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Maya Lighting Fundamentals

by Ed Whetstone

Lighting is where the real magic happens in an animation pipeline. This course will teach you about the attributes and capabilities of Maya's lights, and how to use the Arnold renderer to create images. Software required: Maya 2016.

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What you'll learn

Whether you're an animator looking to add a little extra "zing" to your reel or a modeler who wants to show off every detail of your master sculpt, this course is for you. In this course, Maya Lighting Fundamentals, you'll learn the fundamentals of lighting in Maya. First, you'll explore some basic lighting concepts. Next, you'll discover how to think about real-world lighting in the Maya software. Finally, you'll walk through all the fundamental attributes and capabilities of the Maya lighting and rendering tools, before walking through a complete lighting scenario from start-to-finish. By the end of this course, you'll have a better understanding of the lighting fundamentals in Maya. Software required: Maya 2016.

Table of contents

Course Overview
1min
Maya Light Types and Their Real-world Counterparts
17mins
Creating and Placing Lights in Maya
18mins
Light Attributes
12mins
Shadows and Shading
14mins
Lighting a Scene and Next Steps
21mins

About the author

Ed Whetstone

Ed Whetstone is a Dallas-based CG artist, educator, and would-be filmmaker. After graduating from the University of Texas at Dallas, he started working as a lighting artist at ReelFX Creative Studios. He is currently writing and directing a nights-and-weekends short film effort, “The Sum of Parts”.

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