Introduction 介绍
We are going to review here some universal principles that can be applied on any CG movie. These principles have been developed by artists through centuries and have been adapted to our medium. Are directors of photography the new painters ?
我们将在这里回顾一些可以应用于任何 CG 电影的普遍原则。这些原则是艺术家们经过几个世纪的发展而形成的，并已被适应到我们的媒介中。摄影指导是新的画家吗？
I could not come with a better list of objectives of lighting than the one presented in the book Matters of Light and Depth by Ross Lowell. Here it is :
我无法提供比书中所列的更好的照明目标清单，书名为光与深度的问题，作者是罗斯·洛威尔。以下是清单：
- Directing the viewer’s eye
引导观众的视线 - Enhancing mood, atmosphere and drama
增强情绪、氛围和戏剧性 - Creating depth 创造深度
- Conveying time of day and season
传达时间和季节 - Revealing character personality and situation
揭示角色个性和情境 - Complementing composition
补充构成
This list looks pretty much complete to me ! I cannot think of more objectives than these ones. Nonetheless, I have tried to come with my own rules and see how they would fit in this list.
这个列表在我看来几乎是完整的！我想不出比这些更多的目标。不过，我尝试提出自己的规则，看看它们如何适应这个列表。
Continuity 连续性
Continuity is the maintenance of continuous action and self-consistent detail in the various scenes of a film. For readability and not confusing the viewer, shots from a sequence must look similar and have a visual coherence. Until we realized there was a certain flexibility with this rule. The whole question is there : how far can you go without disturbing the average spectator ?
连续性是在电影的各个场景中保持连续的动作和自洽的细节。 为了可读性并不让观众感到困惑，序列中的镜头必须看起来相似并具有视觉一致性。直到我们意识到这个规则有一定的灵活性。整个问题在于：你能走多远而不打扰普通观众？
It is one of the biggest topic in animation studios nowadays. There are like two different ways of seeing this : the purists of continuity who think all the shots must perfectly match. And those who think we have a certain leeway between shots. Each studio has its way of doing things : one may say that it is cultural.
这是目前动画工作室中最大的主题之一。对此有两种不同的看法：一种是坚持连续性的纯粹主义者，他们认为所有镜头必须完美匹配。另一种则认为镜头之间有一定的灵活性。每个工作室都有自己的做法：可以说这是一种文化。
From what I have experienced, it really depends on the supervisor you work with. You may get a very different response between studios. Ilion and Illumination really pay attention to continuity. Maybe too much. Craig and Grant have a complete different take on the subject. They really changed me. Let’s have a look at some examples.
根据我的经验，这真的取决于你合作的主管。 你可能会在不同的工作室之间得到非常不同的反馈。Ilion 和 Illumination 非常注重连续性。也许有点过头了。Craig 和 Grant 对这个主题有完全不同的看法。他们真的改变了我。让我们看看一些例子。
CG examples CG 示例
Lego Batman 乐高蝙蝠侠
First one comes from Lego Batman. I have set the Master Lighting for this sequence and lit a couple of shots. Can you spot the continuity break ?
第一个来自乐高蝙蝠侠。我为这个序列设置了主光源，并照亮了几张镜头。你能发现连续性断裂吗？
Here is the answer. This is a perfect example of what we are allowed to do on an animated feature film. Be prepared !
Camera angle is so different that you get away with it.
It is a direct cut ! Bane is in complete shadow. Cut. He is in light. Has it bothered anyone ? Not that I know of. Continuity is important but shots do NOT have to match 100%.
Craig Welsh used to tell us : We would rather break continuity than having an ugly shot in the movie. We prefer you to make a bold statement rather than being shy artistically.
This statement empowers you as an artist.
Storytelling on Lego Batman
What is important in the example above ? Storytelling. In the first shot, the bad guys come out of the woods as an element of surprise. They come from the shadows. In the second shot, they explain their motivation : Why did they come ? We need to shed some light on them.
