Lighting for Animation is designed with one goal in mind—to make you a better artist. Over the course of this book, we will strive to train your eye to analyze your work more critically by teaching you approaches and techniques that will enable you to improve your craft. We will focus on the main philosophies and core concepts utilized by industry professionals with the intention of building your foundation for a successful career as a lighting artist in visual effects and computer animation.
This book is not designed to teach specific software packages. There are websites, instructional manuals, online demos, and traditional courses available to teach you how to open a specific computer program and press all the right buttons. That type of training will teach you how to create an image; this book is designed to teach you how to make that image beautiful. We will teach you how to translate that technical skill into a successful and aesthetically polished final image.
The software package is just a tool. You are the artist. To use a metaphor, we don’t want to just teach you how to use a hammer; we want to train you to be a carpenter. We want you to have the type of training that will allow you to think critically and problem-solve intelligently to tackle any situation. After all, software comes and goes. Studios will have customized workflows or proprietary, in-house software. So learning a specific package does not necessarily translate to a better working knowledge once in the industry. Rest assured that the knowledge you gain from Lighting for Animation will be applicable to your work regardless of where your career leads.
At the end of the day, studios are looking for a good artistic eye and the skill to execute a successful final image. They understand new employees will need to be trained in their proprietary practices and software, but what they cannot train is your ability to see, analyze, and make the proper adjustments to produce a complete and polished shot. These are the elements that Lighting for Animation will put at the forefront to help you reach your full potential.