Motivation for Lighting

Task: Attempt three different tones or moods through lighting per render style to see how each scene differs in mood and style. 

Scene 1: Night

The first scene I chose was a night scene, counting on shadows and colour to portray an uncomfortable and scary mood. Based on my background obsession with horror and thriller films, I decided to use the colour palette of blues, greens and blacks. People are generally uncomfortable when they cannot identify objects. The stranger the object, the more unease is felt and by distorting an object the unease is increased. So shadows and a sharp contrast (chiaroscuro lighting) was my intention, matching visibly lit couches with dark silhouette cushions, the bowl on the table is unidentifiable, but the table can be as it is illuminated. I chose moonlight and a television displaying white noise to further my intense blue/ green light and that caused even greater shadows to be projected in a minor distorted manner. These projections inhabit the floor and walls, casting subtle ambiguous shadows. The television is bright as it seems abandoned and unnatural with its accompanied white noise.  The blues in the scene create a cold, unwelcoming mood. The hour/ time of day is identified through the television’s lack of display, the colour displayed by the moon and the outside’s eerie dark trees and moonlit sky (done through a contribution of the darkening of ambient texture and a dark blue light on the projection).

Visual references:

Here is my final outcome below

Scene 2: Afternoon

The afternoon scene was inspired after the cold night scene. I wanted to create a ‘sundowners’ effect, displaying an afternoon just before the sun sets. Inspired by pictures of sunsets with its range of colours from pink to yellow, the mood is light and warm. The sun in the afternoon creates slanted quite hard shadows, usually of the colour orange. Although it is still daytime, some areas become slightly darker if not hit by the sun so a slight contrast is created. 

Visual References:

Here is my final result below:

Scene 3: Flat Lighting/ Midday

From what I learned in my research for the recent essay is the quick fix of flat lighting. Although it seems like an easy task, (and in comparison to my first two scenes, it was) I did have difficulty in finding a balance with the lights I used. Flat lighting eliminates most shadows, so I used infinite and flat lights to create a flat edge. It represented a midday timeframe where the sun is overhead, creating a flat light, and no angling of light to allow for shadows. Even more so, in the room, fewer shadows will be projected as the room does not have the harsh light of the sun, but a more general flat type of lighting. Like in the example of news rooms and sitcoms, (although this applies to film, one can adapt to 3D animation) the midday lighting is very simple and even.

Visual reference:

Here is my final scene below: