The Key to Realistic Renders in Blender

Lighting is probably the most important skill you can obtain in 3D, so why is it so overlooked by most beginners? In Blender we can use lights to our advantage and take our renders from OK to AMAZING!

To get all the projectfiles from this video including the Castle scene join the Patreon!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Get NIS Light Pack here (and help support the channel at the same time!);

Check out some great product lighting examples and animations here;
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
🫶Support and Follow:
Instagram - @Kaizentutorials
Twitter - @kaizentutorials
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
📚 Blender Courses I Like:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:34 Lighting for Better Storytelling
04:52 Lighting the Better Renders
10:11 Lighting for Product Renders
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
🎶 Music:
Epidemic Sound
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some of the links in this description help support the channel!

[Polygon]

I’ve been focusing on lighting a lot lately and it’s the most frustrating for me but super rewarding when it starts to look good

[volvy]

8:23
Taking notes:

Monochromatic: same color (darker or brighter)
complimentary: 2 colors opposite each other on the color wheel
analogous: 3 colors beside each other on the color wheel (realistic- sympathetic)
Triadic: put a triangle on the color wheel and take the colors on each corner (Balanced)

when making a project:

what is the mood this image should have?
what story I'm trying to tell?
which color will pop and which will go unnoticed?
can I emphasize certain things with more color/light?

[CubsYT]

0:48 Saying "Dark is bad. It's no coincidence that the dark scares quite a few of us" while bringing up this clip was uncalled for 💀💀

[cptfurball]

If you could make some tutorials about lights and color theories, that'll be great!
💡💡💡💡💡💡

[DaviSilveira]

Let's just make one small thing clear on this fantastic video... The gaffer only does what the Cinematographer aka Director of Photography (DP) asks him to do. The DP makes all the choices of lights in the scene. He uses Gaffers to execute his and the director's vision. :) thanks for the video!

[HaiderAli-wmmq]

Yoooo I'm in the video thanks for including me!
Awesome video too, you explain the complex topic of colour theory very well.

[Gonza_GS]

Great video as always, Kaizen! Just a small correction regarding the Gaffer; their role is to provide technical solutions (creativity is always involved as well) to the ideas and aesthetics proposed by the Director of Photography/Cinematographer, the one that decides where a light goes or what intensity is the DoP. A good starting point is looking at some of the most important Cinematographers like, Roger Deakins, Doyle, Kamiński and more.

[Kreuzrippengewoelbe]

It's textures/shaders. Lighting is just the cherry on top.

[GaryParris]

lighting is very important, understanding these visual art practices and those of photography and filmography based on visual arts is key to 3D as well! Seek more information from outside your bubble. as both a visual artist and Pro photographer i can move between the three things and know how to use them, get out look at real world but galleries and exhibitions!

[AlphaKilo]

Thanks for the secret. I'll be waiting for that colour theory video.

[domin]

Well, the episode about color theory is a brilliant idea

[elisem]

Gem packed of value - I had some painting classes in past so colour theory is familiar for me, but how it applies in lighting was amazing to see with examples. I will apply it for my video colour grading as well haha💡

[anndreivasile]

I tried to grasp color theory from graphic desin and apply it to blender, but I'd be awesome if you made a video on it! 💡💡💡

[RoboThePanda]

Im surprised you didnt mention that you can also use texture nodes on area and spot lights like you would an emission plane! then you can have even more control of the lights softness, distance, and cone apart from just changing the size and strength of an emission plane for similar results

[dominicdavis]

Most replayed part - 3:37 and 11:10, very informative. Love this whole video in general. Learned a lot. Thank you. Subscribed.

[ardxncy]

Loving your new editing style Kaizen!! Keep up the good work

[HVYRAY]

Excellent as always; thanks for sharing. I would be interested in color theory videos. 💡

[JulesOtway]

13:05 You can do this with lights as well when rendering in cycles. Just Enable gobo texturing and add your texture in the shader editor. I don't know if it's the case in cyles, but I know in other path tracers, emissive objects and lights are calculated differently and emissive objects create more noise than an equivelant light. Again, don't know if that's the same in cycles but it's good to keep in mind

[Tomy_Yon]

Light: good, dark: bad. 😄
Enlighten me 💡

[SodaDjinn]

Another fun fact: In Blade Runner 2048, yellow is always used when K (Ryan Gosling) comes closer to the truth.