Question Natural lighting?

[Russel]

Is there a way to create soft, natural lighting in VaM using a single light source? Majority of VaM scenes are too dark, with dramatic lighting, harsh shadows and too much contrast (for my liking).

I used to do portrait photography and always loved the look of photos taken in a large room with white walls and one or two large windows with sheer curtains (no direct sunlight). The white walls would reflect and bounce the light around acting as fill light. The gradual, gentle light falloff created very soft shadows that added just enough dimensionality without appearing harsh.

Would I need to add a large 3-wall "light box" around the scene and add a directional light at a 45-degree angle above where the 4th wall would be?

Thanks in advance!

 

[hazmhox]

You won't be able to lit a scene properly with a single light and especially without proper raytracing if you're intention is to get some fake "bounce" aspect.

Giving you exact pointers on what distance, angle, size, is pretty much impossible, because a lot of factors are responsible of a nice look. If you take one of my shots that I do find very natural:

This is lit by three lights. But you can't replicate this by simply saying "hey I had a light here at X° and that position".
The factors in the final results are :

• The skin (material) of the character
• The light intensity, shadow settings, angle for a spot, distance
• The color of the light
• and eventually your GI (this is optional)

There is not exact answer, especially on a now raytracing engine. You'll have to fiddle around : )