Lighting Script

bleybourne_772d5802c5

Hi all,

I'm still learning the ropes, and the hardest thing to get right is lighting. Does anyone have a script which will load a basic 3-point light system for me? Ideally, I could run it and it would place the lights based on the current viewport configuration, in case the point I want to focus the render on doesn't happen to be 0,0,0. Is there such a thing? It would be a massive help to be able to auto-oad a lighting set and then just tweak it.

Design Anvil - Razor42

Sounds like a good idea.

You could setup up your own 3 point lighting setup and parent all the lights to a null object at the focal point then save as a scene subset.
Then when you load it just move the null object to your required focal point it would even let you rotate the lights keeping the null at centre focus.

I'm not sure of a script implementation.

bleybourne_772d5802c5

Razor 42 said:

Sounds like a good idea.

You could setup up your own 3 point lighting setup and parent all the lights to a null object at the focal point then save as a scene subset.
Then when you load it just move the null object to your required focal point it would even let you rotate the lights keeping the null at centre focus.

I'm not sure of a script implementation.

Um, I have no idea what you just said :-)

Are you saying that if I make some lights, and set their parent as an object (whatever a null object is, I assume it's an invisible object) then when I move or rotate that object, the lights will all move and rotate too?

Design Anvil - Razor42

Exactly ;)

Yeah a null is pretty much an invisible object that you can use as a handle. You then move the null to position the entire light rig where you want in the scene.

Once you have the rig setup as you like you can then save the scene as Scene Subset file, preferably in your content library like Presets/Lights for later use.
Using this method you can build up a collection of lighting rigs to use in any of your scenes.

bleybourne_772d5802c5

Razor 42 said:

Exactly ;)

Yeah a null is pretty much an invisible object that you can use as a handle. You then move the null to position the entire light rig where you want in the scene.

Once you have the rig setup as you like you can then save the scene as Scene Subset file, preferably in your content library like Presets/Lights for later use.
Using this method you can build up a collection of lighting rigs to use in any of your scenes.

Cool thanks, I will try this.

How does saving a scene subset work? Do I select multiple objects in the scene tab (in this case the lights and the null object) and then only those objects will get saved? And then I just merge that into a new scene?

JimmyC_2009

Yes, a Scene Subset only saves what you have selected in the Scene Pane, and can be merged with any other loaded scene.

You could also save the setup as a Scene, and then have that loaded each time you create a New Scene, or load up DAZ Studio. You can do that from Edit > Preferences (or F3 Hotkey)

Design Anvil - Razor42

File/Save as /Scene Subset

It will bring up a check box and you can just check what's to be included (Or excluded) in your file.

bleybourne_772d5802c5

Awesome, thanks everyone. I'll give it a go!

I have a lot to learn about lighting, but being able to start with a basic 3-point setup and then go from there will be a tremendous help!