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Share via E-mailIn this tutorial you will discover:
- How to create realistic outdoor lighting
- How to model and texture oil barrels
- How to create bounce lighting
At times, lighting a scene in blender can seem like uphill battle with no end in sight. You spend hours tweaking lamp settings and adjusting world options, but it still doesn’t look right!
Is Blender’s internal render engine to blame?
Yes and no.
Whilst it’s no secret that Blender’s internal render is a little behind the times, external rendering engines like VRay don’t always provide a quick fix either.
If you read the book ‘Digital Lighting and Rendering‘ you will discover (as I have) that no matter what software you use, good lighting always takes time. Lighting isn’t as simple as making the objects visible, it’s about studying the scene and deciding on the story and emotion you want to portray, then experimenting with setups until you find what works best.
3d World magazine once featured an interview with a lighting artist from Pixar who revealed that they rarely used global illumination because it ‘takes away the control from the artist’.
So whilst external render engines may be technically superior, you are learning valuable lessons in lighting whilst you tinker around with Blender.
Let’s get into the tutorial…
Finished Result
Red Barrels Inc. - Where the bad guys go to deck out their fortresses
Textures used in this tutorial:
- PlasterWhiteDirty0107
- RustLeak0007
- RustScratches0035
- ConcreteDirty0108
- Red Barrel Inc. Logo
- Flammable Icon
Further Inspiration
Not sure where to go with this tutorial? Check out these inspiring links:
- Master Lighting Tutorial by Ben Simonds
- Making of Mirror’s Edge
- Jeremy Birn’s Lighting Challenges (great tips)
What topics would you like to see covered in future tutorials? Leave a comment below.
Download finished .blend
Great as usual. I got a little lost at the end, but I learned a lot non the less.
Thank you.
i think ya gay!
Great tutorial! I learned a lot about lighting.
Thank you
Here is my render: http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/455/barrelscenerender.png
Like a baws!
Thanks for the good tutorial.
Your tutorials are great! Cool to learn blender that way, thanks !
you from aladdin ya face iz gay
Really nice one. Thanx a lot Andrew.
cheers
Fantastic tutorial helped me get the hang of doing textures in blender because this is one of those things that i was not good at.
Thanks
Can you make a tutorial about game-things?
It’s really simple to say that 3d blender and cool, but one thing is certain is that There’s too much problem in the software adjust it to y ‘function that I can not even accreeder, but when I link the tutorial I found in images and even explanation, what for I do not understand
Andrew, I really love your tutorials. I’m just starting with Blender and I didn’t have any problems to follow your tutorials. I must say I’m also reading “Blender Foundations” book from Roland Hess, which really helps to fill in the gaps.
Here is my result:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69575270@N08/6319528248/in/photostream/lightbox/
A very good tutorial to learn more about textures and lights. Great work. Keep it up
here is mine:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=204269349652037&set=a.204268919652080.50892.132831550129151&type=3&theater
The fist time i did this when i did the UV projection it acutally looked like a human with all types of messed up shapes involved but i went back and did it more carefully like (e+z) So that i was only extruding on the z axis and i got straight lines and you talked about how it never works just to spike you but mine worked perfectly and didnt have that box hanging out over the right side so idk weird. It would be cool if you could do a tutorial on how to do and animation video by telling us how to design people and make them move and just little things like a guy walks over to a bench and sits down. It would be really awesome if there was some way to insert objects into blender like me take a picture of myself and insert myself into blender as a movable person.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1618300354358.47678.1741882166&type=1&l=4e3b716a91
This is my album
Excellent tutorial,as always. At least for me, although I’m a Spanish speaker you are not going fast at all.
The thing i liked less of the tut was the model of the barrel (can, drum, or whatever it is called), i don’t like the rips.
Here is my result, i don’t know why, but my barrels are like wet, as if they were covered by oil, any idea of how to fix this? Reflectivity/mirror too high maybe? Anyway it doesn’t look bad. Thanks Andrew!
http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/9500/barrilesrojos.jpg
Fixed, fresnel was too low.
i found the tutorial very interesting. one of the reasons i come to your site to learn is that you give a reason for why you have chosen certain ways to get around a specific issue instead of the, just do it cause i found it works approach of others. thank you for this style of education. My request is that you go more in depth on specific subjects (ex. hand done indirect lighting ) and make these their own tutorial. either way your doing a great job and i’ll be a supporter and pupil for as long as you wish to teach.
In your final render, how did you get your logo on the wall faded away?
can you tell me what screen capture software you using pls ??
Hey guys, sorry for shamelessly promoting myself on such an awesome site here
But go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/blenderaristocrat/ 
Would really appreciate comments!! 
Here is my render from this tut
https://picasaweb.google.com/115325840884820402730/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCIqMq8P_nv_aRg#5705685461986723682
Great tutorial once again!
Here my result http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/4245/beczkiv8.png
The ribs on the drums are to assist in transportation, you can put a special tip on a forklift’s forks which allows you to lower it over the barrel, but it locks up on the way up so it uses the ribs to stop on when lifting the barrel.
i start to learn blender and your explain very good everything even if im french and you speek fast bu clean think you for your tutorial free.