Basics of Lighting

Part One

The purpose of this tutorial is to go over some of the basics of lighting. I'm not going to lay it all out in a step-by-step manner. Everyone does things differently and this is just my own, special little way of doing it. It works for me. Anyway, one thing you must know is that most of the credit goes to GunMod's brilliant lighting mod. Without it, none of this would be possible. No amount of editing can compare to what that adds to pictures/etc. Suffice it to say, those without it may get varied results. GunMod's isn't for everyone, I don't play the game with it, but I don't think I could take pictures without. I edit, though, and if you don't edit your pictures they usually come out way too dark.

For some reason, people are convinced my 'dark' images are pretty awesome. I disagree. They are too dark! I get yelled at by my editor/fiance all the time for that. But oh well. Ask and you shall receive. I'll go over the basics of how I do lighting at night. Be forewarned, you have to have some knowledge of the actual game and the lights within. I'd suggest experimenting with them and learning what kind of light they cast and how.

Anyway, onto the tutorial. I'll be using the sims I created of two of my original characters, Seth and Celeste. Mostly because Seth has a darker skintone and Celeste's is light. Skintones do factor into this, also. The darker, the more the darkness will affect how they show up.

Let's make it dark and see how things look. Yikes. I can't see anything, can you? This is way too dark. We need some light on this hastily compiled lot!

There we go. That's better! I added a spotlight just a bit away from Seth and Celeste. As you can see, the light is focused mainly on Seth, illuminating his face almost completely while Celeste is left in the dark. There's some highlight there, but not enough to bring attention to her face over Seth's. Spotlights are great for close shots because you'll never see the light they cast on the ground. They also cast some really awesome shadows, plus they can be aligned so they focus on one character versus the other. Which is always cool.

Here you can see where I've positioned the spotlight. I haven't turned on any cheats, as you can see. Spotlights cast a wide beam of light and the further back you put them, the wider the beam, and the more subtle the light. Put them right at the foot of your sim and it'll miss the face completely. A good place to put them is within a square or so of your sims, as I have here. Let's see what happens when I turn on boolprop snapobjectstogrid false and moveobjects on; I'll move the spotlight so it illuminates them both, no longer constrained to the grid.

There we go. Now it's a bit more even. This is one of my favorite things to do, even if there's just one sim involved. Seth is turned towards the camera, so he's only catching half the light with his face, which casts some pretty awesome shadows. Spotlights are great for ominous or mysterious types of shots simply because they cast some great shadows and are very versatile, depending on where you put them. Now we can see both Seth and Celeste, but there's still a certain 'mood' to the image. Taking pictures isn't just about lighting and composition, it's about everything tangled up into one final product that conveys emotion and a feeling. You can even make an image seem like it's got movement despite being a still picture.

Let's pan back so you can see the positioning of the spotlight. Remember that spotlights cast their light in a beam that goes wider as it moves further out. They also cast it at an angle from the ground. It can be tricky at first, but after enough experimentation and a good eye, you can usually come up with some great pictures. You need to include composition and other basics of pictures, too, though. Lighting is just one piece of a very big pie.

If you're going for a more lighted atmosphere, you can add more than one spotlight and position them differently. Below I've added another light and as you can see, previous shadows are now gone and their faces are fully illuminated. Remember that when placing your light source to ensure it works no matter how your sims move. You can't change your light source inbetween pictures. Think about how light works in real life. A light is stationary, it doesn't move with you or try to complement your lovely features. So keep future movement/etc in mind when placing lights.

Here's a prime example of what I mean. Where did all the light go? All I did was have my sims interact with the same setting as above and it's all dark. While at first, you may think this is a mistake, it's not. It is something I do a lot, which is why I get yelled at for having dark shots! Composition, my friends. What's the first thing you notice? Seth's face, because it catches the most light. The focal point is his expression with Celeste's silhouette adding a nice tone to the overall picture. Be careful when trying to do this and think about the editing process you use. Do you usually end up making pictures darker? Then you may want to add just a bit more light to be safe.

Essentially, you just don't want to throw lights about willy-nilly without a thought as to what you'll be doing. Be meticulous. Have an image of the scene in your head. It's always good to visualize what you want first and then try to achieve it.

Let's move the spotlights around again. See what I mean about focus? From this viewpoint, it isn't obvious, but if I got a close angle, your focus would be on Celeste. She's catching the most light while Seth's over-the-shoulder view would be more like background (or foreground, rather).

Angling spotlights is very useful. I never work on a story without turning on boolprop allow45degreeangleofrotation true. Sometimes spotlights are best used when at an angle!

Okay, enough spotlights. There are other lights in the game, ones not so nearly as oppressive as the coveted spotlight. Let's tone things down a bit, give things a more intimiate air. Why don't we go with a more natural, candle-light light? Several lights in the game give off this light without the conical representation around the ground (which is annoying for distance shots), but these are my favorite. As you can see, it's just a hint of light and not nearly so white as the spotlight.

This type of lighting is very useful for more intimate pictures. Of course, the one below is a bad example because it looks like cannibalism. But you get what I mean. It's more natural, a little more dim. You can use this anywhere, even in the middle of a forest, and it'll look great. You just have to be careful that it's not too dark.

We can also employ floating lights, too. I find the nightlife disc lights are very useful. There's a wide array of colors, though my favorite is orange. It casts the same light as above, but at a wider spectrum, because it's not rooted to the floor. I usually place it about the distance I have it below. You have to be careful with lights when outdoors. Make sure you can hide them with angles or even sims. You don't want them popping up in your pictures!

Here's a closeup of the same setting. See the nice, gentle cast of light? I love it. Spotlights are great, but very unnatural. This, on the other hand, is more natural. You can see the sims, but it's still dark. There's still that believeability of them being in the middle of nowhere, sans light except for a fire or maybe a candle or something.

That's all for this one. Outdoor lighting is limited only by your ability to understand lighting and how it functions. You can't just throw lights down--there has to be some method to the madness. Constantly changing light sources and unnatural lighting in odd places can really take away from the picture, the feeling it's conveying, and the story. You want your pictures and text to work together, not against one another.

Experimentation is also very important. Do your own thing, find what works best for you. There are plenty of ways to do this, there really are, this is just one of many.

Please don't reproduce or copy this tutorial without asking first! And please, please, don't claim it as your own work. I'm very nice! Just email me if you want to post this somewhere or reference it. I really don't mind, I just appreciate a heads up. Thanks! -Mao