![[UPDATE #2] How do I get good at lighting](https://media.piefed.social/posts/yN/wU/yNwU1JvRQiyrcKY.png){kind=link}
Original Post
So this is one of my attempts at lighting.
It looks awful.
The skyscrapers here are lighted form inside with a point light, since they are hollow.
I am using a sun light too to make the general scene brighter, its too dim without one.
finally, one spot light that is linked to the humanoid (i.e it only applies to the humanoid) to give the humanoid more highlight.
oh forgot to mention there is a slight fog to dim the background, using a cube with volume scatter
Update 1
So after following some of your tips and suggestions, I have achieved the following result:
What I did:
- Use an HDRI as a base
- Change sun position to make shadows visible
- lower sun strength
- change the light color of the skyscraper behind the humanoid
- change the highlights position and color to match the skyscrapers around
- modified the fog, increased its visibility and changed its color and density
Although it doesnt look perfect nor great, I am very happy with how it turned out , and that is thanks to everyone here.
I am planning to make more changes, based on the other comments, like that comment that suggested bloom, so expect another update inshallah 😄
Anyway, really like the new render, thank you lemmings 🤍
Update 2
I have added bloom, with few lightning tweaks.
Its time to move on to the next render, this will be the last update. Thank you everyone!
Use references, watch tutorials, follow them, don’t listen to ppl saying not to do tuts, that advice is for people who have already used the software for yeaes and are stuck only doing tutorials, you’ll only get good following ppl who know what they are doing ans getting good habits initially. I’m trying to hit 1 tut a day right now, still feel way behind from where I want to be 2 years in. If I didn’t do any tuts id be so much further behind, just fiddling with sht cluelessly.
Nothing wrong about watching/following a lot of tutorials, just have to be wise about doing it. Following tutorial should not be the goal.
I’d give some exception for those introduction-style playlist like the infamous donut or similar, for total beginners that want to actually do something in Blender, make that a goal. Once they know their way around and familiarized with how things work then the goal should be whatever they are trying to make and use tutorial as a crutch.
Some tutorials have misinformation and unless you are diligent with referring the manual, experiment or dig really deep, you will not catch it. Some top blender content channels are guilty of this. I don’t see them often but they’re out there. Some are of low quality and may teach you to do things in a not-so-optimal way. The latter are more frequent.
Every extra course or tutorial on the same subject will give diminishing return. I still sometimes watch them on 1.5x or 2x speed without touching blender, and if lucky, they may contain some tricks or knowledge I haven’t come across yet.
I wish I could just mindless watch tutorials, I end up turning a 10 minute one into an hour or two, because I go back and implement them into other effects I made where it makes sense, shade them unique from the tut, usually just using index some way and make them more resuable by adding options/settings(I use geometry nodes primarily) I have like 50 tuts saved from high priority to low priority with folders for short, medium, long, feel like id be so much better if I could just get them all done, but even short ones end up taking a lot of time.
There are more than a few really good yt tuts on making buidings and cities, def check out some on lighting/compositing, I also tried making cities with no reference from scratch without following any tuts when I started.