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Activity Forums Adobe After Effects Lights make the world darker?

  • Lights make the world darker?

    Posted by Mike Derk on December 12, 2007 at 1:40 am

    Basically, I’m putting together a diorama. I imported some images from PS, and have assembled them into a “floor” and several things sticking up perpendicularly.

    Then, I made a new light, so I could cast some shadows. And the world got darker.

    I can see the shadows, so I know that the light is pointing in the right direction, but then I had to go in and adjust the materials options to make things look like they did before I added the light.

    Is there some default setting that acts like the far-away sun and simple casts shadows? It can even make things lighter, but I don’t really understand why things got so much darker.

    Oh, and I’m sure the area is inside the cone of the light, and not outside of it.

    Thanks,

    Mike

    Richard Harrington replied 18 years, 4 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Richard Harrington

    December 12, 2007 at 1:44 am

    Add an ambient light and adjust

  • Darby Edelen

    December 12, 2007 at 2:38 am

    Before you add a light to a scene everything is lit evenly, the equivalent of an ambient light at 100% intensity.

    If you add a point or spot light to your scene it will cast light only in a specific range, and the area outside of this range will be dark because it’s not receiving any light. If you add one spot light to your scene it’s like shining a flashlight in a dark room. If you add an ambient light as well it will evenly light all surfaces, but be careful not to make the ambient light too intense as the lights have an additive effect on one another (the area lit by the spotlight will become blown out if you have an ambient light with 100% intensity).

    Play with the settings.

    Darby Edelen
    Designer
    Left Coast Digital
    Santa Cruz, CA

  • Mike Derk

    December 12, 2007 at 6:30 am

    Is it possible that my single spot was simply too far away to light anything? I wasn’t doing much with the point of interest of the light.

    And, yeah, I was getting blow-outs. I was going into “material options” on each given thing and adjusting there to get a decent balance. Is this the long way round?

  • Richard Harrington

    December 12, 2007 at 3:33 pm

    Yes…

    Keep lights below 100% normally and add them up

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