The definition of "light" is "electromagnetic energy within a narrow range of frequencies capable of causing the sensation of vision." The human eye/brain combination acts kind of like a radio receiver tuned to receive this particular range of radio frequency energy. Just as the radio is programmed to receive and understand specific frequencies, all providing different moods; hard rock, classical, new age, rap, etc, — so does the human eye/brain combination. Black and darkness is eerie, mysterious, evil, while white and bright is angelic, good, and happy. It's programmed human nature.

First-timers in any media often overlook the importance of lighting. In larger film and interactive game productions, a group of people are assigned to focus exclusively on lighting techniques and effects. As mentioned in Chapter 3, the same visual lighting effects used in visual storytelling today (from film to comic books) was first introduced by D.W. Griffith during the early days of silent film era. These were the first special effects. Today, lighting technicians, camera operators and computer graphics artists require real-life lighting experience and theoretical background to develop exceptional lighting effects. There are big dollars at stake and a film re-shoot can be expensive, and the lighting layers of the 3-D modeling in interactive games usually takes more time than rendering the animated characters themselves. Computer graphics artists will often use sophisticated cheats to squeeze lighting out of the limited offerings found in most 3D rendering engines. Cheats like hanging many soft lighting effects that cast only diffuse light, or pre-rendering the lighting effects into texture maps. The same holds true for any type of photography, including film, which is why much of a film is still shot on a sound stage – more control of all the elements.

Illustrators of static imagery need to be very careful with "lighting cheats." In film more than interactive games, the momentum of the linear experience can hide some of the subtle errors. What are the chances that the scene is only five seconds long? Interactive games have it tougher, as the player may decide to explore the scenery for hours, making the chances of discovering inadequacies much higher. This leaves the comic artist, whom does not have the opulence of any real pretense; it's all there in black-and-white (pardon the pun). A reader may admire a single page of artwork for days, returning to it once again months or even years later.

We need to understand how traditional computer graphics ray tracing and comic lighting differs from real physical lighting, which is far easier to replicate in photographic film. Lighting in the real world is diffused; fluorescent tubes with wide surface area, frosted light bulbs and lampshades. Human beings do try very hard not to find themselves in the direct beam of bright headlights. However, traditionally in comic books and computer graphics, there's most often a small point source. This harsh lighting creates sharp shadows and less dimensional looking characters and objects. The newer 3-D rendering programs provide for better handling of such lighting effects for interactive games, and comic books thanks to computer coloring, has provided the flexibility of more "natural" lighting, through multi-layered more interactive coloring techniques, rather than flat process color choices. Comics are a visual storytelling art form where natural lighting may play second fiddle to a more expressionistic illustration technique, much like how the pioneers of film, when they too were only black and white.

The early interactive games were flat 2-D, even more two-dimensional than comics, but dynamically animated so the idea of lighting wasn't a real issue – it moved. It was a flat animated world, but with the advent of 3-D rendering, from Doom to Toy Story to the more sophisticated X-Box games, such as Hunter; The Reckoning, lighting is a real issue (see Figure XX in Chapter 5). Previous methods in interactive game development, involved using many more light sources, or area lights that increased rendering time and costs, so until the system becomes easier, "real world lighting" will stay in the real world. It will become easier as an after effect of more and more films being rendered (3-D and traditional animation), rather than photographed. This is due to America's new found acceptance to the comic book style of visual storytelling – surrealistic, dynamic and exciting.

To explore lighting techniques further, let's assume that light is a photon wave. In the real world, a single light source constantly shoots photon lights waves from the bulb, in all directions throughout the room. These light waves shoot around until they make contact with another object. If the object has a white matte and opaque surface, it will naturally absorb the light waves, but reflect at least some back out into the room. This new light wave has been compromised by the white opaque surface, so they may cruise at a different intensity, until it connects with another surface, where it will be absorbed again. Some light waves will emanate from a new object, back into the room, once again looking for another object. Each bounce changes the lights' energy and eventually, it disappears; absorbed into the last surface it touches. This is how a room is lighted. The point of explaining all this is color, which has a dramatic effect on light and lighting. For example, a flat black surface will absorb most of the light wave like a black hole, while a glossy red surface will stain the light rebound wave red.

The light wave will lose momentum after each object it contacts. It will also become dimmer as it passes through space, so in order to create more natural looking lighting, a figure closest to a light source would be more illuminated than the furthest figure. The light wave isn't really losing energy as it dims, but falls off or gets absorbed once it enters a larger area. In computer graphics and comic books, the artist can control this light wave far more than film, as it's all completely rendered by an artist, who can artificially compensate for light failure.

