Attic Close-up

By Gleb Alexandrov.

Being boring is no good. With the dappled light you will breathe life into renders that suck. I do it literally every day and I love this technique.

James Gurney - I call him lighting guru - talks about the dappled light in his book “Color and Light – A guide for the Realist Painter”.

“As sunlight passes through the upper leaves of a tree, it covers the ground with a hodgepodge of circular or elliptical spots of illumination, called dappled light.”

This effect is sometimes called a light throw or a light pattern.

The shadows indicate what is going on outside the camera view. The shadows give us a clue about the setting.

Generally, it looks awesome.

Let's explore a few ways of creating the dappled light effect in Blender.

Block the Light

Let's set up an ambient lighting first. Usually I just start off by using HDRi environment as a base for my lighting.

HDRi works like a charm, especially if you have the reflective objects in your scene.

(HDRi downloaded from Greg Zaal's website. The image is licensed under CC BY).

Now how can you create the light pattern?

The most obvious way is to block the light with the objects. Just add some cubes and move them so they block the light.

Cycles realtime preview makes this process easy-peasy.

TIP: another way to block the light is to use the Transparent shader with some texture (for example, to simulate the tree branches).

In photography the similar effect is accomplished using a gobo, or a cookie.

Apply the Light Texture

Alternatively, you can apply the light texture.

The light texture is nothing more than the texture, used on a light source. Surprise!

We all know, how textures look on 3d model, but how the heck it relates to lighting?

Basically, it works like a projector in cinema. Honestly, I can’t come up with a simpler example: it just works like a projector.

Ok. Now you have no excuse.

Go ahead and try dappled light in your next render. You'll be amazed.

Further Learning

For further learning check out the Lighting Project. The Lighting Project is a manifesto of a think-different approach to digital lighting.