How to Create Realistic Outdoor Lighting

In 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

At a Glance

Screenshots from the video:

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.