From Dave Walvoord : “Audiences are incredibly forgiving with light direction inconsistency.”
And I think Craig and Dave are right ! My advice is as long as the shots belong to the same world, we’re good. At the end of the day, it is more important to respect a global feel about the shots rather than commenting on a slight change of rim on a background character.
If I recall correctly, it has been demonstrated that the human mind focuses more easily on details rather than the big picture (it may have something to do with left and right brain). And I think we should fight that.
A note to all supervisors : pixel f#cking makes artists miserable. Please focus on the big picture.
Here is another example from the same sequence. Breaking continuity everywhere !
A radical change of color on Killer Croc. Let’s not underestimate shot lighting !
Live-action examples
Continuity has been a hot topic on every show I did. I found the next example on this blog : Gurney Journey. It is an amazing blog that I really encourage you to consult.
Hugo
Let’s have a look at this clip from Hugo (Director : Martin Scorsese, DP : Robert Richardson) where the Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) interrogates Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz) and Hugo (Asa Butterfield) on their whereabouts.
Has anything disturbed you ? It looked pretty good, right ? Well, let’s have a closer look, at the shots.
Robert Richardson did a very good job in this dialogue sequence.
Actors are always backlit ! The lighting setup has been adjusted on every shot. Did you notice it ? Has it bothered you ? It does not bother me because the shots are still part of the same world.
The strong rim on Sacha Baron Cohen looks visually similar between shots. It ties them together. Yes it is adapted. But it looks good. I really like James Gurney’s blog but I completely disagree with him on this one :
James Gurney, commenting on Hugo Cabret : “a lighting continuity issue that was so distracting to me that it took me out of the film. When shooting the dialog coverage, director Martin Scorsese and cinematographer Robert Richardson reset the lights for all the closeups so that the actors were always backlit.”
Speed Racer
I would never hesitate to adjust my lights to make your shots look as good as you can. How far can you go ? I personally have rotated lights, tweaked their intensities and even their temperatures between shots !
But does it mean you can do anything ? Let’s have a look at an example that does not really work. From the introduction sequence of Speed Racer (Directors : The Wachowski Brothers, DP : David Tattersall).
I think we should have had a strong rim on the teacher in all the shots. To be honest, I found it so distracting that it took me out of the film. But it does not mean the average viewer will notice it. In the end, it is all very personal.
The Lion King
I cannot resist the urge to share with you this article on the Lion King. “Deschanel : When starting work on a scene, Sam Maniscalco, [lead lighting artist from visual-effects studio Moving Picture Company (MPC)] would look at it, and based on where we were in the story, begin to light it — considering the time of day, the location and so forth. He would also pick the sky to go with the scene; we needed to consider the mood, and we had 350 skies we could choose from. We would find the right clouds and sky color, and then adjust the sun to wherever we wanted it to be. You might think we would just put the sun where we wanted it and leave it there every day — but, in fact, that never happened. We moved the sun on virtually every shot.
Legato : That’s also something that makes the movie look like it was conventionally photographed. That so-called perfection of having the sun stay in one spot — besides the fact that it doesn’t look great shot-to-shot — is something you would only see in a computer-generated movie. That’s the ‘taste’ factor that makes this method transcend beyond a technical exercise. It might be mathematically correct to place the sun where it would actually be, but it’s not artistically correct — so you do something else to make the shot work. That’s why we brought you in, as well as other people who do these things in the real world.”
How to train your dragon
The following quote comes from Roger Deakins‘ website. Yes ! He is talking about How to train your dragon at the end of it.
Roger Deakins : Yes, in live action you can never shoot two shots with the sun exactly in the same place so, you scout your locations, work out your shots and shoot each with the sun in a different spot that best suits each particular camera angle. There is one film in particular that is totally back lit and that is Dick Lester’s ‘Robin and Marian’. It looks great but it doesn’t make sense if you really stop and think about the angle of the sun from shot to shot …. but you don’t. I was working on a recent animated film and we looked at the ‘real’ light in a forest as captured on a 360º dome and transferred onto our scene. Of course it was all green and mushy ! It was the real thing but it didn’t suit our scene.
