Moho Animation Forum

That's something that get around my head from long time ago:
What's the best way to give light (or darkness) to an scene using AS capabilities?

I have investigated about that and I think there are some techniques that solves the situation. What I want you to help me on what's the best choice.

Let's assume that your 'scene' is in a single vector layer (otherwise encapsulated with a Group folder). There are two posible situations: A dark scene you want to light or a light scene you want to dark. As well as one implies the other we can study both at the same time. The options are:

1) Add a shape in the same vector layer (white like or black like color to light or dark the scene). Give it a proper alpha value and apply a soft edge to the shape (optional). It would produce a lighter or darker area where it lies. It is not useful if you want to light and dark an scene at the same time unless you take account of the position and shape of the dark and soft shapes at the same time.
2) Add a shape with similar color values BUT in other vector layer. Apply a blending mode to the layer that allow light or dark the scene properly. For example to light an scene I have found very useful the Overlay or Illuminate blending modes for a "white like" overlapping shape. It is quite interesting due that you can use different blending methods for the light and the dark layers and can be aaplied at the same time over the scene, giving opposite results and anulating one to the other in the proper area. Also blurred areas can be cut using masking to simulate some tipes of rays (maybe coming form a window). Even this cut can leave different ammount of blur to the lighted area depending on if the blur comes from the mask or from the lighted shape itself.
3) Same like avobe but give the blur to the layer instead of the shape (with this you can animate the blur of the light/dark to give a more nice effect)

Do you have other way of adding light/dark to your scene?.

Related with this: What lumminace level should I use for the color scheme of my scene? If I choose it so dark it would be difficult to light adding 'light' shapes? Or if I choose them so clear colos could be very difficult to dark them properly?

Finally, I'm sorry for not post examples but I cannot access to AS just now.
-G

1. Create different styles for your characters and props: a day style and a night style. In most professional productions a character in a night scene isn't just "darkened" a bit but painted completely different. Same goes for backgrounds. (Some nice examples for day/night colour styling can be found at http://louromano.blogspot.com/2007/08/p ... girls.html)

2. I'd use a single blue shape or gradient and set its layer to "multiply" to get a night look.

3. Take care to render some frames from this and watch it on your destination format - on a real TV set, for example. Otherwise it could happen that your scene is so completely dark that nothing can be spotted.

4. It's not only darkness that depicts "night". It is a completely different lighting concept. Think of long shadows, different light sources, reflections.

slowtiger wrote:1. Create different styles for your characters and props: a day style and a night style. In most professional productions a character in a night scene isn't just "darkened" a bit but painted completely different. Same goes for backgrounds. (Some nice examples for day/night colour styling can be found at http://louromano.blogspot.com/2007/08/p ... girls.html)

2. I'd use a single blue shape or gradient and set its layer to "multiply" to get a night look.

3. Take care to render some frames from this and watch it on your destination format - on a real TV set, for example. Otherwise it could happen that your scene is so completely dark that nothing can be spotted.

4. It's not only darkness that depicts "night". It is a completely different lighting concept. Think of long shadows, different light sources, reflections.

Thanks for the tips, specially the numbers 1 and 2.
Regarding to color styles for character and props I can imagine that I can use actions to change from one style to another. In that way I can animate the transition from one style to another (have anyone done this before?)

I'll try to post some samples to figure out how can achieve the best results.

Thanks again.
-G

If you are thinking about backgrounds, as opposed to characters or props, you might consider how this was done before computers! In the 19th century, dioramas were fashionable for a time, and it was possible to demonstrate a scene changing from day to night by using a little ingenuity.

Let's say for simplicity sake it is a picture of a house with one window. The paper would be translucent. The house would be painted on with opaque colours, leaving the window clear. Any foreground would also be opaque. The background would be painted in something like watercolour. To simulate nightfall, the lights in front would gradually be dimmed, and lights behind the paper would gradually be increased. Now the house would be in silhouette. If the lights behind the paper were red, then you would have a sunset!

You might try simulating this with a computer...Should be easy for someone of your talent!

J