Lighting

Lighting lighting llighting. I've tryed everything and nothing looks right. especially for my trek stuff. it's always to dark or to bright. i use spotlights and even followed that kier darby light thing but nothing is working. is there some rendering trick i'm missing? to make it all look more... professional?

Well, there's a number of places to look, but for Trek lighting theory, you might want to try this one:
http://www.menithings.com/How/Trek/Trek_Voyager_01.html

As for more practical lighting hints, try here:
http://members.home.com/lightwavetutorials/Lighting.htm

Hopefully something listed will help!

yeah i've tryed al of that. the voyager lighting doesnt do me any good it says point some spot lights with shadow maps and thats it. it doesn't give me any specifics.

for example it says...


It’s often requested that a separate specular pass be rendered

what the hell is specular and how am i supposed to render it seperately. and does it even do any good.

One of the best ways to set up your lighting (and the way I usually set up my lighting rigs) is to use a Distant Light set at least 100% intensity with Raytraced shadows. Make sure that all the Raytraced options in the Render Options menu are active for your final render. Never put the main light behind the Camera!
Add a Spotlight (or Point Light) off to one side of the object on the side the shadows are being cast. Set the intensity low; about 20% or so and set the shadows to Shadow Mapped.
Thirdly add a third light above the distant light, but closer to the camera, set it to Affect Specular only and set the intensity to around 40%. If the Specular highlight's don't show up, then increase the intensity.


Hope this helps you.