Reddit reviews Digital Lighting and Rendering (3rd Edition) (Voices That Matter)

A really good traditional photography course. Study the old masters (like Rembrandt, Vermeer, etc). Maybe look into a solid drawing class at your local community college. Make sure they have a good fine art program. I recommend working in charcoal.
You can find good tutorials on YouTube. Look for ones emphasizing shading and lighting. Also check out cinematography books on Amazon. There may even be some at your library if you've got a good one.


For CG specifically, this is a classic:


https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Lighting-Rendering-Voices-Matter/dp/0321928989


And more general:
https://www.amazon.com/Lighting-Cinematography-Practical-Moving-CineTech/dp/1628926929/


Try some of these for the basics:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ5hpcn6tIM


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ5hpcn6tIM


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXYfcnqorxA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-_ThOH0IOQ


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_zYlc5C_FQ&t=59s


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I'm not a 3D programmer for very long time, but if I started today knowing what I know, I'd first go to check the basics of shader/lighting theory outside of the coding and engines, like in this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Lighting-Rendering-Voices-Matter/dp/0321928989

Then, depending on if you want to code or use material systems, there's a lot of books ant tuts online.

I think that's beyond a list of common subjects clients ask for, and I'd recommend someone who is interested in "making it pop" to learn these:

• Cinematography
  
• Digital Light and Rendering
  
• Universal Principles of Design
  
• Vision Science: study of how our eyes and brain process visual info

If you want to learn Local Illumination (the opposite of Global Illumination ;) ) you should check out this book by Jeremy Birn.


http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Lighting-Rendering-Edition-Voices/dp/0321928989/ref=dp_ob_title_bk


There is more to it than just placing some lights. E.g. making an Occlusion Sandwich, where you render a key-pass with only the light highlights, a fill pass with only the basic coloring and an Ambient Occlusion pass with AO only. You then put it back together in AfterEffects.

When I was teaching intro 3d classes I used Jeremy Brin's book as a guide. Instead of software focus, he focused on the principals behind the technique. I don't know if there is anything newer (this was a few years ago) but you may want to start there.
https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Lighting-Rendering-Voices-Matter/dp/0321928989

That's a pretty heavy book. A more practical book would be,

digital lighting & rendering 3rd edition