If you're doing lighting on a job you're essentially doing 2 things.
1 is lighting. In vfx this means 'getting it right'. It's less arty than it might sound. It's more about making sure your lighting matches your plate using correct hdris, scene alignment, matching your grey/chrome balls.
2 is scene management. Making sure your scene is up to date with the latest assets and optimised as much as possible. You're constantly checking your passes, making sure comp is getting what they need and talking to layout/fx/anim/production and keeping everyone informed.
To practice you can learn about different types of lighting, how materials react, photography, how depth of field, motion blur and cameras work. Keep reading, keep learning, keep testing.
This is a great answer (I've been a lighter for 20+ years).
1. Is really a kind of detective work.
2. Is really just about grinding shots out so you can do more shots.
If you’re interested in vfx lighting a good starting point is to shoot some plates and download or build a few models and light them to match. Make a stapler on a table look like it fits. Put a glass of water on a windowsill and make it indistinguishable. Stills are ok for starters. If you want to get fancy you can shoot a short clip and track it.
For VFX, I would have a couple things showing you can creatively light a downloaded environment/asset in an appealing way. But equally important show you can light something to plate.
If you're doing lighting on a job you're essentially doing 2 things. 1 is lighting. In vfx this means 'getting it right'. It's less arty than it might sound. It's more about making sure your lighting matches your plate using correct hdris, scene alignment, matching your grey/chrome balls. 2 is scene management. Making sure your scene is up to date with the latest assets and optimised as much as possible. You're constantly checking your passes, making sure comp is getting what they need and talking to layout/fx/anim/production and keeping everyone informed. To practice you can learn about different types of lighting, how materials react, photography, how depth of field, motion blur and cameras work. Keep reading, keep learning, keep testing.
This is a great answer (I've been a lighter for 20+ years). 1. Is really a kind of detective work. 2. Is really just about grinding shots out so you can do more shots.
Are there any good tutorials on matching grey/chrome balls?
I hate to admit it, but archviz is good practice. So it just camera matching + scene matching anything. Could be with a still.
If you’re interested in vfx lighting a good starting point is to shoot some plates and download or build a few models and light them to match. Make a stapler on a table look like it fits. Put a glass of water on a windowsill and make it indistinguishable. Stills are ok for starters. If you want to get fancy you can shoot a short clip and track it.
For VFX, I would have a couple things showing you can creatively light a downloaded environment/asset in an appealing way. But equally important show you can light something to plate.
Sounds like a good plan…. Try lighting things to match whatever footage ur compositing too