I've been trying out ambient lighting on living rooms I have similar to what res1yfb1 is using.

Different colors will colorize a render without adding shadows. It doesn't add light to a scene as far as I can tell. It just changes the color of the air, or ether ;), in a scene which changes the overall lighting color for everything in the room. White will whiten-up an a render. Gray is a neutral color that can be used to brighten or darken a render. Yellow/gold will color everything as though the sun is lighting the render.

In scenes where there is only indirect lighting from a single glow source, ambient lighting will probably have to be turned up 40-50% to see the textures of cave walls and sewage tunnels that would otherwise be pitch-black if ambient lighting was at 0%.

HDRI backgrounds include ambient lighting already using the various colors of their images. Ambient lighting can change the mood of an HDRI by adding more yellow, red, or blue to a scene. I think Sky Lighting has to be turned on though in order for light to shine through the HDRI. The Sky Light uses what ever color your HDRI's or backgrounds are using. So ambient lighting isn't really needed for such scenes unless minor color changing is also needed to enhance a render.

And yes, you are right Patrick.

www.shonner.com

Message edited on: 08/28/2004 21:38

www.youtube.com/user/ShawnDriscollCG