Watch Jeremy Birn’s Lighting & Rendering in Maya for free
Pixar lighting TD Jeremy Birn has made his 2008 training DVD, Lighting & Rendering in Maya: Lights and Shadows available for free online. The DVD originally sold for $59.95.
Beginning with the basics of light and colour, the training moves on to more advanced topics like depth map shadows and fixing shadow artifacts via a series of step-by-step examples.
Obviously, technology – and the Maya interface itself – has moved on in the five years since the DVD was originally released, but the fundamental principles remain valid.
The footage is divided into 18 separate videos, totalling over three hours of training, and comes with downloadable project files and a PDF of course notes.
Further reading
The release accompanies the publication of the third edition of Birn’s book, Digital Lighting & Rendering. Originally published in 2000, the plain-English, software-agnostic guide to lighting has been extensively reworked with new examples and explanations, forming a “complete replacement” for the first two editions.
View the videos from Lighting & Rendering in Maya: Lights and Shadows
(Includes download links for supporting files)
Read more about Digital Lighting & Rendering 3rd Edition on Birn’s website