03 Lighting

The Spotlight

Radiosity (older tutorial)

[Polish] Barsign in Blender

"Global illumination is a very popular method for lighting three dimensional scenes. Unfortunately, most of the methods are very slow and requires lots of ressources. Ambient Occlusion is a method for simulating global illumination, while keeping a respectable ratio between results and computing times." [feeblemind]

"The main usage for area lights (in order to answer to a very frequently asked question by many beginners) is achieving shadows with soft borders. But they are also useful for simulating the lighting of a supermarket, a computer screen or a cloudy outdoor." [feeblemind]

LIGHT - a detailed tutorial

"A rig is a standard setup and combination of objects; there can be lighting rigs, or armature rigs, etc. A rig provides a basic setup and allows you to start from a known point and go from there. Different rigs are used for different purposes and emulate different condtions; the rig you start with depends on what you want to convey in your scene. Lighting can be very confusing, and the defaults do not give good results. Further, very small changes can have a dramatic effect on the mood and colors. At major studios, lighting is an entire step and specialty. Well, let's get out of the darkness of confusion and let me enlighten you."

THE most important thing in 3D rendering (be it for animation or stills) is lighting.

This Blender Summer of Documentation entry covers a lot of basic (and some advanced) principles one needs to consider when lighting a scene.

"Configuring 3D lighting is similar in many ways to what is done in the real world with photography and video. One of the easiest to create and reliable lighting methods is the Three Point Lighting model." (from katorlegaz.com)