Lighting and Shading for Film Production

A 6-week course focused on lighting, shading, and rendering in Arnold for Maya, and explores how the software has helped shape today’s modern entertainment industry.

Enrollment is briefly extended though the course has recently started.
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OVERVIEW

INSTRUCTORS

COURSE OVERVIEW

Lights! Maya! ACTION!

This course focuses on lighting, shading, and rendering in Arnold for Maya for feature films. Students will set up a simple lighting scene and learn the differences between Direct vs Indirect Illumination, light typologies, and designations. They will learn high-level transmissive materials: refraction, caustics, sub-surface scattering and mixing materials. Students will take the skills they’ve learned and composite various elements together, reconstruct lighting and shading using Nuke, and cover good rendering strategies.

Course Format:

Standard

Duration:

6 weeks

Materials:

Maya 2019 (or later), Arnold 5.3, Nuke 11 (or later), Photoshop

Lecture Type:

Pre-recorded

Assignment:

Due each week. Expect to spend 10-15 hrs/wk

Skills Level:

Intermediate

Feedback:

Individual recordings

Q&A:

Once a week

Prerequisites:

Must have taken Intro to Maya or familiarity with 3D concepts and Maya.

Course Format:

Standard

Duration:

6 weeks

Materials:

Maya 2019 (or later), Arnold 5.3, Nuke 11 (or later), Photoshop

Lecture Type:

Pre-recorded

Assignment:

Due each week. Expect to spend 10-15 hrs/wk

Skills Level:

Intermediate

Feedback:

Individual recordings

Q&A:

Once a week

Prerequisites:

Must have taken Intro to Maya or familiarity with 3D concepts and Maya.

Course Format:

Standard

Duration:

6 weeks

Materials:

Maya 2019 (or later), Arnold 5.3, Nuke 11 (or later), Photoshop

Lecture Type:

Pre-recorded

Assignment:

Due each week. Expect to spend 10-15 hrs/wk

Skills Level:

Intermediate

Feedback:

Individual recordings

Q&A:

Once a week

Prerequisites:

Must have taken Intro to Maya or familiarity with 3D concepts and Maya.

COURSE OVERVIEW

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

EXPAND ALL COLLAPSE ALL

The more you know, the better.

Week 1 | Introduction, General Lighting and Shading Tour

Week 2 | Rendering Procedures

Week 3 | Light Sources Typology Pt 1

The quality of light theory: big lights vs small lights | Soft and hard lighting | Natural lighting: the sun and the directional light | Natural lighting: the sky and the Skydome | Artificial lighting: Spotlights, gobos and light falloff | Artificial lighting: Photometric lighting | Light emission and self-illumination

Week 4 | Light Sources Typology Pt 2 and Light Designations

Week 5 | Material Descriptions and Surfacing

Week 6 | Rendering and Compositing

Lighting and Shading for Film Production

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

Instructor

Bringing out the best in talent

Frederic Durand

/Noroc Studio

LECTURES BY Frederic Durand

Frederic is a lead lighting artist and look developer of photo-real effects for movies and commercials. Working in films and commercials for the past 20 years in Los Angeles, London, and Paris, he has had the opportunity to work at Sony ImageWorks, Disney Features Studios, DreamWorks, Jim Henson’s Workshop, the Mill, and Moving Picture Company (MPC), among others. His approach is not only technical but also artistic, as he heavily emphasizes and integrates cinematography aspects into his work. In addition, he has strong a drawing, painting, and photography background, and continues to hone these crafts on a regular basis. He earned his Master of Arts from the Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratifs (ENSAD) and studied at the Cooper Union in NYC. He is very experienced with RenderMan, Arnold, V-Ray, and Nuke, and has over two decades of teaching experience, most notably at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts.

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Lighting and Shading for Film Production

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WINTER TERM REGISTRATION

Oct 18, 2021 - Jan 31, 2022

ONLY

$599

COURSE BEGINS

January 26th

PRICING SCHEDULE

Even though our courses are the most affordable for the quality of education.

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”

Richard Pereira

Very thorough and informative lectures and critiques

”

Sandra van Gasteren

I really loved how Frederic started with the basic info about lights and shaders, and worked his way up to the advanced stuff. It was really clear that way.

”

Susanna Leu

I am glad I have taken Fredric’s course because he made the course interesting, which is really helpful for me to memorize all those difficult technical controls of the software. He also gave helpful artistic advice. Those improved my skills a lot.

COMPANIES THAT HIRE OUR STUDENTS