Character Presentation - LIGHTING
- Erik Chmil
- Oct 23
- 3 min read
I am updating some portfolio pieces and today I will show you how to present your characters through lighting techniques that will elevate your character presentation.
Presentation is super important and it's always a shame to see a decently made character, but appearing in artist's portfolio in a simple A-pose with no ligthing done at all, or even worse - a weird lighting with some tasteless textures on the background behind the character.
Let me give you an example of a bad presentation:
You see the difference? Let's just agree that a good posing, camera angle, lighting and some post production will extremely improve your final render.
So let's dive into the process!
Let's assume you start in any 3D software with a simple scene like this. Put your camera where you like it, mine is a bit lower that the center of the character and faces the character frontally.
Then I strongly suggest you Posing your character into a pose that looks suiting to the character/atmosphere.
A tip - make sure the silhouette is readable and avoid weird poses that makes it hard to read the character, just put it in a pose and angle that shows all the best features of your character.
No we are happy with the pose and camera and can start lighting the scene.
I suggest starting with a simple light like this, and then proceed straight to the rim lights.
If in the very beginning you will add too many "key" and "fill" and "back" lights (Three Point Lighting Technique) then it will be harder for you to create a nice rim light.
What is rim light? It's a nice silhouette light that makes your character readable, dramatic and also makes it stand out from the background.
Mark my words - there is nothing, I repeat, nothing worse than a character that blends with background, or god forbid - a background that's louder than a character.
Now take a look at my rim lights:
See? It's like you can almost fully read the character just because of a nice silhouette.
Placing rim lights is actually quite a meticulous process if you really want to nail it. You can also just place one big light bulb behind your character and call it a day, but if you put more time and love in it, then you will achieve a way greater silhouette. Lighting is something that can't be rushed.
Basically rimlights in my Blender scene are little spotlights, super bright but also with a very small radius. Just place those guys behind your camera and character facing right at the camera.
Now we can finally add bigger lights:
And there we are. Almost done. Just a couple little tricks to make it pop more.
First trick - add a colder area light looking upward from ground and covering legs of the character - it will add more color dynamic, and also prevent the legs being too dark, it's a common thing.
Trick 2 - If you want a nice vignette without adding it in Photoshop - just add a light that looks right at the background, it will also stand out the character even more and kinds of "focuses" viewer's attention in the center.
And the last trick I did - I added real water caustics in the scene to add a little texture on the background to fit the "water theme"
This trick obviously only works for this particular scene but I am pointing out that you can be creative and do whatever you want as long as it works :D
Just avoid making your background too saturated or loud, if you want textures or a whole 3d scene to surround your character - make sure the character is still the main focus. I saw thousands of portfolio pieces where a decent character with lots of time and effort put it - simply disappears in a crowded scene or too saturated texture.
That's it, now you know how to light your characters!
Final result:
More of my work on Artstation - https://www.artstation.com/chmillout
If you ever need help with character modeling, game-ready pipeline, texturing, lighting etc. - contact me, I am happily offering video consultations.
See you soon!
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