Simulating realistic lighting
We will now learn how to use lights in Blender to create a realistic environment. To understand how realistic lighting can be created, we will introduce the hot/cold lighting principle.
The hot/cold lighting principle is simply a method of lighting a scene by using both warm- and cold-colored lights simultaneously to create a universally applicable lighting environment. Red, orange, and yellow are warm colors, while green, blue, and purple are cold colors. Figure 11.19 shows a simple scene with a warm-colored area light on the left and a cold-colored area light on the right.
Figure 11.19 – Hot/cold lighting principle
The reason that this is effective is because, in real life, there are typically multiple light sources in a scene. For example, there can be direct, orange-colored sunlight shining into a room, as well as indirect blue or white light being reflected from buildings or the sky through a window. Adding...
