[Fade]

I have a small compact maze that i created for a scene, i also have some very simple characters that will be moving through the maze. (think a 3d pacman, except i want to have the camera actually move through the maze as well as look at it from above)

My dilemma is how to go about lighting it. I'm still fairly new to lighting and i'm not sure what kind of lighting to use for different types of scenes.

I've set the ambient light level to 0% (its not at 0% in the pic below) so that i can provide all the lighting manually, as i've seen recommended just about everywhere. However, because a maze has so many different areas, its very dark and shadowy, so you can hardly see the characters.

I thought about individually lighting each character with a 3 point light setup, but from shots from above this just shows small areas of light within a dark maze, also as the maze is so cramped some of these lights that are of course parented to the characters to follow them, disappear through walls as a characters turns a corner etc.

So, How can I light the whole maze as well as the characters, but not just have it look like i've got the ambient light level set to 25%?

I'm thinking that the solution probably involves a lot of strategically placed lights at different places in the maze and at different intensities, but what type of lights are best for this kind of scene, and how should they be used? I'd prefer not to leave too many dark areas within the maze.

I really appreciate any help offered, thanks.

p.s. have a look at the pic below for this to make a bit more sense

[leroy3rd]

I'm still a newbie myself, but I have always liked the look of a skydome with radiosity...

[Fade]

I was thinking about that myself, but wouldn't it take eons to render? I need at least a couple of minutes of animation. If anyone knows, please let me know.

[Mark]

You could try using overcaster to fake the radiosity setup (it's part of ekki's plugpak).

Failing that, provide a traditional 3 point setup of the entire scene, but rather than sticking a rimlight above and behind the maze, pop it directly above the center of it instead, make sure that it's bright enough to provide illumination of the floor of the maze and switch off shadow casting for it.

[Fade]

Excellent, thanks i'll give it a try!

[Fade]

Mark, I got it sorted. I initially tried using Eki's Overcaster plugin, the effects were great, unfortunately it interfered with the way i have my pacman character animating. I have it switching very quickly between different models, each one made to represent an original animation sprite from the real game, 4 in all. These shrink and grow in the same spot very quickly so it looks as if its just animating normally.

Because overcaster uses motion blur, it caused this switching to be visible. However, I tried the other method you suggested and also added another light below and this worked perfectly.

Thanks.

[Mark]

No problem. Now, lets see some renders ....