I need to make a turntable animation for an object, but I am not sure how to light it to get a consistent light all around? What is the best way to approach this?
I would parent the lights to the camera, or rotate the object without moving the camera.
hi. thanks for the response. But how would you set up the light? I’ve seen turntable animation tutorials with a 3 point lighting. But I’m not trying to emphasis one particular detail but for it to have a somewhat consistent lighting throughout.
I would set up your 3 point lighting as directed by your tutorial, then add an empty at the pivot point and parent the lights and the camera to that empty. Now animate the empty to get your turntable animation. You’ll have the same 3 point setup to get the object lit decently from all angles.
Now, you can extend that by adding additional lights as needed. I often add area lights, scaled to a narrow rectangle of light. I then position this light as needed to add a glint of light on an edge or surface. (Think of the effect of a sharp knife blade glinting in the light).
The simple solution is to set up three-point lighting as you would for any shot. Then rotate the object. You seriously can’t go wrong with this approach and it takes the least amount of setup.
In order to reproduce the surface very precisely, a so-called light tent is used in photography. This is a cloth that envelops the whole scene and is evenly illuminated with many lamps. So you get a very soft light which is also excellent for photogrammetry. In 3d this can be easily simulated with e.g. 6 large area lights arranged cylindrically around the scene.