From the course: Creating a Short Film: 09 VFX Environments

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Using practical lights to supplement VFX

Using practical lights to supplement VFX

From the course: Creating a Short Film: 09 VFX Environments

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Using practical lights to supplement VFX

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- [Narrator] In this tutorial we're going to look at using practical lights on set to help sell composites in post. Now in film lingo when we say that something is practical that usually means that it actually exists in the real world, so a practical light is just a real, actual light on set. I've found that using a practical light source on set can really help sell visual effects and make them feel so much more believable in post. Practical lights can do things that digital lights can't do, or I guess they could do with tons of additional work. Like, practical light wraps around corners and creates subtle shadows that would be almost impossible to replicate. Now if you look at this scene from Immortals, which is an absolutely gorgeous movie, there are some light effects here, but it doesn't look like they used practical lights to support the effects, like if you look at the characters face right here, there are still shadows facing the light that likely wouldn't be there if it was…

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