ZBrushCentral

How do I set up Dramatic Lighting to achieve better Depth

This is a basic cylindar shape with a deep concave. Such a dramatically recessed area should be getting a nice deep black shadow upon render. Instead I get a whimpy gray shadow with no depth. The green arrow (rendered) shows a loss of depth as compared to the yellow arrow (pre-render) which has mega-depth.

As you can see, the light source is set way above the model, so why no dark black areas where the light can’t reach? I want to be able to set up lights that will successfully light the model but also create dramatic depth in the recessed areas.

I have tried numerous lighting options, and played with shadow settings etc, but have not found a good solution. I’d like to achieve it within zbrush without going to Photoshop to repair it. Note…I have the same problem wit highlight area too… no contrast or punch.

The ambient should be 0 in your lights and your material

Also – you may need to change the shadow length to a much higher value.