Lighting In SL Movies

I posted recently about the use of sound in SL to create more dimensional layers in machinima. I'd like to open the discussion about light (atmospherics).

There are presets in the World, Environment settings menu (Midday, Sunset, Sunrise and Midnight), if you go deeper into the Enviroment Editor, you open a window that gives you access to more controls. Advanced Sky is where I will go in this thread.

You have 3 tabs in Advanced Sky, Lighting, Clouds and Atmosphere.

Lighting allow you to set the various settings for the angle of the sun/moon, taking it higher or lower in the sky using the day slider, then adjusting its position along the horizontal plane to locate the light source, this gives you not just control over the location of the sun/moon into the scene, but the contrast against prim facets. Using the scene gamma slider, allows you to increase/decrease the light source strength. Adjusting the Focus and size of the sun, gives you control over how 'fuzzy' the sun will appear in the scene.

Combine these settings alone, with haze in Atmosphere tab, allows you to sharpen/soften the light. You can reduce the scales of haze, both on the horizon, right up into the skyline. There are also sliders to increase the colour of the haze, to emphasise maybe the blue of the sky/water along the horizon, along with intensity of that colour cast.

Clouds tab, you can control the type of clouds, their scale, height within the skyline, even the direction and speed in which they scroll across the scene. Seeing fast moving clouds in a scene, can add more movement within a relatively still scene, or slowing them down/removing them completely, in a still sunset, to make the scene perhaps more relaxed, or speeded up in a busy scene.

You can create your own templates that you can use over and again, using the New button, and giving it a meaningful name. I create mine referencing them to each contract we do, relating to a specific scene. Useful if I crash, or shoot over more than one day. Using the drop down box to select them. You will see there are already a selection of templates supplied. You can make your own adjustments to them and create versions that suit your own style. These can also be shared between people via email. Once loaded into the correct folder on your system, they become available for use.

Taking time to make fine adjustments in these tabs, will add a uniqueness to each scene you capture, reducing that SL samey look. You can create some really wild effects that have an artistic appeal in themselves. Why not create a orange sky, have the sun peeping through those palm trees, then add a lens flare in the editing programme, that flickers with the swaying of the trees as they cut the light.

If you can control the scene (have the ability to build), why not go to the trouble of adding flexi shadows that mimic the swaying of the tress, in the right perspective? You can also create a deeper depth of feild but shading prim faces. Most builders use white tint on their prims, why not use shades of grey on shadowed areas to emphasise those darker/deeper areas, graduating them further into the distance, will create a natural looking depth of feild.
I quite often do this with plants and trees. Adding grey tones to those plants in denser areas of a scene.

What is sometimes overlooked when shooting a scene, is looking at shading and atmospherics. If you look at a movie that looks natural, and you dont actually see the enhancements such as shadows, light switches, skirting boards, then you have acheived another level in your craft. When it looks all the same, and potentially SL(ish), flat and bland, then you are not taking advantage of the inbuild tools, available to you as a Director. You don't need to spend money making those enhancements with expensive editing programmes, they are there at your fingertips.

Once you have explored this area, why not go into the water feature.