Lighting Reference & Mood

The images below were found on the internet. They are a collection of lighting and colour examples which shall serve as useful reference.

Although these images do not depict the exact suspended lamp design that features in my film, these images do however have the components I wish to emulate in as far as lighting and mood.

I am focussing on the warm colours that are featured in these images such as yellows, oranges and reds. I am also looking for specific light gradient examples within the lamp shades and I am paying attention to potential texture examples. I am looking for a reasonably classic design.

An interesting lamp shade design. The variations in thickness in fabric create nice light patterns.
A good lighting example. The glow on the wall due to light proximity is very interesting.

The colours here are a perfect example of the type of lighting I am looking for.

I love the nice gradient of warm colours here. I want the lamp to be partially translucent, so that light can be seen within. This will give a nice glow to the scene. The fabric texture on the lamp shade is also very interesting. I wish to replicate the lighting, atmosphere/ mood within the photograph above.

Venetian Blinds

I want to try and create something like this for my own scene. I really like the streaks of light created by the venetian blind strips. It is a nice effect and I think it will add some realism to the scene.

Lighting Details

I love the light that is created by the lamp shade. The translucence of the lamp shade is causing a glow on the surfaces in close proximity to the light. I shall attempt to mimic this using area lights and translucence.

Lamp Shade Texture

Below are some new lamp fabric textures. I used two different textures that I found on CG textures and manipulated them in photoshop to create a new texture. I found that the previous texture was too simple and wasn't working that well when applied to the geometry.

New Lamp Shade Fabric Texture

New Lamp Shade Bump Map

This is a good example of an effective lamp shade texture. I took the original photograph and made some alterations using Photoshop. I used rough pastels to give the material a bit more of a rough texture and then I duplicated this layer and introduced some poster edges to add some interesting textures to mimic that of fabric. Hopefully this should be a very effective texture/ material shader when applied to the lamp shade 3D model.

For lighting research I decided to focus on looking at mainly film noir lighting and its typical techniques and methods of using a high contrast between light and dark, its long shadows and dimly lit and moody environments. After all my short animation is a thriller and concerns itself with a hit-man. Film Noir films in the 1950s were black and white and usually focussed on the crime thriller genre and hit-men did feature in these sort o films. I particularly chose to research film noir purely for its effective lighting which helped to convey a particularly gritty and mysterious moody atmosphere, which also managed to have a very artistic slant. Great abstract techniques can be used to achieve some very interesting lighting setups which can make the shot have more of an emotional impact. For example slits of light were used a lot to highlight the eyes of an actor or actress to achieve a dramatic shot to convey fear, shock or thought.

Film Noir "literally means "black film" or "dark film" which French critics named these new unusual but artistic American films. Film Noir generally utilizes strong directional lighting and deep shadows that initially derived from German expressionism in the 1920s.

I also looked at lighting used in Blade Runner (1982) as it is probably the best use of lighting I have every seen in a movie that is used as a tool to convey the period, emotion and mood. Despite that "Blade Runner" is set in the future and filmed in colour, it encompasses all of the classic elements of Film Noir in both plot and visual style. Ridley Scott did use "Citizen Kane" as a template for the look that he wanted in Blade Runner. Themes that link most Film Noir films together are moral ambiguity in plot and characters, a sense of pessimism and alienation.

What I hope to achieve is to replicate these examples and methods of lighting. I intend to use light to help to tell the story and convey emotion. My favourite genres are fantasy and science fiction, however with this project I wanted to do something different and more mature in content. This is why I have chosen to do a story about a hit-man in an awkward situation. I want the visuals in as far as composition, mood and lighting to be an homage to the Film Noir genre. I want to emulate a classical feel in a contemporary setting, and instead of black and white I shall use colour to convey the protagonist's morality, motivation and emotions to the audience.