Interesting example from Roger Deakins.
Matthias Menz : Lighting continuity is utterly irrelevant. The worst thing I have come across in my career time and again is the idea of being religious about a sequence light rig. That idea just never worked visually in my experience and it’s often enforced by supervisors with little to no visual understanding. Running a static light rig in 25 different shots, because you can, will not give you cinematography. Every shot has to be lit for its own needs while honoring a visual idea not a light rig.
Directing the viewer’s eye
Contrast
Contrast is the where the brightest and the darkest parts of an image meet. Your eye will always be attracted to the most contrasted area of an image. We have already seen in chapter 3 about contrast emphasis.
Hannibal
The example below from Hannibal (Director : Ridley Scott, DP : John Mathieson) has always fascinated me. Julianne Moore is poorly lit. But having a white sheet of paper behind her head helps direct the eye to her face. Sometimes you do not need a complex lighting but a great composition.
Notice the strong rim on her shoulders and soft light on her face. That is a very common technique for character lighting to avoid strong impact directly on the face. We will come back to that later.
At first sight, it looks like a counter-example of good lighting since Julianne Moore is poorly lit and therefore does not pop. But by having a white sheet of paper behind her and with a good framing, we may direct the viewer’s eye instantly to her face. A complex lighting is not always useful if composition is well thought.
Chocolat
Next example comes from the movie Chocolat (Director : Lasse Hallström, Cinematography : Roger Pratt). A kick light gives an extra bit of contrast to the focus point.
Another trick from Maël !
Both examples do have something in common : there is a foreground character in shadow. This technique known as Negative space is described in the next paragraph.
Negative space
Having darker objects in the foreground (a bit like a silhouette) and brighter ones in the far background will give depth to your shot.
Ninjago
Negative space was used a lot at Animal. First example comes from a Ninjago short called The Master (Director : Jon Saunders, DP : Craig Welsh).
First time I ever heard about negative space.
Se7en
The amazing cinematography by Darius Khondji on the movie Se7en provides us plenty of examples of negative space.
Akira
Look at this shot from Akira (Director : Katsuhiro Otomo, DP : Katsuji Misawa). You can clearly read foreground, middle ground and background in terms of exposure and temperature.
A clear read and distinction is pretty much desirable in a cartoon PBR movie.
在卡通 PBR 电影中，清晰的阅读和区分是非常可取的。
Do you see the violet volumetric in the street ? We used this trick a lot on Lego Batman to separate planes. We will come back to that a bit below but also in Chapter 7.
你看到街上的紫色体积了吗？我们在乐高蝙蝠侠中经常使用这个技巧来分离平面。我们稍后会再提到这个，但也会在第七章中讨论。
Bright object between two characters
两个字符之间的亮物体
This is a technique commonly used in movies : having a bright object between two characters ties them together. It took me a bit of time to understand the concept. But it is actually pretty simple.
这是一种在电影中常用的技巧：在两个角色之间放置一个明亮的物体将它们联系在一起。 我花了一些时间来理解这个概念。但实际上它非常简单。
It was first described to me by Mathias Menz and Sandip Kalsy in their masterclass. At first I was suspicious : why a bright object ? Why not a yellow object or a dark one ? But a few months thinking about it, here is my personal explanation.
它最初是由 Mathias Menz 和 Sandip Kalsy 在他们的硕士班中向我描述的。起初我有些怀疑：为什么是一个明亮的物体？ 为什么不是一个黄色的物体或一个黑暗的物体？ 但经过几个月的思考，这里是我个人的解释。
The viewer’s eye will generally be attracted by a light source. The contrast actually helps to keep the eye in the zone of interest. That’s a very powerful and interesting composition tool !
