SFXB Forum

Brad, just to pick up on a point you mentioned above, how are you setting up a scene in terms of lighting etc? I find I lurch from total darkness to sun blindness when I try and add a light source in - it's not something I've read up on yet. What I'd like to do, and what I've tried to do using "Environment" is just introduce an "ambience" - but how can I get shadows to start happening? I think I did it when I was playing with Nigels' fighter but it's escaped me now that I'm using the updated version of Cinema....

Ah, lighting. There really is no specific method for producing good lighting other than trial-and-error. It sounds like you might just need to check if the lights are too close to the subject. Sometimes it helps to just change the light to a "Distant" type light.Shadows can be modified by simply double-clicking the light in the Object Manager. Maybe you just overlooked it. Ah, there is one lighting technique I just remembered, though, called the "three point" light setup that might help. It's usually used for indoor environments and I haven't really tried it on a space shot like this. Basically, you have a key light above and to the side of the subject, a slightly dimmer fill light below and to the other side, and a back light behind the subject. I'll try to find a better explanation of this and return momentarily.

Heh. This was almost *too* easy to find. Here's a good little tutorial on setting up the three-point light technique.http://3drender.com/light/3point.html