Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Light is one of the most important parts of any render, and one of the most powerful skills you can pick up as a 3D artist. Light behaves the same in photography, in design, and in Blender, so learning it once pays off everywhere.
Watch on CG Cookie: core.cgcookie.com
Buy this course: superhivemarket.com/products/core-5-lighting/preview
Get all 11 courses: superhivemarket.com/products/core-lts
The goal of this course is that by the end of it you feel comfortable lighting any project, any subject, realistic or stylized, and that you can use light to convey the story and the mood you are after.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
- What light actually is in 3D, and why it does different jobs in product work, environment work, and story work
- The seven types of light in Blender, and when to reach for each one
- Light power demystified: radiant flux versus lumens, and how to dial in a real world bulb
- Temperature, per light Exposure, Normalize, and using Radius to control how soft or harsh a shadow is
- How light is calculated in Cycles, and how that differs from EEVEE
- Exposure and color management, HDRI lighting, and volumetric lighting
- Light linking and shadow linking, light groups, and shaping light with nodes
- Shadow caustics, plus how real caustics work through clamping and why they cost so much to render
- Reducing noise and speeding up your renders
- EEVEE lighting settings, and raytracing with light probes and irradiance volumes
- Three point lighting, high key and low key, ambient, silhouette, and six portrait lighting setups
WHAT YOU WILL BUILD
Lighting setups built from scratch throughout, an EEVEE showcase pass on a sci-fi spaceship hallway, and a final assignment with a downloadable project file that you light your own way and hand in for grading.
INSIDE THE COURSE
01 An intro to lighting: what light is in 3D, the seven light types, and Cycles versus EEVEE
02 Lighting in Cycles: exposure and color management, HDRIs, light and shadow linking, volumetrics, shadow caustics, light groups, shaping light with nodes, and noise reduction
03 Lighting in EEVEE: how it calculates light, the settings that matter, light probes, and a full showcase
04 Telling your story with light: shadow, color, three-point, high and low key, ambient, silhouette, portrait, and the final assignment
25 lessons across 4 chapters. Recorded in Blender 5.2 LTS. Project files included.
Recorded in 5.2 LTS, but lighting as a principle has barely changed in years, so almost all of this course still applies if you are on 4.5 or on a newer release.
YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Jesse, also known as Kaizen 3D.
ABOUT CORE V2
CORE V2 is an 11 course Blender fundamentals series, rebuilt from the ground up for Blender 5.2 LTS. Mesh Modeling, Digital Sculpting, Lighting, Materials and Shading, Texturing, Animation, Rigging, Physics, Compositing, Grease Pencil, and Geometry Nodes. More than 45 hours of instruction, project files, exercises, and challenges. Blender 5.2 is a long term support release, so what you learn here stays current for years.
FREE BLENDER TUTORIAL
Model a glowing honey jar in about 14 minutes: honeyjar.cgcookie.com
CG COOKIE
core.cgcookie.com
#Blender #Blender3D #BlenderLighting
Light is one of the most important parts of any render, and one of the most powerful skills you can pick up as a 3D artist. Light behaves the same in photography, in design, and in Blender, so learning it once pays off everywhere.
Watch on CG Cookie: core.cgcookie.com
Buy this course: superhivemarket.com/products/core-5-lighting/preview
Get all 11 courses: superhivemarket.com/products/core-lts
The goal of this course is that by the end of it you feel comfortable lighting any project, any subject, realistic or stylized, and that you can use light to convey the story and the mood you are after.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
- What light actually is in 3D, and why it does different jobs in product work, environment work, and story work
- The seven types of light in Blender, and when to reach for each one
- Light power demystified: radiant flux versus lumens, and how to dial in a real world bulb
- Temperature, per light Exposure, Normalize, and using Radius to control how soft or harsh a shadow is
- How light is calculated in Cycles, and how that differs from EEVEE
- Exposure and color management, HDRI lighting, and volumetric lighting
- Light linking and shadow linking, light groups, and shaping light with nodes
- Shadow caustics, plus how real caustics work through clamping and why they cost so much to render
- Reducing noise and speeding up your renders
- EEVEE lighting settings, and raytracing with light probes and irradiance volumes
- Three point lighting, high key and low key, ambient, silhouette, and six portrait lighting setups
WHAT YOU WILL BUILD
Lighting setups built from scratch throughout, an EEVEE showcase pass on a sci-fi spaceship hallway, and a final assignment with a downloadable project file that you light your own way and hand in for grading.
INSIDE THE COURSE
01 An intro to lighting: what light is in 3D, the seven light types, and Cycles versus EEVEE
02 Lighting in Cycles: exposure and color management, HDRIs, light and shadow linking, volumetrics, shadow caustics, light groups, shaping light with nodes, and noise reduction
03 Lighting in EEVEE: how it calculates light, the settings that matter, light probes, and a full showcase
04 Telling your story with light: shadow, color, three-point, high and low key, ambient, silhouette, portrait, and the final assignment
25 lessons across 4 chapters. Recorded in Blender 5.2 LTS. Project files included.
Recorded in 5.2 LTS, but lighting as a principle has barely changed in years, so almost all of this course still applies if you are on 4.5 or on a newer release.
YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Jesse, also known as Kaizen 3D.
ABOUT CORE V2
CORE V2 is an 11 course Blender fundamentals series, rebuilt from the ground up for Blender 5.2 LTS. Mesh Modeling, Digital Sculpting, Lighting, Materials and Shading, Texturing, Animation, Rigging, Physics, Compositing, Grease Pencil, and Geometry Nodes. More than 45 hours of instruction, project files, exercises, and challenges. Blender 5.2 is a long term support release, so what you learn here stays current for years.
FREE BLENDER TUTORIAL
Model a glowing honey jar in about 14 minutes: honeyjar.cgcookie.com
CG COOKIE
core.cgcookie.com
#Blender #Blender3D #BlenderLighting
