Lightwave 56 or higher 1
Load the Sunlight.lws scene. Since moonlight is reflected light, we might as well start with the sunlight scene and add a few modifications.
Click the Lights panel,
Change the Ambient Light to 10%,
Rename Light to Moonlit and close the panel. Change the light color to:
This is to make it yellowish instead of pure white. Reduce the Light Intensity to 60%,
Render the scene. Note the low-contrast quality of the scene and the predominance of a single hue, which is okay since it represents night. However, the flatness of the scene is not desirable (Figure 6.86).
Change the Light Color to:
Figure Blue light as key with ambient light.
Figure Blue light as key with ambient light.
Change the Light Type to Point Light. The Shadow Type should be Ray Trace.
Click Add Light and set the following parameters:
Rename Light to moonlitradl Light Color: R: 6 G: 64 B:130 Light Type: 12.5% Shadow Type: Off
Click Clone Light four times to make four copies of this light. Switch to the Top (ZX) View and press N.
Click Edit-Lights and select each moonlitrad light. Arrange them in a half-ring formation, just as in the Skylight tutorial. Rename the subsequent lights moonlitrad2, moonlitrad3: moonlitrad4, and moolitrad5.
The position used by each light in this scene is as follows:
Moonlitradl: X= 5.0003 mm
Moonlitrad2:
Moonlitrad3: X = 2.895 m
Z = 25.0001 cm Moonlitrad5:
Render the scene. The change here is the conversion of the key moonlight object to a warm color and introducing non-shadow casting blue lights to act as moon fill lights. The color of the blue fill lights is subdued (low value) because they function only as fill lights, and if you set them with saturation, the rendered scene would look artificial due to the color intensity. Simulating night is about subtleties; it is primarily getting away with less light without hiding the important parts of the scene. Be warned, however, that setting the color of the blue fills to values close to whites (light blues) would suggest that it is a skylight contribution instead of a moonlight fill. The blue fill coloration must picked from the dark blue tones to suggest moonlight (Figure 6.87).
The sharpness of the shadow boundaries can be distracting, so for some scenes it is better that the edges are made softer. Since LW does not support shadow maps with Point Lights, they must be simulated using a Spotlight.
Click the Lights panel.
Change the Light Type to Spotlight.
Set the Spotlight Cone Angle to 180.0 degrees.
Set Spot Soft Edge Angle to 20 degrees.
Shadow Type to Shadow Map with the following settings:
Shadow Map Size: 1024 Shadow Fuzziness: 1.5 Use Cone Angle: Unchecked
Close the Lights panel,
Render the scene. You won't see much change compared with the previous rendering, with the exception of the soft shadow edges and slight change in the neck shadow's value. A better solution is to mimic the compression of the middle tones, its value and lack of saturation as well as the sharpness of the shadows (Figure 6.88).
Load Skylight with ring light array warm Final.lws,
Clear from the scene the following lights:
Sktlitl, Skylit2 Radlitl, Radlit2
Effect of changing the point lights into spotlight with shadow mapping.
Figure
Effect of changing the point lights into spotlight with shadow mapping.
Groundradlitl-3
This setup leaves the 3D ring light array with its central light and secondary peripheral lights.
Rename the mainlight moonlit.
Increase the Light Intensity to 60% for the main light.
Select perlits.
Change each Light Color to:
R: 23 G:72 B: 130 Light Type: Spotlight Spotlight Cone Angle: 180 Spot Soft Edge Angle: 5.0 degrees Shadow Type: Shadow Map Shadow Map Size: 512 Shadow Fuzziness: 1.5
This setup is almost identical to the tutorial showing sunlight with a 3D ring light array and shadow-mapped secondary lights, without the skylights and radiosity lights since these are negligible at night unless there are other light sources involved.
Render the scene. Note the dominance of gray on the middle tones, the blue cast on the upper middle tones, and the blue highlights. Also take note of the dark black shadows. The closeness of this image to gray without losing its cool quality makes this the most realistic of all the moonlight setups. Also, by making the back wall suggest a hint of yellow, we succeed in persuading the viewer that the light source is a full moon. Finally, we could simplify things a lot by using a dual light array with one warm or neutral shadow casting light with a clone that has a blue color and is non-shadow casting (Figure 6.89).
Load Sunlight.lws,
Click Lights and Rename Light moonlit. Click clone light,
Change its Light Color to:
Change this new light's Shadow Type to Off. Close the panel.
Render the scene. This rendition has a lot more in common with the first one with the blue light and ambient term. It has the same blue wash across the surface and has about the same shadow area tonal density. However, it is a marked improvement when you compare the shaded areas, especially the neck and the column's shaft. Here it is discernible with volume, but the image is still flat with low contrast. This is more of a tinted rendition than a simulation of a lighting situation (Figure 6.90).
Figure Blue cast rendition
I3TE1
Figure Blue cast rendition
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Figure Improved shadow tonality due to addition of the cloned new non-shadow casting light.
I3ETil
Figure Improved shadow tonality due to addition of the cloned new non-shadow casting light.
I3ETil
EXERCISE
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