观众的眼睛通常会被光源吸引。 对比实际上有助于保持眼睛在感兴趣的区域。这是一个非常强大且有趣的构图工具！
You can find really good examples of this trick in many movies such as Bridge of Spies (Director : Steven Spielberg, DP : Janusz Kamiński), Tron Legacy (Director : Joseph Kosinski, DP : Claudio Miranda) or even Inglorious Basterds (Director : Quentin Tarantino, DP : Robert Richardson).
你可以在许多电影中找到这个技巧的很好的例子，比如 《间谍之桥》（导演：史蒂文·斯皮尔伯格，摄影指导：雅努什·卡明斯基）、《创：战纪（导演：约瑟夫·科辛斯基，摄影指导：克劳迪奥·米兰达）甚至 《无耻混蛋》（导演：昆汀·塔伦蒂诺，摄影指导：罗伯特·理查德森）。
Most of these examples come from Matthias Menz and Sandip Kalsy.
Matrix Reloaded
Let’s follow with an example that doesn’t really work. Watching Matrix Reloaded (Director : Wachowski brothers, DP : Bill Pope), it really hit me.
Here is my personal analysis : place the lamp where you want to focus the attention ! Otherwise it can really disturb the composition and the viewer.
Not a big fan of those Zion shots.
Usual Suspects
The following example, from Usual Supects (Director : Bryan Singer, DP : Newton Thomas Sigel), is about contrast and the bright object technique. Let’s watch !
The light impact on the door (screen right) really caught my eye in the shot above. It looks great but I was kinda wondering what was its purpose or justification. Until Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) sat on the stairs, his head being right in front of the impact ! Pure dramatic lighting.
In CG we would probably have tried a caustics light or a soft bounce. If we tried a similar impact on a PBR cartoon movie, it would probably look too fake and we would need a justification. We will see about this technique in the next chapter.
Silhouette
A silhouette is a dark shape or an outline of someone or something visible in restricted light against a brighter background.
It is a particular example of the negative space.
Strong silhouettes help to read the characters better. And guess what ? We always want to get a clear read on the characters. We really don’t want to be confused about a shot. When you light a shot you should pay attention to stuff like :
- Is the character speaking ?
- Where is the main center of interest ?
- What is the story point ?
- Where is my eye going ?
Lego Batman Silhouette
Silhouette is a great tool to direct the viewer’s eye. But I have not used it that often because most cartoon movies like to fill the shots with light. A shame. Lego Batman (Director : Chris McKay, PD : Grant Freckelton) is probably my best personal example. I clearly remember Grant saying :
Such an iconic silhouette as batman reads so well.
Herbert Heinsche from Animal Logic talks of a similar technique on his website.
Having silhouettes help directing the eyes and have a clear read of the action.
Third man Silhouette
Below is probably the most iconic silhouette in movie history : Third man (Director : Carol Reed, Cinematography : Robert Krasker). It is a classic ! If you haven’t watched it, just do it.
You’ll find below a complete analysis of the sequence. It was a very interesting exercise to do. What a tour-de-force !
Craig Welsh would do similar analysis during our weekly meetings.
Road to perdition Silhouette
Another great use of silhouette in Road to perdition (Director : Sam Mendes, DP : Conrad L. Hall). A forecasting of what is going to happen : the silhouette of Tom Hanks (Sullivan) with a machine gun overlaying the character who is going to die.
Many artists and supervisors consider this movie to be one of the best cinematography ever.
Cameo Lighting
The contrary of a silhouette is called Cameo Lighting : bright characters over dark background.
It actually comes from the Cameo Stone.
I just love this vocabulary. It is easier to communicate when concepts have a name.
Vignetting
In photography and optics, vignetting is a reduction of an image’s brightness or saturation toward the periphery compared to the image center.
In CG, it is quite common to ask an artist to vignette his lighting. Using a blocker, we can adjust by fading one or several lights and guide the viewer’s eye.
