Lighting Examples

The following are various lighting examples for those starting out in 3D.

This is the default single light at 25% ambient.  For space scenes you should have little or NO ambient light at all...

Which is what we've done here.  The problem is that the light is coming from nearly directly behind and above the camera, so the image is pretty flat.

Remember that in 3D you can (usually, with most packages) have lights that are ABOVE 100%.  This trick is used nearly 100% of the time by the crews working on the various Star Trek TV & movie series.  I've increased the main light to 150% percent and put it severely off angle, pointing back towards the camera and down, which gives us that nice specular shine on the spine of this Advanced Cutter.  I also added a purple fill light at 40% on the lower right side of the image.

If you want to see more of the ship, then change the main light to come from the side and nearly level with the ship, depending on circumstances.  I also changed the fill light to reflect the predominant color on THAT side of the ship.