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Lighting info, rave reviews
--jim coe |
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Lighting of Models and Scenes for Your 3D Web Design |
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Read the Manual - Please?
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Before attempting to light 3d models in an Adobe Atmosphere scene, be sure to study the built-in tutorial carefully. Use the F3 function key, while in the Adobe Atmosphere authoring environment, to see this valuable lighting overview. It's wise to review it from time to time. Please also review the "User's Guide". I hope a lot of your questions will also be answered right here. |
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3D Graphics Display Settings |
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To enjoy the best lighted and textured 3D models and scenes, you should set your Adobe Atmosphere player (plug in) for the best, but slowest, viewing. Select "Preferences" on the Toolbar (check box icon) and the 'Display' tab. Then check every check box. If your Toolbar is not visible, right-click on the scene and select "Toolbar".
Set the "Preferred Renderer:" to "Hardware (Direct3D)", in order to speed up your display by using the display acceleration hardware on your graphics card or motherboard. If "Active Renderer:" still indicates "Software", after you have changed to hardware, that means your particular graphics card has not yet been tested by Adobe. That does not mean it won't work, so Adobe has provided an easy way to test your card and tell the Adobe Atmosphere player to use it. See Rolu's excellent Adobe Atmosphere article on enabling hardware acceleration. |
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Why light your worlds? |
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Your Adobe Atmosphere scene is a stage. You are the Lighting Director.
Okay, you don't have to set up and render lighting for your scenes. And lighting can try your patience. Make a few changes, wait and wait for the next light rendering to complete. "Oh no! Still not quite right!" Make more changes... and so on. But the payoff for your patience is a much more dramatic experience for your visitors.
One reason you should light your 3D scenes is to increase emotional drama. Sure, lighting also improves the realiy of your virtual reality. But realism also serves drama.
Human emotions are involuntary reactions that let you and others know your ongoing feelings about yourself and your environment. It follows that a more realistic virtual reality is more likely to stimulate emotions, to generate mood. And this kind of 'realism' should be part of fantasy worlds as well. That is, being true to the way we experience the world is still important, even when making a 'photo-realistic' world is not your goal.
The ways in which you achieve this realistic 3D modeling of your forms with light is what helps put you in control of the mood or emotional tone of your world.
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 For example, here is a 2D picture of a simple 3D room, with realistic textures applied, but without lighting (except the lighting in the photos being used as textures). Notice the lack of form and depth and the 'cartoony' look?
Some perception of spatial depth is created by the geometry of the image.
But the lack of lighting cues makes still this scene ambiguous.
Is it deep or is it flat? It seems to bounce back and forth like an optical illusion.
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 Here, the same room is lighted dramatically and realistically. Now the lighting works with the geometry to enhance depth perception.
This lighting even tells you something of the time and weather.
Hopefully it also helps create a mood.
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