Artificial Light

Real World Light

Human beings perceive the wavelength of light as a hue, ranging from long waves in the red portion of the spectrum to blue and violet in the shorter range of the visible spectrum. In other words, we see hues of colors, not black and white, and everything in between. In black-and-white comics, the artist can master the same techniques used in the classic black and white films such as Citizen Kane, where the "mood" was mastered to establish more reality, making up for lack of color, but most comics are in color, so creator can have expressionistic art and also experiment with multiple light sources. The more references in the real world and in other media used (and the more time spent on each panel) the more outstanding the end result.

Comics' illustrators have the advantage of surrealistic lighting, whereas the "mood" can be artificially created, without having to follow the natural laws of the light spectrum. In film and interactive games, the photographic images or photographic quality renderings do not have that luxury as the human eye/brain perceives it as "reality," or close enough to reality, thus it must appear as reality or you'll lose the audience's attention. Oh, wait a minute… this isn't real. Time to get some food." The more realistic the rendering, the more realistic the renderings need to be.

When the light bounces off a colored surface and changes wavelength, it also changes hue, picking up the hue of the surface it radiated out from. For example, a rainbow of candy in a white dish in the bright sunshine, the dish near the colored candies will absorb some of the color bouncing of the candy. Simulating this effect in interactive games is often called Radiosity, and is difficult to accomplish in comic books, but has and can be done using computer color or unless painting the images, rather than using line art or modeling the color onto the line art, which is very popular with comics today (thanks to the computer).

There are four basic types of light source. They are Point, where the light radiates from a single source, Spot, which is light a spotlight, Distant, coming from far away, so it may be somewhat diluted and Ambient light, which tends to be more lifelike.

In his book, Dynamic Light and Shade, Burne Hogarth presents examples of what he's determined are five different levels of lighting effects. They are (1) Single Source Light, which is where a single side of an object is illuminated, (2) double source light, which is when two different levels and even colors of lighting highlight an object or character from dual sides, (3) flat, diffused light, which is a more naturalistic lighting effect, (4) moonlight and (5) sculptural light, which emphasizes the three-dimensional form. These are all presented to the artist, who is drawing the images and the chosen light source.

Natural light falls off as the square of the distance, but this often makes it difficult to cast enough light to illuminate interactive or comic scenes, so forget the math (and the left side of the brain) and while using the guidelines, take in consideration a more linear falloff. The comic artist can experiment much easier with multiple light sources. The following images shows an example of using two light sources, with one being the primary light source (major) and the other a simple wavelength of light with a blue hue (the minor), which creates a more 3-D feel.

Up lighting is one that everyone first learns in their youth, with flashlight in hand, it can be loads of fun scaring little brothers and sisters by jumping out of a dark room, with the flashlight illuminating a screaming face from below the chin.

The more realistic the rendering, the more realistic the renderings need to be.

Another important element of lighting is the silhouette, which the concept of recognizing a character simply by their silhouette. This was first introduced by Ub Iwerks, the first animator of the early Mickey Mouse cartoons for Walt Disney (hence the big round ears).

Meanwhile, after the second world war, Osamu Tezuka single handedly created one the richest comic book and animation cultures in the world, and during the process created the "Mickey Mouse of Japan," Astro Boy, a boy robot with rockets in his feet and a punch that could knock down the largest of evil-doers. Following in Iwerks' and Osamu Tezuka footsteps were many animators, but few as popular as Nintendo game master Shigeru Miyamoto, who also recognized the importance of recognizing characters by their silhouette and brought the formula to interactive games.

When drawing or rendering silhouettes, it's been recommended by many artists to "rough" in whole figure first, thus making the figure more convincing. The silhouette is used in a number of different ways; to show distance, for a dramatic representation of a lone figure or a stark image of an imminent creature as seen below in Patrick The Wolf Boy.

There are several reasons to use silhouettes. They can easily pinpoint an action, or something, or somebody (or any combination of these things), very quickly since there is no extraneous detail to confuse or distract the reader. Moods can be created, such as the feeling of impending danger (see Figure 7.44), a feeling of entering the unknown, mystery, terror (see Figure 7.5) or as a design element as in Figure 7.42. It must work within the story, so keep in mind that it's another visual storytelling tool and not a shortcut.

