Texture Lighting Basics

Highlight is an important element to show the texture of an object, including the reflection of a line, a dot and a surface. Correct highlight will firstly deal with the source of light, this is essential, according to the position of the source and the path of diffusion, we can define side that faces the light and the side that is back to the light.

After positioning reflected light, we also need to know its characters. In addition, according to the different outline of different surface, we need to work out different shape of reflection.

For instance, an angle of a smooth surface will look like this, and its reflected surface will look like; At a sharp edge, it looks like, the reflected edge looks like; On a flat surface, it looks like, on a reflected surface, it looks like.

Below is an example to demonstrate the above points.

1. This is how you should position the light if the source of light is on the top left hand corner.

2. The highlights.

3. The combine effects of 1 & 2.

Edited By Dan Li