Basic Lighting in Maya & Arnold - Physical Sky

 

In this simple tutorial, for Autodesk Maya beginners, we explain how to achieve a super basic lighting setup in Arnold using the settings in Physical Sky. This is as simple a setup as it is possible to achieve in Arnold, and gives good results for an outdoor scene with just a few clicks. For those who want to dig deeper into lighting and rendering, follow the link to our Vimeo Tutorial Channel, which has hundreds of video tutorials for our students.

"Physical Sky" Outdoor Lighting Tutorial in Maya & Arnold

1. Open Autodesk Maya. Make sure you are in the Render menu (top left)
2. Render/Render Settings/Render Using/Arnold
3. In the Render Settings/ Common Tab, go to File Output: Select JPEG
4. Set Image size to HD 720
5. Now go to the Arnold Renderer Tab - Select Arnold/Lights/Physical Sky
6. Do a render test - the scene probably looks a bit dark
7. In the Attribute Editor, take Intensity up to 4 or 5 to make it brighter. Or lower to make it darker.
8. Go to Sky Tint to change the colour of the sky.
9. Sun Tint will do something similar. Play around with the settings until you get the look and feel you want.

Simple Lighting Setups in Arnold

To see some other simple lighting setups in Arnold, follow the links below:

• Basic Lighting in Arnold - Sky Shader
• Basic Lighting in Arnold in Maya - Physical Sky
• Create a Starry Sky in Arnold and Maya with Arnold Skydome

Lighting and Rendering at Escape Studios

To find more lighting and rendering resources at Escape Studios, follow the links to our Vimeo Channel below:

VFX - Materials, Lighting and Rendering

• Materials, Lighting and Rendering
• Texturing in Substance Painter
• Lighting and Shadows in Maya
• An Introduction to the Arnold Renderer
• Real-Time Rendering with Unreal Engine
• 3D Stereo Rendering
• Escape Studios Qube Render Farm

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