More lighting experiments in Maya

So i've been experimenting with the lights in Maya and the results have been mixed so far. I'm having difficulty in getting the brightness of the light right as well as forecasting the right sense of shadows in the scene. I guess i just have to keep tinkering with the lights till i get it right. I am using the are lights first since out of all the lights, i liked this one the best because of the direction the light is being projected in. So as can see in this pic below i am adjusting and increasing some settings for the area light because then i will render the shot and see if it has made the lighting any better.

I also realised that in some cases, one light might not be enough. So for the area lights i decided to put in about 9 area lights and spread them around in the office room. Also i need to cover up and fill up the roof of the office so it isn't exposed because otherwise the lights might just go into inifinty without having to be blocked by some kind of boundaries.

So i've put in the roof and also finished up the complete blockout of the environment. I can start placing my lights without having the problem of an incomplete interior environment.

As i was placing the area lights around the scene, i knew that i would have to start thinking about the shadows since that is going to be really important and so i started experimenting with that in this scene. I'm using this feature called Depth Map Shadows since this will allow me to actually to see shadows in my scene coming from the opposing lights. There was this other feature called Ray Trace Shadows which was really good because it gives it more of a cleaner look but what i found out was that the rendering time was too long and so i decided to stick with depth map shadows because it took less time to render the shots and looked decent.

Here are the initial render shots which is not bad but it doesn't look right. The light is not strig enough and it looks a little dim. The shadows look great but maybe too strong

I increased the brightness of the area light and it has just made it worse. The scene looks literally so bright that i need to go back and decrease the intensity of the light.

Its almost getting there in the rendered shots below but its become a little dull and pale, plus theres not the right balance of brightness of the area lights.

I went back to the settings and just increased a tad of the lighting and i also moved the area lights about in the scene to give it more of an even look.

Camera pic references for lighting

When i took the specific pictures below with my camera, i was keeping in mind how the light was being projected and the reflection as well as brightness that its effect had on the surrounding objects.

Since i am going to be lighting up an office room, i took a picture of my hand next to my TV just to see how the light was being projected onto my hand. Obviously the results were that it was very strong and bright. The first pic below is my hand a few centimetres away from the Tv and my hand looks bright but if you look at the 2nd pic that follows you will notice that my hand gets brighter as it leans closer to the TV. So in basic principle this would also apply to a Computer Moniter, where if a person is facing the moniter close up then the light from the mointer will be projected back into his face. This is something i will look out for as i am lighting the office environment.

Saw some interesting lights and colours while i was in my local cinema below in this pic. I like the purple look and the ambience of the lights. Could be something i could use for my scene.

I took this picture below when i was in my room. I just like the fact the light is being illuminated onto the ceiling and how it gradually fades out. That is something i want to achieve in my environments.

I decided to get more references of real lighting and i used my phone camera to take pictures of my university since it had a lot of interesting lights and mood. The general lights in university were not what i expected since they were all different shapes of lights and ray. The more i started exploring the place, the more i realised that this place was perfect as an example of what we should try and aim for in our environments.

From the pictures, you will see a lot of lighting in different places and just the nature of how its projecting the ray of light onto the surfaces.

Looking at lights in maya

After i had blocked out the interiors of the environment, i started looking at all the lights in maya. There are 6 lights in total and each light has a different effect and aspect to it. As i'm going through the lights for the first time in detail, i am going to just explain what each of the lights are and their function and purpose. Here are the lights stated below and what i thought of them and the potential results they can bring to my environment....

Ambient Light - The ambient light is a very strong light. Light is being projected in almost every direction. This light can be useful for very dark places in environments that need a lot of brightness but what i found out as i was experimenting with this light was that you can't really cast a shadow while using this light. Also the light appears to take away almost nearly all the shade and shadow of nearly every object in the scene because light is being projected in every direction. This light can have some purposes but in this case, because of its lack of shadow and shade that it cannot bring , i will not be using this light.

Directional Light - The directional light is a more specific light which is projecting its ray of light in one particular direction as i found out. Which ever direction you position the lights in, that is the area that its going to project its lights on. Also you can use forcast shadows on this light so its one that i may use as i go along. Could be useful if i am trying imitate a sun ray or something like that.

Point Light - The point light in appearence is very similar to the ambient light in which it is projecting its light in all direction. The difference between the ambient light and point light is that the point light can cast shadows and shade but the ambient light cannot. This light can be useful for something like a light bulb or a lamp.

Spot Light - The spot light is a very interesting light. In appearence the light appears to funnel its ray in a cone shape and projects its light in one direction with the light appearing in a circular shape due to its cone shape appearence. This light could be useful if i'm trying to play around with character and mood. I could use the light to literally focus on scene or a character and with added shadows that come with it, it could prove resourceful.

Area Light - The area light is a very straight light as i started using it. Just like the directional light, it projects its light in one particular direction. I found out that this light could specifically be used for something like a moniter screen which could prove useful since my team are creating an office environment.

Volume Light - The volume light is probably the biggest since it works and looks differently from the rest. I found that its appearence is like a grid sphere shape form and that within the grid sphere the light is projected inside. I found out that the more you expand the light, the brighter the scene gets. I could be potentially using this light for large environments.

The first light i tried experimenting with was the Area Light and its a pretty cool light. I found out that this light may have to be duplicated on many occasions as i found out that light isn't strong enough to light up a whole scene. Plus the positioning of the lights is also going to be very important and i will be looking into that. Here are some early rough and low key lighting in maya just to get warmed up.

Rough Block out in maya

Ok so while i am gathering more research and references on lighting in offices, i have decided to just quickly block out the interior environment and then just familiarise myself with all the lights in maya. Once again this is just a rough block out and not the actual final design.