Silhouette Guidelines:

1. Keep the action simple. For instance, isolate an action so if there is a battle with hundreds of antagonists, just silhouette the two fighters who are important.
2. Keep drawings clean and clear. As an example, keep a figure's arms out, away from the body and with the legs separated. Don't have too many silhouetted objects touching them (breaking the figured outline), and be easily recognized as the characters.
3. Tag figures, as Ub Iwerks did with the big round ears. We have to know who each silhouetted figure is. Tags can be as simple as Batman's ears, or as subtle as body language, but make sure the tags are clear and visible. They must be strong, but subtle details of a figure or object that give the figure its unique look and identity.
4. Silhouette must be functional. If a character is supposed to be firing a gun, we have to be able to see the gun clearly, and do not use a silhouette just to use a silhouette.

As explained in Chapter 3, the eye path of the audience should be considered when working with darker, more moody lighting and colors in scenes. By highlighting a single form or area, the audience can quickly spot those figures. Make sure it's intentional and not accidental as that will clearly affect the experience.

Chester Speiwak works with two basic types of lighting. The first is traditionally considered natural light. This can be either sunny and daylight, or diffused, which is a cloudy day, where objects cast little or no shadows. Spot light, or the typical one source lighting where there is a highlight and shadowed area. The second is artificial light, which is from candlelight or electrical bulbs. This tends to be either diffused, again where the objects cast little or no shadows, or spot, casting well defined shadows.
The most dramatic and the lighting of choice is usually daylight, where it can cast a wide spectrum of shadows that establish more dimension to the rendered 3D environment or characters.

"An improperly lit scene, with incorrect balance of light and shadows can ruin an entire illusion of three-dimensions," said Spiewak. "Although the rendering of the lighting is time consuming, it's well worth the effort to exude a more realistic feel to the scenes."

Another important factor is that whatever is created in a 3D environment must be prepared to be manipulated—characters, sets, objects and even lighting and shadows have a life of their own. "Everything must be constructed with the notion that they will be manipulated for animation, it's a different mind set when you're creating characters with moveable joints, rolling eye sockets morphing mouths and a trailing shadow. That also includes the shadows of the objects within the world around them— doors that swing open, cars, floral, etc. When creating a 3D environment, the realism gets lost when the lighting is neglected. If you're going to spend the time creating this new world and build these new characters, you should take care of establishing the ambience of that environment. It's part of the immersion factor."

Alisa Lober of Valkyrie Studios and Creative director for the Septerra Core RPG game recognized that many of their programmers would rise to any challenge—one of which was to create three-dimensional lighting effects within their 2D environment. The team that created Septerra Core all wanted to create something extraordinary, so any added elements that Lober felt was added value they jumped at the chance. "I'd say something like wouldn't it really be nice if we had translucent clean shadows and lighting effects?" said Lober. "They came up with mind-blowing ways of doing things couldn't be done."

There are elements within Septerra Core's environment that are rarely seen in 2D games. They developed colored 3D lights and shadows without programming in 3D (see Figure 7.59). "I don't think many people noticed it's not a 3D game, like the first person shooters," said Lober. "It's an interesting phenomenon that we've kind of noted. We have characters walk past colored lights and the lights cast colored shadows behind them and change the colors of the characters. We did it all, like I said, without doing any true 3D programming."

Many of the players didn't notice the amount of detail that was added into the game, because as mentioned in Chapter 5, people are less forgiving if it isn't there and take it for granted when it is. It's not flashy, but the audience would take immediate notice if it wasn't there as the immersive environment wouldn't have been as convincing when characters don't seem to belong within their environment. The lighting effects and shadows provide added depth to 2D and 3D characters, whether on paper or on the screen.

The lighting and coloring of all visual media, from comic book to film will need to understand more about rendering 3-D lighting on a more sophisticated level, as the media (and human beings) become even more sophisticated with technology that provides for entire films to be rendered rather than shot. Static visual storytelling will always be static, as discussed in Chapter 3, because there are many elements of the interpersonal experience that make it unique and enjoyable. However, as we've seen with the explosion of digital technology in prepress, animation, special effects and filming in general. The next generation of Internet/3-D/computer literate kids will be the catalyst of this change as we've seen within the past five years the stop-motion artists of Hollywood replaced by computer graphics artists.

In the past decade alone, the cost of making Hollywood eye candy went from $50 million in the early 1990s, to $5 million in the mid-1990s, to $50,000 just a few years ago, to less than $5,000, today. When the lower cost of 3-D graphics and special effects make it homogeneous, it also lowers their importance. This is why comics will always be an importance part of human culture, as it will always be an interpersonal experience – unique and vibrant, not just for the reader, but for the artist's themselves as well.

The sophistication of artwork within comic books has reached a point where they can compete, visually, with other visual media.

For more techniques on light and shade, check out Burne Hogarth's book "Dynamic Light and Shading." Information on this title and others can be found in the Appendix of this book.