Product Description

Certified by Autodesk, Darren Brooker's new edition teaches the production techniques behind real-world work. The tutorials take you from the fundamentals of lighting, right through to advanced techniques.

* Everything you need to learn the art of CG lighting in one easy-to-use volume
* Free trial software and detailed tutorials take you through every step of the CG lighting process
* Learn the art and science of lighting CG environments the Autodesk-certified way

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #190028 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780240521176
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
'In terms of visual impact, lighting can either make or break an animation. In this book, Darren Brooker gives this subject the respect it deserves. Thoroughly recommended reading.'
Brant Drewery, Editor, CGI Magazine

'Darren Brooker has gifted us with a fine addition to our 3D library, to be referenced and considered over and over. Students and seasoned artists will benefit from the broad concepts and specific examples delivered.'
Robert Taylor, CG Supervisor & Consultant

'If you work in game art, film or architectural visualisation, you'll need this lighting handbook.'
3D World Magazine - October 2006

?This book is a complete look at the subject matter. It teaches real methods behind real world work. Those that work through it will be taught quality methods for lighting, and should be better able to evaluate real world light, being able to reproduce it in a 3d environment.?
Autodesk assessment of first edition

About the Author
Darren Brooker is a CG artist, with experience at Cosgrove Hall Digital and Pepper's Ghost, both top UK production studios. He is an award-winning, independent rendering and lighting specialist and an experienced journalist with published work in the Guardian, 3D World, CGI, Computer Arts, Creation and Broadcast Engineering News.

Customer Reviews

Very Nice Book
I'm an architect and i needed some book that actually focused on several types of ilumination for architectural visualization, and this book has it, it's divided in 4 parts, theory, techniques, tips and tricks and taking it further. I like that it has the light theory, an essential part to understand how light actually works in nature.

I've only read the theory, and i've browsed some other chapters and the explanations are very clear, very easy to follow and understand, any new or veteran user of 3ds Max will feel comfortable reading this book; lots of pictures to see in full color.

Just as the title says: great overview of essencial lighting techniques
I'm not a professional lighting artist, I've been learning 3ds max for a few years, part-time. I've read several books and tutorials about changing a GI photon value from 1 to 10 or ajusting the spotlight faloff to 150, but I needed a book which gave me an integrated and comparative look on the various lighting techniques and methodologies 3ds max has to offer. This book does just that. It doesn't set out to explain every single button or value, it gives you the essencials about the way the various techniques work,not just by explaining sequentially scanline render, advanced lighting or mental ray, but also by transmitting good insight on production methods and light theory..The book explains the main parameters you have to adjust in order to make each technique work, and the pros and cons of every one of those. Obviously, apart from the tutorials in this book, you'll have to play with the values and learn the finer details for yourself. For me it was a great sistematization of all 3ds max lighting techniques, and I'm no longer baffled by the variety of ways I can use to light a scene, because I understood which techique works better in which situation.

A little weak...
I've been reviewing several books on lighting and rendering, in both Max and Maya, and from the reviews here I was expecting something a little better in this book.

The content about Max was slim pickings. It said almost nothing about most of the optional renderers like Vray and Brazil, just about a page each on those. Apart from that, there was general info from the manual.

The sections about how to actually light a scene were weak. It goes over basics of approaches like three point lighting, but I didn't find much in this book that deepened my understanding of how to actually light, it just looked like generalizations that could have been copied from older books.