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The (Poor) Animator's Guide to Lighting

  

  Before I can start animating any of my characters, I first need to photograph them in their many different pieces.  A leg here, an arm there.  The head and the torso.  All of these done separately so they can be rotated or bent in whatever ways I think I will need for that  particular animation.  Now ideally, I would do all of this in a little studio space with professional grade lighting (which I will henceforth refer to as "fancy lamps") but.... I have none of those things.  And that's okay! Because I have l access to the greatest fancy lamp of them all: The Sun! And best of all, I can afford it!

  Now the downside to using the sun as your main source of lighting is that, while the sun is good and great and all things wonderful, it shares the sky with its evil cousins, the clouds.  What's wrong with clouds, you ask?  They're sneaky little buggers, that's what.

  One of the MOST important rules for lighting is consistency.  If one photo is bright, they should all be bright. If one is dark, they should all be dark.  You can't have one random shot where your leading character has one bizarrely dark leg for no reason because that's just chaos.  And clouds, those dastardly villains of the sky, have the power to create that chaos.  It's all fine if it's a bright sunshiny day, but if there is so much as one cloud in the sky you may have a fight on your hands.


  An epic battle ensues.  Man vs. the elements.  Patiently waiting for that blasted cloud to get out of the way, when suddenly the angels sing and the sun beams are released and you run to your camera and take as many pictures as you can!!!

 

  And then that one, innocent looking cloud calls in reinforcements.

  So I guess my point is, if you have access to a studio and some fancy lamps, you should probably use them.  If not, the sun helps you get way better lighting (and overall pictures) than you could otherwise get indoors, so definitely try to get outside whenever you can.  Just know that nature is a mighty beast and there will be days that are not suitable to excessive photography.  But then you get to make a blog post and that's good too!

 

Much love,

Nicole