Learn the art of lighting for animation
The Gnomon Workshop has released Introduction to Lighting for Animation, a guide to lighting workflows used in the produdction of feature animation, recorded by Sony Pictures Imageworks’ Alex Corll.
Over the course of an hour and a half of video training, Corll – whose own resume includes Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Peter Rabbit – explores essential techniques in Maya, Arnold and Nuke.
A complete guide to lighting a shot in Maya, Arnold and Nuke
In the tutorial, Alex Corll shares his workflow for lighting a shot from start to finish, including researching reference images, and assessing and optimising the scene.
He begins by establishing base lighting using an appropriate HDRI, then sets up a key light, fill light and additional accent lights, revealing tips for using blockers and light filters in Arnold.
Corll also discusses how to add realism and atmosphere through volumetric lighting.
The tutorial concludes with an overview of render layers and render settings, with Corll compositing the rendered output in Nuke to produce a final, fully lit image.
About the artist
Alex Corll is a lighting TD at Sony Pictures Imageworks, where he has worked on movies including Suicide Squad, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the upcoming Spider-Man: Far From Home.
He has also worked at studios including MPC and Animal Logic, and on commercials and TV and web series.
Pricing and availability
Introduction to Lighting for Animation is available via an online subscription to The Gnomon Workshop, giving you access to over 300 tutorials. Subscriptions cost $49/month or $490/year.
Read more about Introduction to Lighting for Animation on The Gnomon Workshop’s website
Full disclosure: CG Channel is owned by Gnomon.