Observation is one of the most important skill when studying lighting and rendering. Each student is required to study materials -- to look very closely at the qualities that define a surface -- and lights. Each student should then decide how to translate visual impressions into interesting, unique images; the assignments below have been designed to encourage students to be artists, not photorealists.

Students are also asked to consider the presentation format of their work -- will the work be presented as prints? In a lightbox? Shown online? Remember it doesn't have to be "clean" to look great. See Marek Denko's work.

Assigned readings are an important part of this class. Students are expected to read assigned chapters carefully; there will be several short quizzes.

Students are expected to scan concept art and sketches so that the class can view them on the projecter and discuss them. Sketches will be turned in and graded.


Project 1: "Enigmatic Interiors"

For this assignment, students are required to design, model, light & texture an interior space. This space should have an enigmatic quality, i.e., the presence of light sources and surfaces should amount to more then the description of, for example, a room.

For inspiration, consider the subtle and oddly melancholic works of the Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershoi (1864-1916); his work has been described as "poetry of silence." See, for example, Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunlight, Interior of the Artist's Home (1900);


Also consider the work of Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), who captured domestic scenes of ordinary life, i.e. interior spaces. Vermeer is frequently discussed for his (suspected) use of the Camera Obscura as well as for the use of implied spaces. See the following examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. In the tradition of Vermeer, the implied spaces can be an outdoor space, a concealed interior space, such as the area hidden by a curtain or door, or a psychological space, such as the one suggested by the letters in the examples 3 and 4 above.

For this assignment, students are required to first design and then create a scene and to use light to instill an interior space with more than objects. Sketches will be critiqued by the whole class and have to be handed in as a .jpg along with the final image(s).

With this assignments, students will be introduced to the different types of lights, their uses and controls (falloff, decay, using Decay Regions, etc.). Students will also explore different lighting setups and light linking. The technical aspects covered in this assignment include several materials, including glass and metals, raytracing, reflections, refractions; Depth Map and Raytrace Shadows in Mental Ray.

Students may create representational or non-representational objects/scenes.
The aesthetic requirements include beautifully rendered surfaces, as well as a pleasing composition that makes good use of three-dimensional space, i.e., foreground, middle ground, and background; shadows, reflections and refractions should be carefully considered in the design of the composition.


Project 2: "Nothing Is Seen Without Light"
In his work on the sense organs, Aristotle wrote, “nothing is seen without light.” Throughout history, artists have explored the meaning of this simple statement.
For example, Georges de La Tour (1593–1652) explored painting with minimal light; see reference images 1, 2, 3, 4. See also this still from Peter Greenaway's film, The Draughtsman's Contract; the lighting was inspired by La Tour. Consider further trends in cinematography, such as Film Noir.

In this assignment, students will create a 3D scene in Maya and focus on tonal ranges and value -- light and dark -- to guide the viewer’s eyes, conceal parts of a scene in order to entice interest, and generate a dramatic mood. Students may create representational or non-representational objects/scenes.

The technical aspects of this assignment include the use of volume lights, Maya materials, the age old question about texture size/resolution, creating textures, UV mapping, and subsurface scattering.

The aesthetic requirements include the successful application of a variety of materials and textures. The image should be conceptually interesting and feature a pleasing composition that makes good use of three-dimensional space; shadows should be carefully considered in the design of the composition.


Project 3: Open Assignment

The technical aspects of this assignment include Global Illumination, Final Gather, and Ambient Occlusion.

Conceptually, this project is up to you... be creative...

Short quiz on chapter 1of the class text.

Review/critique of sketches (sketches will be handed in and factor into your grade)

Basic three point lighting setups (handout)

Exercise using Spot lights: Faking Global Illumination: Examples

For next week: continue with project # 1.

Read chapter 2 of the class text at the computer; recreate the examples and experiment with the settings. Explore the options of every light type.

Short quiz on chapter 3 of the class text.

Handout: Bump & Specular Mapping
Handout: Color Balance (straight from the Maya documentation)

Sort of related: Have look here.

Review of work in progress & answering questions from last week

Texture size: how to figure it out...

Using PSD networks...

Creating texture maps: Specular, Bump and Displacement Maps

Aging surfaces part 1: using Photoshop techniques

Read chapter 4 of the class text at the computer...

Review of progress...

Finalize project #1.

Project # 1 due -- Students Present & Critique

Handout: Lighting & rendering terminology

Three point lighting (finally!)

Creating texture libraries... Taking reference pictures. For next week, everyone bring three textures for a shared texture library

Light linking

Introduction of project # 2: "Nothing Is Seen Without Light"
For project # 2, students are required to bring a developed rendering that clearly indicates lighting and use of shadows; students may create black and white or color renderings.

Read chapter 5 of the class text at the computer; recreate the examples and experiment with the settings.

Review/critique of sketches (sketches will be handed in and factor into your grade)

UV Mapping

Read chapter 9 of the class text at the computer... complete the UV mapping tutorial (we'll start this in class).

