Introduction

The 1003 light rig set have been created to allow you to work on assets of different size (for example a microscope, a character, a vehicle). All the setups have been created to a consistent scale, where 1 Maya unit = 1cm, with all the lights created from real-world HDRIs, captured in the studio here at CAVE Academy.

The idea behind the studio space is primarily to add some natural reflection to your assets and also have you work in a more restricted manner, as you would be in reality. For example, you cannot position a camera behind a wall. Instead, you’d need to look at playing with your camera focal length to frame an asset.

• Maya Studio Look Development and Lighting Rig 1003

The 1003 studio space has been specifically designed to work with the below light rigs (although you can create your own custom setups), allowing you to use the relevant light rig for the type of asset you are planning to look dev:

• Maya Material Development Lighting Rig 1003 – for developing materials.
• Maya Prop Look Development and Lighting Rig 1003 – for small-sized assets (usually props)
• Maya Character Look Development and Lighting Rig 1003 – for medium sized assets (primarily human-sized characters)
• Maya 360 Look Development and Lighting Rig 1003 – for close-up shots (primarily heads) and sub-surface-scattering testing
• Maya Vehicle Look Development and Lighting Rig 1003 – for mid-to-large-sized assets (cars, trucks, robots, spaceships, dinosaurs)

Look Development Workflow

Calibrated for Asset Creation and Review

All the setups (and this is the important part) have been setup to allow you to create and review your asset data in a neutral environment. The lighting has all been calibrated so mid-grey is mid-grey and black is black and white is white. Red is also red, blue is blue, and so on and so on. This is important as it allows you to properly assess the colour and look of your assets without your lighting being contaminated by colour light sources.

Material Development Calibration Render (for material development)

Prop Calibration Render (for small-sized assets)

Character Calibration Render (for mid-sized assets)

360 Calibration Render (for characters and sub-surface scattering)

Vehicle Calibration Render (for mid-to-large-sized assets)

Setting up the 1003 Studio Space

The base setup is the Look Development Studio. This is based on my office space and it is where I do a number of asset shoots (primarily small and medium sized assets). For large assets, I’ve scaled up the environment and created a cyclorama to mimic a number of car shoots I’ve participated in.

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