Hey thanks for the fast reply :)

When putting in three point lighting, which is the best light to use for each? Right now I'm just using a spotlight for shadow projection.

spotlights, i use spotlights to light all my scenes, sometimes i use point lights, i hardly ever use any other lights :)

in one of the old issues of 3dworld there was a video about 3point lighting, you might wanna take a look at that as what i said earlier probably wasnt entirely accurate, actually, ill take a look at the vid now for you, ill post back :)

3 point lighting:
use it as a basis for scenes, you can always add more ontop of it :)

create a spotlight (main light). the main light should be more elevated above the scene than the other three lights (like the sun). change its colour to "eggshell" like. This light should have a high intensity so the other lights dont over power the scene. use the same light attributes as above to test out the light, you can change everything afterwards :)

create another spotlight, this is the secondary light source. change the colour to "pumpkin orange". this light should be comin in from the opposite direction than the main light. this light adds "mystery" to the scene. low intensity. use the light attributes stated earlier

create another spotlight (fill light). because we've already got 2 warm lights, we want to balance the scene out with a purpley colour (dark purple so its not too bright). position this light between the two other lights low intensity. use the light attributes stated earlier, altho you dont have to use a shadow in any of the lights apart from the main light.

the light colours can be changed to what you like (buti like the colours above).
dont forget, you can always add more lights to the scene to fill it up as needed, it really is all about experimenting :) 3 point lighting is essentially 3 lights at different angles :)

this is a really fast lighting method compared to global illumination and will give you almost the same effect (if used correctly)

Nem, is right. You can get get great results just starting with 3-point lighting and going from there. The render time is much quicker. The problem is, people see some great renders and hear that the person used GI_Joe then all of a sudden think it's going to be the end all solution to make beautiful renders so they have to have to check it out. I did the same thing.

One thing that makes me curious is if you have mentalray for maya, why do you need GI_Joe? GI_Joe is a script to compute pseudo global illumination. Mentalray with Final Gather is the real deal. Render times can be a little long depending on the amount of rays used but the results can be worthwhile. You might want to look at these tutorials:

Global Illumination in Maya (with MentalRaya 1.5)

Caustics and surface scattering with mentalrayFinal Gathering in Mentalray

Mentalray - Faking HDRI

Caustics in Mentalray for Maya

Various mentalray tutorials

i think a lot of people go with GI Joe because:
1. they dont have maya 4.5 (i dont, thats why i use GI)
2. they see other ppl using GI Joe, like you said
3. and thats all i can think of :)

mental ray is also weird because its not part of maya if you get what i mean, its an external program called in by maya, whereas GI Joe is an actual mel script

That's true but I'd think if you're going to spend the time to learn an application as deep and intensive as Maya and you have a great renderer such as MR, that'd be a given to delve into it deeper. I can understand though if you're not running 4.5. GI_Joe is definitely quicker to get up and running with. I still use it from time to time.

i can understand that :)
one thing really really annoying about MR is you cant render things like fur, paintfx etc, but you can with GI_Joe because thats just a lighting system, not a renderer :)

for those just starting with maya, stick with it until you learn a lot more about it before jumping in with two feet into a pool of unknown substances that could eventually drown you :)

Hey guys perhaps one of the biggest reasons why ppl prefer using GI_Joe over MR is because of the render speed. MR is so damn slow in comparison when it comes to GI.

Nem u say u hardly ever use anyother lights other than spots. I think alot of ppl approach it this way too. Only thing is, its probably not the best attitude to have when it comes to lighting for specific purposes. For example, directional lights are best used for outdoor scenes when u r trying to represent sunlight. When u use point lights, as in ur example...the angle of the shadows arent correct cos u find u have to position the point light so far away from the scene in order for it to light correctly. So the shadows kinda appear flat. Its a lot harder to create accurate sunlight from a point light.

But u r spot on (no pun intended lol) about using the 3 point lighting system as a basis to work from.

Lighting I think is the most important factor in making ur work move from adequate to top notch. If u have a great light setup, it improves the quality of ur render output no end :)

And yes...I think ppl should practice with creating their own light setups rather than just diving headlong into GI_Joe and what have u. It bodes better for the future. GI_Joe rocks tho!

Great examples in this thread Nem - top man!!

Thanks everyone, I cannot beleive the number of great members on this board ready to help out.

Nem, I'm going to try your tutorial on 3 point right now.

And Nitroliq, thanks for that. I saw some GI Joe renders and thought I needed it, but I'm getting close results with mental ray now, just the render times are quite slow.

Okay, here's the scene with 2 point lighting.

and now with 3 point lighting, I love the new mysterious feel to it :)

A close up 3 point render, 1024X768 using Maya Software render.

It actually looks really nice now, Im getting a few artifacts with the floor lighting though, the same as you were getting in Brians GI rendering thread. Notice the shaded lines on the ground?

Any way to get rid of this?

hmmm, weird, try turning the dmap filter size up

Well, I upped the Dmap from 400 to 500 and that helped a lot, but to get completely rid of the artifacts I need a Dmap res of 700.

Thanks for pinpointing that problem so fast!