Materials beginner looking for advice for a setup to test materials

Support Materials and Textures
1

Hi all.

After getting comfortable with the basic aspects on mesh modelling, I’m looking to advance my journey with Blender by starting to learn about Materials. I will focussing on exterior still renders, and I am wondering if I should be using a scene to test out materials before I start to apply them to objects that I model. The video below shows an example of the kind of thing I have seen in the past: basic geometry for studio, a number of different lights, a camera and an object which materials will be applied to.

Unfortunately, the video doesn’t reveal the power values of each light so I wouldn’t know what these should be set to if I were to replicate this. However, given that intend to be using HDRI’s or a Sun etc… to light my scenes (instead of Point or Area lights), I am wondering if is this studio approach something I should be using in the first place, or is there a different type of setup that I should be using instead?

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It’s all area lights.
Check the manual for more options.

I don’t think I used HDRI. because I built a wall around the object.

Each lighting value is not very important.
Watch the video and adjust it appropriately.
I think the three lights have the same value, and the light in the large area at the top right will be different.

For how to handle lighting, watch the video about the photo shoot. 3-point lighting