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Lighting is tough and it can be quite challenging, but it is always rewarding in the end. It can either break your renders or take your renders to the next level.This article will help you achieve good lighting for your characters, and not only that, it will work for every character.This tutorial is for Blender but you can apply the same concept in any software.Concept:We are going to use reverse key lighting technique, in which the subject is lit from the opposite side of the camera or the dark side of the subject.This technique is mostly used in cinema and films where the subject is shot from its dark side.Not only that, we will create two different lighting setups, one for the dark and one which is natural.We will also learn the concept of light blocking and light linking.Backlight:First we have to create some highlights which will create some depth between our character or subject and the background.You can do that with an area light in Blender.Add an area light.Make sure to enable the copy global transforms in the preferences.Select the area light and select the camera with shift, press control + C, and select copy location, do the same for the rotation.Change this to the 3d cursor, rotate the light at 180 degrees. You have to place the light behind the character just like this.Play with the intensity until you get some highlights like this. This will separate our main subject from the background.Key Light:We need one more light which will create sharp shadows, this will add some mystery to the character.Add another area light.Move it to the top of the character.Rotate it a bit so that it goes behind the character.Decrease the spread and play with the intensity until you get something good like this.Add Emotion/Life:This part is optional but it can sometimes add some emotion into your character.In films, characters have a small light reflection in their eyes which shows some kind of emotion.This makes a huge difference, and you can do this in Blender with light linking.Add an area light.Move it closer to the eye until you see some reflections.Once you are happy with the reflections, go into the object tab and go under the shading tab. Make sure the light is selected and create a new light link, drag the eyes and drop it into the light link tab. This light, now, will only affect the eyes.To get those circular reflections, you can use something like a softbox texture, you can get one for free from here. SoftboxReduce the spread value and open the shader editor. Check “use nodes” and add an image texture, open the softbox.exr and you are good to go.You can see the huge impact it makes and the softbox makes it more epic.Now, if you add some volumetrics and lens effects, your character lighting will be complete, and it will look great, but if it's too dark, don't worry, this article will cover everything.Fill Light:If you are not a fan of cinematic lighting, you can use an HDRI as a fill light to fill some dark spots.The best place is polyhaven.com.Get a 4k HDRI in EXR format, EXR gives more control over multiple things like exposure and more.In the shader editor, switch to the world tab and add an environment texture.Add the HDRI you got and play with the intensity.The best way to push the HDRI is by using a math node, changing it to power, and setting the power to point one.Light blocking:The HDRI will more likely ruin the character lighting because it lights from every side, and it looks bad and breaks the reverse key lighting concept.You can fix this with light blocking, which is a standard way to reduce light where you don't need it.You can do this in blender very easily.Add a plane.Create a new material and increase the roughness and change the color to black. This is necessary because white reflects light, and we don't want that.In the object tab, uncheck the camera under the visibility tab in object properties, and switch the viewport display to bounds.Rotate the plane and set it to the front of the subject, scale it so that it blocks the light.You have to experiment with it to achieve the best results.I hope this article will help you to achieve best character lighting in Blender, and when you are done with the lighting, try the cloud rendering service Fox Renderfarm to render your character in high quality faster than ever.You can get free credits to start your journey.

Cinematic lighting is hard, and it can be quite challenging, but it is always rewarding in the end.This type of lighting is different from the traditional way of lighting; it's more about telling a story than lighting a subject. It can either break your renders or take your renders to the next level.This article will help you achieve cinematic lighting, and it will cover every concept you need to know. This tutorial is for Blender, but you can apply the same concept in any other 3D software like Unreal Engine 5 or Cinema 4D.Concept:The most common way of lighting used in films is reverse key lighting. It is also called “short lighting” or “narrow lighting”.In this technique, the subject is lit from the opposite side of the camera or shot from the dark side of the subject.This technique is mostly used in cinema and films where the subject is shot from its dark side, this can add depth and mystery in the scene.Example:Have a look at this example, this shot is lit from the side of the camera and it looks like a flashlight.It doesn't have depth.The Image looks flat and has no meaning.On the other hand, this same scene is lit from the opposite side of the camera.Adds depth and mysteryCreates highlights that separate the background and the subject.This can easily be done in 3D as we can play with the light and move it wherever we want. Again, this tutorial is for Blender but you can apply the same concept in any other 3D software like Unreal Engine 5 or Cinema 4D.Demo:Let's start with something practical.Press shift + A and add an area light.You can control the strength size and the sharpness of the area lights in the Data tab. It would be better if you switch the transform pivot point to the 3D cursor so that you can rotate the light around it easily.The camera is facing this side, so I will rotate the area light on the X axis until it touches the edge of the plane. You will immediately notice that the shot is already looking good, but we can make it better.Increase the size of the area light so that it matches the size of the aspect ratio of the camera.You will notice that the object, which is our main focus, will look dark, and we don't want something like that. To fix this, add an area light and move it to the top, rotate it slightly until you get something like this.We only want the second area light to affect the subject, so in order to do that, go into the object tab, go under the shading tab and you will find light linking.Make sure your new area light is selected and create a new light Link.Drag the subject into this box and you will immediately notice that the light will now only affect the main subject.This works for all kinds of shots. Additionally you can use a fill light to add more light into your scene rather than using light linking. There are plenty of ways to do this; one of them is to use an HDRI with low strength.Get an HDRI from polyhaven.comGet the 4K one in EXR format, EXR gives more control over multiple stuff like exposure and more.In the shader editor, switch to the world tab and add an environment texture.Add the HDRI you got and play with the intensity.The best way to push the HDRI is by using a math node, change it to power and set the power to point one.Light blocking:The HDRI will make the render look flat, and it is better to use an indoor HDRI which has one or two windows; that way, you can rotate it so the window is opposite the camera and it acts as reverse key lighting. You can use outdoor HDRI but it will look flat because it lights from every side, and it makes the shot bad and breaks the reverse key lighting concept.You can fix this with light blocking, it is a standard way to reduce light where you don't need it.You can do this in blender very easily.Add a plane.Create a new material and increase the roughness and change the color to black. This is necessary because white reflects light, and we don't want that.In the object tab, uncheck the camera under the visibility tab in object properties, and switch the viewport display to bounds.Rotate the plane and set it to the front of the subject, scale it so that it blocks the light.You have to experiment with it to achieve the best results.This is a huge topic and can have multiple ways, but this is my workflow that I use to achieve cinematic lighting, and I hope this article will help you achieve cinematic lighting in Blender. When you are done with the lighting, try the cloud rendering service Fox Renderfarm to render your character in high quality faster than ever.You can get free credits to start your journey.

