Three-point Lighting in 3DS MAX
Picture 5 shows the face rendered with fill light only. You can try that by turning off the key light. It's often a good idea to test lights one at a time. When multiple lights are turned on it's not always easy to figure out how individual lights affect the illumination.
In real life fill lights are sometimes replaced by reflectors which reflect the light of key light. In 3D Studio MAX you can create the same effect by using a lighting technique called global illumination which creates indirect light by tracing light as it bounces from surfaces.
Back Light / Rim Light
Back light is needed when the contrast between the subject and the background is not enough. In real life the effect of back light is much stronger because of hair, clothes and other fuzzy surfaces. In 3D graphics surfaces are usually perfectly smooth and there are no little particles to pick up the light. Therefore, there is often a need to create several back lights in 3D graphics.
Create an Omni light according to picture 6 and give the following parameters to it:
Intensity/Color/Attenuation
Multiplier: 1.0
Advanced Effects
Specular: Off
(It's often a good idea to turn Specular off in back light so that it affects the diffuse characteristic of the surface only.)
Picture 7 shows the face rendered with back light only. Back light can be bright because it illuminates the edge of the subject only.
Three-point Lighting Rendering
Picture 8 shows the final rendering with three-point lighting setup in 3D Studio MAX. Compare this picture to the picture rendered with the default lighting of 3DS MAX to understand the differences between them.
