Week 5: Lighting - Physical Sun and Sky

(image courtesy of www.webecoist.com)

I've been especially waiting for this lesson about creating a Sun/Sky system in Mental Ray for Maya. I've played with a bit before, but getting the finishing right with exposure controls had been a mystery to me in other programs. Thankfully in Maya is pretty painless.

With one click (in the right menu) Maya creates a Sun, Sky, and exposure node for ya - all linked together. Basically just move the light around in the scene and the sky color (and shadows) all change to match the lighting created by a sun with that angle. The exposure node is to correct and tweak the brights and darks, just like I did with the HDR example a few days ago. It's all camera based so just change your F-stop or film speed or shutter speed in the camera controls, the image will reflect that. If like to, can use your own HDR image for the background instead of the Sky color, but it wont affect the lighting - just what shows in the background. Really had fun with this one trying to make different times of day.






This week is almost done and I need a break! haha..everyone have a nice weekend.