Recommendet reading of the week: Sculpting in Time: Tarkovsky The Great Russian Filmaker Discusses His Art, by Andrey Tarkovsky

Several of Tarkovsky's polaroids from the book, "Instant Light":

Mid-term: Student will be advised of their grades in writing

Mental Ray for Maya: Overview of Global Illumination & Final Gather

Reading: Pixel Cinematography: A Lighting Approach to Computer Graphics (excerpt), SIGGRAPH '96.

Review of progress on project # 2

A simple approach to Sub Surface Scattering, SSS

Using Mental Ray's misss_fast_simple and misss_fastlmap nodes


Also, check out this tutorial, which simulates SSS. (Use a spot light, not a directional light.) Here are my results:

Review of progress & critique....

Render Layers: An overview...

Mental Ray render settings (what do these quality settings mean?)


For next week:
-Finalize project #2 (follow the same requirements as you did with project #1).
-Bring at least one developed design for the final project. Clearly indicate lighting and use of shadows;
students may create black and white or color renderings.

There's a good deal of time left in the semester so your ideas should reflect a degree of complexity. This does not mean
you have to model your hometown but can mean that you create a triptych, or an image for which you are also designing
and building an installation, or...In other words, be creative.

Btw, have a look here. (Or does your work have a conceptual component? Have a look at Jeff Koons, Matthew Barney...)


Most of you have already used Ambient Occlusion passes in their projects. Thus, the following links are for reference.
The third link downs leads to a straight forward tutorial... If you hve never used ambient occlusion, give it a try.

Ambient Occlusion ...and a few related links:

http://www-viz.tamu.edu/students/bmoyer/617/ambocc/

http://www.game-artist.net/forums/spotlight-articles/1317-tutorial-ambient-occlusion-maya-alchemist101.html

http://micah.noobgrinder.com/aotut/

Project # 2 due -- Students Present & Critique

Critique of final images for project #2. Also, we'll review your ideas for your final project. As usual, scan your sketches.

Introduction to Caustics (examples 1, 2) using Global Illumination

Notes on setting up caustics...

Creating an underwater scene using fake cuastics procedurally (using caustic light generators & check out also this 2D effect fro Flash)

Underwater scene exercise---we'll cover the following:
--Volume Primitives
--Environment Fog
--Tileable textures (Photoshop)

Read chapter 6 of the class text at the computer; recreate the examples and experiment with the settings.

Review of progress....

Using the Height Field utility with Displacement maps

Incandescence Maps

We didn't get to do the underwater exercise so will take time today...

Aging surfaces part 2: using procedural textures

Read chapter 7 of the class text at the computer; recreate the examples and experiment with the settings.

Finals: all materials are due... Students Present & Critique

Required textbook:
Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting, 2nd Edition, by Lee Lanier, Sybex, ISBN: 0470292733

Suggested reading:
Digital Texturing & Painting, by Owen Demers, New Riders, ISBN: 0-7357-0918-1

Colour, Art and Science, edited by Trevor Lamb and Janine Bourriau, Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 0-521-49963-1

The Fire Within the Eye: A Historical Essay on the Nature and Meaning of Light, by David Park, Princeton University Press, ISBN: 0-691-04332-9

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Pratt Institute considers Academic Integrity highly important. Instances of cheating, plagiarism, and wrongful use of intellectual property will not be tolerated.

• Faculty members will report each incident to the registrar for inclusion in studentsí files.
• More than one report to the registrar during a studentís program of study at Pratt will result in a hearing before the Academic Integrity Board, at which time appropriate sanctions will be decided. These may include dismissal from the Institute.
• The nature and severity of the infraction will be determined by faculty members who can: ask students to repeat an assignment, fail students on the assignment, fail students in the course and/or refer the incident to the Academic Integrity Board.

For more details about these procedures please see the Pratt Student Handbook, the Pratt Bulletins, and the pamphlet entitled Judicial Procedures at Pratt.

CHEATING

If students use dishonest methods to fulfill course requirements, they are cheating. Examples of this include, but are not limited to:

• Obtaining or offering copies of exams or information about the content of exams in advance.
• Bringing notes in any form to a closed book exam.
• Looking at another studentís paper during an exam.
• Receiving or communicating any information from or to another student during an exam.

PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is a bit more complicated, but the rules of documentation and citation are very specific and are tailored to different academic disciplines. Types of plagiarism include:

• Including any material from any source other than you in a paper or project without proper attribution. This includes material from the Internet, books, papers, or projects by other students, and from any other source.
• Using your own work to fulfill requirements for more than one course
• The extensive use of the ideas of others in your work without proper attribution.
• Turning in work done by another person or a fellow student as oneís own.

Please remember that all work must be the studentís own. If it is not, the source should be cited and documented appropriately.

If there are aspects of this statement that are not understood, ask faculty members for help.