Intro to Maya: Lesson 4 - Lighting a scene

Before coloring objects, it’s important to light them first to get the most accurate results. You can create lights in the Rendering shelf. Two of the more useful ones are: Directional and Area. To see the effect of lights in the scene, turn on lights in the Viewport. You can also turn on Shadows, Ambient Occlusion, and Anti-Aliasing for even more accuracy.

00:45 - Then you can select each light and modify it with the Move, Rotate, or Scale Tool. You can find settings like Color, Intensity, and Exposure in the Attribute Editor under each light’s shape tab. Another important light lives in the Arnold shelf. This is the Skydome light, which allows you to apply Image Based Lighting (IBL) to your scene. To connect an image file, click the Color’s palette button in the skydome’s shape tab. …then assign a file. IBL images usually have a.hdr or.exr extension.

01:37 - You can find free ones all around the internet. Finally, use Ctrl + H to hide lights to judge their effects. Now the scene is beautifully lit, you’re ready for some materials! For more lessons like this one, hit the Like and Subscribe buttons below… …then click the link on your screen to continue on to the next lesson. .