Create realistic reflections and ambient lighting in a 3D scene

Image-Based Lighting (IBL) uses an image to produce realistic reflections and ambient lighting in a 3D scene. It gives subtle lighting effects that help make the objects appear as though they naturally belong in an environment. Environment Lights in After Effects create realistic lighting, reflections, and shadows on 3D layers by surrounding the scene with an image-based environment map.

_{Use an image to create realistic reflections and ambient lighting in a 3D scene.}

Add an environment light

To add an environment light, choose Layer > New > Light, and set the Light Type to Environment.

After Effects uses a default environment map once you set Environment as the Light Type under Light Settings. This can be changed to an image layer with an HDRI file such as .hdr or .exr file in the composition as an environment map.

The HDRI file layer’s visibility will be disabled when chosen as an environment map. You can re-enable this if you want. However, this will continue to be a 2D render of the layer. To simulate the layer with an HDRI file as a background scene layer, apply the CC Environment effect to a solid layer with the exact dimensions as the composition. 

Convert image file to HDR file using After Effects

While environment lights only accept HDR format files as environment maps, you can easily convert other image file formats to HDR using After Effects.

Convert image file to HDR file using Adobe Photoshop

Add Environment light shadows

The default environment light doesn’t cast shadows. You must add an environment light layer and enable the Casts Shadows option to cast shadows. Once enabled, all 3D layers in the scene will cast voxel shadows except for the following instances:

• If the layer has the Casts Shadows property turned off.
• If the layer is outside the shadow volume.
• If a layer has the Receive Shadows property off, it will not be affected by shadows even if the Casts Shadows property is turned on and is inside the shadow volume.

Voxel shadows are memory intensive. The shadow settings are controlled in the Renderer Options dialog, which you can open from either Composition Settings > 3D Renderer or the 3D Renderer drop-down list at the bottom of the Composition panel.

Control the overall quality of the rendered output, including smoothness, lighting, and shadows. Higher values can use large amounts of memory.

Adjust how blocky the shadows look. Higher values can use large amounts of memory. 

Reduce or increase the amount of noise in the shadows. The default is 3. There is an inverse relationship between Smoothness and Render Quality. When Render Quality is set lower, you'll want a higher Smoothness value, and vice versa. 

Adjust these properties to define the area within which shadows can be cast onto a layer. Voxel shadows are only cast from layers inside a limited box to limit memory use. Making the box larger spreads the voxel resolution across a bigger area, causing shadows to get softer. While the Advanced 3D Render Options dialog is open, a magenta outline represents the cube in the composition. 

Set an object to bypass lights and shadows in your scene

Turn off Accepts Lights on a 3D layer in a 3D composition so that it's no longer affected by any light sources in the scene. This can be useful if you want the layer to maintain its original appearance without being influenced by lighting changes, shadows, or highlights from other light sources.

When Accepts Lights is turned off, the objects in these layers will appear lit by basic ambient illumination, displaying only their base color and emissive textures. Essentially, this makes the layer look as if it's self-illuminated, maintaining a consistent appearance regardless of the surrounding lighting environment. 

This can be particularly helpful when working with a 3D composition that includes self-illuminated 3D objects like phone screens and neon lights.

Scripting access to Environment layer Light Type

Using scripting to read the lightType property of a LightLayer object will return LightType.ENVIRONMENT for an environment light.

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