material with the luminance channel enabled.

[@syarsalar]

I did the same and didnt work :(

[@JuanMarinoArg]

3 settings, aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

[@marvelousdecay]

ISO does play a role but we assume for our example that it stays constant.

[@ross8140]

Love you, no homo

[@deadhunk4505]

Osm explanation apart from tutorial you look like ghost rider 😂

[@TheHowardski]

Great Video, very off putting though with a poor mic.

[@crowt.robot.6199]

The Mic is fine fix your headphones

[@benalicaustics5419]

thank you but make off this music let peapol focus in you plz

[@MAPA3MA]

Cheating video :D

[@andydorsey3669]

I love u. Marry me pls.

[@Pussik]

Didnt learn anything. Too basic.