Barry Lindon
Let’s have a look at these shots from Barry Lindon (Director : Stanley Kubrick, DP : John Alcott).
Where does your eye go ? Not to the window, right ? It goes directly to the characters. Thanks to the glow (lens effect), the contrast between the window and the curtain is washed out and does not attract the eye. The characters are side lit over a dark background, it works perfectly. There is not a single thing that stands out.
Why is this composition genius ? Because the light in the back window has been blocked. Once again, in CG, using a directional by default, it would blast everything equally. This is why using a spot or a GOBO can make a huge difference.
It follows
The movie It follows (Director : David Robert Mitchell, DP : Mike Gioulakis) is another great example of vignetting. Cinematography is just gorgeous. It took me a while to realize it but inspiration for this movie comes from Gregory Crewdson’s work. Warning : viewer discretion is advised.
I just love the connection between those two artists. It is mind-blowing !
Complementing Composition
Something I would like to mention is that if layout does not look good, you will have a hard time making the lighting look good. The composition of the shot has to be properly done. Because sometimes you fight with a shot until you realize the composition is actually the issue.
Counterchange
Counterchange is the reversal of tonal relationships between a form and its background which occurs from one end of the form to another.
It sounds complicated written like this but really it is not.
Bridge of spies
I have actually used this technique for years without even knowing it. To put a name on the concept helped me to control it in a better way.
Every time I work on a shot I try to keep it in mind. It has been used in many movies and really helps to build the composition. Do you notice anything particular about this shot from Bridge of Spies (Director : Steven Spielberg, DP : Janusz Kaminski) ?
This was a game changer for me.
Pay attention on how the DP alternated shadow and light areas to have a nice composition. The bright part of Tom Hank’s face contrasts with the dark part of the background and vice-versa. This gives an instant read of the character and a rhythm to the image.
Let’s have a look at this beautiful sequence as there are many things to comment about it.
Below is a cinematography analysis on this sequence about continuity, counterchange and a nice lighting trick by the end of it !
This is pure old-school dramatic lighting. Love it !
Revolutionary road
Revolutionary Road (Director : Sam Mendes, DP : Roger Deakins) has some counterchange on many shots.
Great cinematography by Roger Deakins.
Classical paintings
Counterchange is actually a technique developed in painting. Check the examples below from Caravaggio, Vermeer, Georges de la Tour and Gerard von Honthorst.
Many DPs use classical paintings as a source of inspiration.
It does not mean we have to use counterchange on every shot. Of course not. But when it comes to composition and light, it is a tool you can use.
The secret life of pets
I have picked a couple of shots which could have been improved with some counterchange.
These shots still look good though.
Balance
Balance is essential in cinematography. We need our lights to be in correct proportions. I hate when the rim has the same intensity as the key. It is all about finding the right balance.
Grant Freckelton on Lego Batman used to tell us : “You guys have too many light sources at the same intensity. You cannot pick one above the others.”
Too often our lights cancel each other (as seen in Chapter 2).
The Star
Our next example comes from the movie The Star (Director : Timothy Reckart, Art Director : Sean Eckols). I have set the Master Lighting for this sequence and worked with a couple of artists to polish the shots.
Look at Bo the donkey on these shots. He is equally lit from the left and the right side. I find it very disturbing, it almost looks like a fake rim with incandescence.
I am not blaming the lighting artist here. This show has been very complicated in terms of quotas. This rim has been weirdly approved by people who did not know much about the sequence’s look.
Tron Legacy
It is generally recommended to avoid any symmetrical lighting. It (almost) never looks good. I guess that on the next example from Tron Legacy (Director : Joseph Kosinski, DP : Claudio Miranda), they did not have much of a choice because of the art direction. But it really does not help selling the CG character. It makes him boring and look even more CG.
All these comments on Tron Legacy come from Sandip and Matthias’ masterclass.
It was fascinating to see them commenting those shots.
