I'm just curious how some of the good track-builders here approach lighting. Lighting is one of the very last things I do but it's sooo important for atmosphere. I find it's not until this stage that I find out if my track looks good, or if it looks really, really, awesome! I find it impossible to build track in dark settings, which is one of the reasons I don't do lighting until the end. Just curious...
I'm definitely not a pro but I like to light the maps first and build off from thereOriginally Posted by Rorschach3000
Lighting normally comes in last 20% of the tracks creation for me.
I even leave the actual track background till the last 1% of the tracks creation, saving various versions of the same track with different background colours to see which I think fits correctly.
Lighting can be used for generic things such as plants that you may have benn created and nature related objects which would be greens.
I often use lighting maybe to display a sign post or if its a little dark in certain areas due to the sunlights direction.
If i've created an object by glueing various other items together, I would use lights to help the object look more like it should.
For example a created dog would have brown lights placed around it etc etc.
Hmmmm. Anybody else?
Here's the track that got me thinking about this topic btw. Until I got the lighting right at the very end I wasn't really diggin' the track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmFfwWZ834E
Senior Member
Lighting for me is an ongoing process but it is also the last thing I check on my tracks aswell.
It all depends on the mood of the track. I find myself adjusting sunlight angles alot to make sure that key areas are lit properly aswell.
well im not the best but i like too set the lightning kinda fast, but i do use alot of lamps
light is cosmetic therefore it is a secondary element to a good track design. Exept when the lighting plays a big roll in the tracks dificulty, like if you make a medium track and it is verry dark it could be verry ''hard'' to ride.
Senior Member
I work from beginning to end, getting about 80-90 percent complete on that section before I move on to the next section. This includes lights. I always end up having to deleate about half my lights because the editor cant handle the total awesomeness of what it should look like.
^^^ THIS
Senior Member
I try to make each part look just the way I want it before I move on to the next section, but with so much background detail I usually have to go back and replace most of the lamps with pointlights to get rid of lighting glitches.
