Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

certain kinds of lighting. Maybe you are trying to simulate track lighting. You
wouldn’t light it like a space hangar, which again speaks to the importance of having
solid visual reference material. You’ll also want to position lights in new and unique
ways to achieve your intended effect. For lighting interiors it’s often useful to clip out
lighting configurations from architectural magazines to use as reference. I have a file
cabinet full of them.
I’ve found that a good exercise to build your lighting skills to the point where you
can begin to accomplish your intended effect is to take a scene photograph from a
fantasy movie scene (Cinefex magazine is a perfect resource) and try to rebuild or
re-create the lighting in your software tool. Then, feel free to experiment. Lighting is
fun, and it’s all about discovery. Light the same scene using only sidelights. Challenge
yourself. Next, use only overhead lights, and then use only floor level lights. Now mix
and match them all. Doing this will help build up the tools in your lighting toolbox.
Light Color
Your scene lights will commonly cast off a color determined by an RGB value (the
amount of red, green, and blue in the light’s color). You can use this to great emotional
effect. Apply a little color theory here. If you want to infuse the scene with tension,
or reflect a cold emotional setting, or just create a “cold” character’s lair, throw
in a heavy blue value to your lights. If you want to accent a fireside chat scene within a
12 th
century hovel in Ireland, warm up the lights with heavier doses of orange, purple,
and yellow.
As previously mentioned, human emotional reaction to light color is a research
topic unto itself. For our purposes, it’s easy to understand why it’s so important to
learn about how we all respond to color, and then try to apply that learning to your
game scenes. There are some basic rules, but you should investigate their boundaries.
You should feel free to experiment with these ideas, and to try new things. Sometimes
you might want to use a certain amount of juxtaposition. Experiment with throwing
in light colors that do not correspond directly with mood and see what happens. Pay
attention to how cinematographers use light color in films. You will probably find
that they gear the color or tone of light in the scene to support the emotional context of
the scene. Pay attention to how stage lighting designers use light color in theatrical settings.
Above all, work toward forming your own comprehension and understanding
of how light color can be used to transfer tone and mood in environmental settings.
Basic Lighting Types
C H A P T E R 3
Generally, to compensate for the various tools and technologies you might find yourself
using to build games, you have several types of lighting to draw from in most
game development situations.
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Lighting, Texturing, Particles, Effects, and Audio