Provide lighting control similar to KeyShot, along with falloff and shape control
In commercial rendering, precise control of lighting has always been an essential feature. However, currently, Blender's lighting—whether gradient falloff or shape control—is non-procedural. Highly realistic commercial renderers like KeyShot rely heavily on precise procedural control of lighting, which frustrates me when I try to replicate it in Blender. Even though I've faked this functionality using math nodes in Blender, it’s still not user-friendly. I believe Blender’s lighting should integrate these necessary procedural capabilities. Additionally, regarding lighting control, the Light Wrangler add-on currently offers an excellent user experience, very close to that of KeyShot—allowing control of lighting position and rotation with just the 1 and 2 keys. In fact, I think this feature should be built into Blender as a core function; it would make Blender much more widely used in commercial scenarios.
4 Comments
Have you tried the light falloff node ? Lights in cycles can be controlled completely by nodes so you can use linear to make your own. Additionally, light falloff in the real world is always quadratic, so using it in KeyShot makes your renders less realistic. (Of course, artistic choice is always more important than realism, so do as you will)
Yes, I have used this node, and it does deliver excellent soft light effects. However, my main point is about procedural shape control and quick lighting adjustments similar to those offered by plugins. In the field of electronic product visualization, most materials have reflective surfaces. It is necessary to precisely control the specular reflection shapes of light on objects to achieve an attractive appearance, even if it does not align with physical accuracy. In e-commerce product visualization, the requirements for gradient control and reflection control are very strict. So I’m wondering if it’s possible to get more convenient similar functions in Blender. Node-based operations, on the one hand, have a relatively high learning threshold. On the other hand, using gradient or math nodes for control currently results in a poor user experience. I believe that if Blender can complement this part of the functionality, it will shine brightly in the field of product visualization.
If you're going for a good looking reflection, have you considered modeling the lights or using IES textures/HDR light images? If you need absolute control over the way the light looks, you can't beat modeling it outright, although it will take a lot of work. If you don't have the time or don't want to put in the effort to model it, then an IES light or HDR photo of a light would probably be your next best option, although it is pretty hard to find the right IES texture, and most HDR light photos seem to be locked behind paywalls. You could make your own, but that would require a good camera or an IES creating software.
Of course, these options are certainly neither easy nor convenient, and Blender has a lot of room for improvement, but a developer is working on improving lights , so maybe (hopefully) we will have more control over lights soon.
Currently, I mainly rely on gobo-like lights. The problem is that switching gobos in actual work means assets or textures need to be replaced. Perhaps enhancing the procedural nature of shader nodes can better address such issues, but for now, gobos are actually quite cumbersome for light control. As you mentioned, I think corresponding updates may be available in a future version, which will provide greater support for commercial rendering—I’ll keep an eye on it.