In this post, I shall be experimenting with lighting and showing how I will be applying it to my own work within After Effects.
What could lighting be used for?
-Light, if placed intelligently, can also help the flow and composition of a shot. It draws the viewer’s eyes toward the light source, leaving the background darker with the attention solely on the main beam.
-Colour used within lighting can generate emotions and atmosphere in the audience, complementary colours such as blue, red, green and orange are commonly used to express this.
-Particles and other visual effects use light to enhance features of movement or actions that happen within the environment or character. Within my project, I would like to generate particles such as lightning from the character when they run, using colours and lights to show the strength of the speed.
I will mainly be using lighting to draw the audience to the product, using lights to create a glowing temptation of energy to sell the product. This will also help exaggerate the character’s movements within the shots by making a few adjustments it can make them disappear and reappear naturally with a fade. Lighting can also help a couple of scenes blend together, especially when my shots are combined over each other, using colour correction to line up the appearance.
To begin, I started off by making the main focus on the actual character within the scenes. The lighting that I’ll be using for this would mainly be a spotlight that fades and brightens over time to highlight the character’s energy while running. I found doing this relatively easy as once I had the right opacity, I would note the intensity figure and fluctuate this over the timeline, also making the position of the beam follows the character’s body.
Result –
By executing this experiment, I have realised how important lighting is within scenes. It helps express certain features of the character generating highlights around the body to stand out from the environment. When I add the particles to the clips, I shall develop and layer the lighting further using colour correction to merge them into reality. Colour correction sometimes isn’t enough however to achieve the best result so I make sure to always film in the same daylight lighting also to make this even more effective.
In the next post, I will be experimenting and making my own particles for my commercial using Adobe After Effects tools.