CG Photorealistic humans look great until you have to create your own human character in Blender, you have to learn a lot of things, and animating it is another challenge, but in this article, I will tell my workflow of getting photorealistic humans in Blender and animating them using Daz and some other tools.The best part is that I have mentioned free alternatives of every add-on and plug-in I have used to make it easy for you guys to test it out.RequirementsFirst of all, you will need the latest Blender version: https://www.blender.org/You will need Daz Studio, which is completely free: https://www.daz3d.com/get_studioYou will also need Daz to Blender Bridge: https://www.daz3d.com/daz-to-blender-bridgeFor skin, you will need the global skin or humanify add-on, and you will need 3D hair brush add-on for hair: 3D Hair Brush, Humanify or Global SkinDaz SetupLet's set up the Daz Studio first.Go to the Daz website and sign up, it's completely free.Download and install it.Open Daz Central and download Daz Studio.Search for Blender Daz Bridge and download it. Blender SetupLet's set up Blender.Go to the Blender website and download the latest release. You can also install it from the Microsoft Store or Steam. You can use the old versions by going into releases and downloading the portable version.To install an add-on, go into preferences, go in the addon tab and click “install from local”Character DesignLet's start by creating the character.Open Daz and skip the intro menu.Go into the content library.Go under “Daz Studio Formats > My Daz 3d Library > People > Genesis 9 > Character.Make sure you are under Genesis 9 because those are the most realistic ones.I would recommend you to add “Matt for Genesis 9”, which will give you basic eyebrows and facial hair by default.Select the character and select “All” in the parameters tab, you can search for head and body morphs and play with the slider to get a shape that you want.You can also change the eye color, go into the smart content and search eyes. Select the one you like, you can do the same for the eyebrows, make sure you are changing the material.Note: Don't add hair in Daz, it does not work correctly. We will add hair later in Blender with an add-on.Export from Dazlet's export it to Blender.First, make sure to save the Daz file so you can change the character settings later.To export it, go into file (top left corner), click “send to” and select “Daz to Blender”.A new menu will pop up, check “advanced settings” and change the Blender "plugin installation" option to custom. Click install plug-in, it will ask for Blender location, select the version, go into scripts, addon and click okay.If you get any other message here, make sure that you selected the correct file path.Click export and you are good to go.Import To BlenderIn Blender, open the tool panel with “N” and find the Daz tab.If you do not find it here, go into preferences and search Daz to make sure it's checked.Open the Daz tab, scroll down, and uncheck the scene settings under the Import tab.Now, click Import and you will get your character in Blender fully rigged and ready to use.Skin:The default Daz skin is not that good, so it is better to use an external add-on like Humanify or Global Skin to add some realistic details.Install the addon from preferences. You can get the addon from here: Humanify or Global SkinOpen the side bar with “N” and find the addon.Open Humanify or Global Skin panel.Just select the mesh.Select the skin you want and click Apply Skin Shader.Hair:The default Daz hair does not get imported in Blender and to fix it, you can use the free version of the 3d hair brush add-on, which contains 4 free hair presets and it's pretty easy to use.Install the addon from preferences. You can get the addon from here: 3D Hair BrushOpen the side bar menu with “N” and find the addon.Click the “Load Base” button and you will get this hat type thing.Try to match it with your character head and when you are done, select your character head in the target drop box and click the shrinkwrap button.Now just choose which preset you want and click the “switch preset” button.You can bind it with your character head, go into pose mode, select the headbone and select the hair with shift, press “Ctrl + p” to parent with the bone. I hope this article will help you create the best photorealistic CG human in Blender without sculpting, and when you are done creating it, try the best cloud rendering service Fox Renderfarm to render your character in high quality faster than ever.You can get free credits to start your journey.