Planet 51
First time I heard about balance was on Planet 51 (Director : Jorge Blanco). I had equally lit the character from left and right in one of my shots. Thanks to my lighting supervisor, Barbara Meyers, I reduced the intensity from the rim right screen. Here is the shot :
But it dos not mean that symmetrical lighting is not an option. There is actually a shot of mine where the character is equally lit from left and right side.
Lego Batman
On Lego Batman (Director : Chris McKay, PD : Grant Freckelton), we actually enhanced the rims from both sides. But there is actually an explanation for this. Let’s have a look at the shot :
Main difference between those two clips is the art direction. Planet 51 has more a natural look, compared to Lego Batman which is very stylized. Everything is symmetrical in the Lego Batman shot : the framing, the set dressing and the colors. So it makes only sense that the lighting reinforces that. Did we go a bit too far on the rim lighting ? Maybe…
Conclusion
We have seen in detail two objectives of lighting out of six. Therefore my list of lighting principles is clearly incomplete. But I have put the ones I use the most in production. The four remaining lighting objectives will be described in the next version of this book.
Lighting principles are cultural. And they are a very important part of the job. So do not hesitate to ask during an interview what is the lighting process of the department. It may help you when it comes to take a decision.
During my interview at Animal, I asked Craig about his process. I loved his answer :
We want everyone to work at the best of his abilities. Each lighting artist, lead, senior or mid, should feel responsible for their shots.
Sources
This is actually the shortest chapter of my book when it should be one of the longest. So if you wish to read more on this topic, please do not hesitate to consult the following links.
Articles and Blogs
- Craig Welsh’s blog, lighting supervisor at Animal Logic. Best blog ever.
- Herbert Heinsche’s website, lighting lead at Animal Logic.
- The 100 best-shot films of all time revealed by ASC.
- A blog from a Tasmanian cinematographer. Pretty cool !
- Cinematography forum.
- Some great resources from this website : Moviola and ProVideo.
- Forum of Roger Deakins and his podcast.
- DP Bradford Young and his tunable cine lenses.
- The Royal Ocean Film Society.
- ASC website : a really interesting article about Munich.
- ASC mag is a very interesting resource.
- No film school : article about practical lighting.
- Deep fried movies.
- Lighting for Film Noir by FilmmakerIQ.
- Cinematography Evan E. Richards.
- Cinematography Blade Runner.
- Linus Sandgren, DP of First Man and La La Land.
- Analysis of Blade Runner.
- Kodak blog on The Lighthouse.
- Cinematography Study.
- Film lighting techniques.
- Interesting study of Sicario Cinematography.
- trianarts about hyper realism.
- Yan Ostretsov Lighting 101.
- Eisenstein et la mise en scene (this book is only available in French I think).
- Christopher Doyle’s interview by the Film Stage.
- And our friends from the Lighting Club.
Videos and Podcasts
- Lighting is savage.
- Secrets from a lighting artist.
- The LightDark Academy.
- A very interesting cinematography youTube channel and one about the film industry.
- CookeOpticsTV about the work of Vittorio Storaro.
- Indy Mogul is an interesting channel on YouTube.
- Hugo’s Book Club about lighting books for VFX artists.
- Go Creative Show podcast. Really nice !
- A couple of Pixar videos: Sharon Calahan, Onward analysis.
- The Real Fake Cameras of Tory Story 4 and Imperfect lens of Wall-E (also available on Dailymotion).
- Sound Stage Access with Patrick Lin from Pixar.
- M3Conference with Erik Smitt, DP at Pixar.
- Hurlbut Academy and its playlist The Look Of.
- Mitch Martinez 4k embers stock footage.
- Rencontres Confinées 2020.
- Interesting video about Kubrick and Practical Lighting.
- Documentary about cinematography (Matthias Menz shared this link with me).
- Design Cinema about Cinematic Lighting Video.
- Light & Shadow Documentary.
- Visions of light documentary.
- Lighting for Storytelling by Richard Yot.
