Ultimate Guide to Colors Part. 03 [Lights & Shadows Continued]

Hello dear visitor, and Welcome to the Ultimate Guide to the Colors Tutorial | Part 03.
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In this part we’re going to show you the many factors that will determine how an object will look when light hits it.


Some of these factors are:

1. Time of Day and Night;
2. When the light source is: Flashlight, Sun or etc…;
3. How many light sources there are;
4. How close your light source is;

5. What color your light source is;
6. Where the light source is;
7. Is there reflected light?;
8. How much light is in the room?;

Light will bounce off different object differently, if you hold up a plain white piece of paper to a light bulb, some of the light will pass through. This is because the paper is very thin. However, if you hold a brick to the same light bulb, you won’t see through the brick, this is because it is dense. This is called transparency, or how ‘see-through’ something is.


So, for some more experienced players, there’s something called SSS (Subsurface Scattering), which simply put is when light goes into some translucent object (i.e. Skin, Honey, Marble and Milk) and bounces around inside, then goes back out.
You can see this by putting your Nose, Ear or Hand against the bright light.

This isn’t too important, but it is useful when painting and trying to create something realistic.

One of the biggest things that will effect how light acts around an object is well, the object.
Something shiny will reflect light a lot, while something matte will absorb the light. I mean you don’t exactly see super-sparkley-shiny bricks, right?

Also, depending on the objects texture, it will make light act differently. Soft material like Fabrics and Skin will absorb more light then reflect it. While TV-Screens and Marbles will reflect more light than absorb. And other surfaces, such as Cement and Black Objects will absorb almost all of the light.

That’s it, you’re done. Congratulations! :)