American Cinematographer - February 2016 - 30

When the studios deliver their first pass on the lighting (top), Aron often provides feedback in the form
of a paint-over (bottom). In this example from the season-two episode "Brothers of the Broken Horn,"
Aron focuses the attention on Ezra's face and adds "white Avery dot" highlights to the character's eyes.

that matches the tone of the room."
Eye lights are also one of Rebels' stylistic tropes. "Our characters should always
look like we put a tiny white Avery dot on
their eyes," Aron says. The lighting artists
utilize a rig within Maya that allows the key
light to easily drive where these specular
highlights appear. "You'll notice the iris
color moving, as well," Aron adds.
Rebels presents a particularly diverse
array of skin tones, from the green-skinned
Hera to the orange-skinned Ahsoka Tano
(Ashley Eckstein), the erstwhile padawan of
Anakin Skywalker and a key organizer of
the early Rebellion. To accommodate that
range, Aron says, "we usually try to keep
30

February 2016

the [key] lights as neutral as possible." In
communicating color temperature with the
lighting artists, he avoids Kelvin numbers in
favor of referencing Voy's lighting concepts
and examples from films. "What I've found
on both Clone Wars and Rebels is that it's
best to get the shot in the ballpark, and
then Sean and I will push it towards our
final look in the grade," Aron explains.
When it comes to lighting ships in
space, "you always see the sun side," Aron
notes. "Whenever you saw the Millennium
Falcon flying, it was always lit. We do the
same thing with the Ghost.
"As soon as you get into a cockpit, it
doesn't matter [where the light is coming
American Cinematographer

from]," he continues. "I just want to see the
light moving." Aron's cockpit-interior lighting incorporates gobos that he makes in
Photoshop for use in Maya. "I do that incessantly," he offers.
The manner in which the CG lights
are shaped and controlled requires a unique
toolset as compared to live action. Aron
explains that he manipulates controls within
Mental Ray so that, for example, "if I've got
a spotlight, I can make that spotlight have a
quadratic falloff, a linear falloff or no decay.
So the light can beam like a laser, or it can
fall off like it's being shot through a grid or
another diffuser."
To communicate the desired levels of
brightness in any given frame, Aron
predominantly relies on light ratios. "I target
2:1 or 3:1 when giving notes," he explains.
By taking this approach, he adds, "I can
focus more on the actual lighting composition of the shot and not worry too much
about exact stops, knowing that I will be
working with Sean in the final grade to
push contrast back into the images."
As the lighting starts to come in
from the studio, Aron, Voy and others will
review the work in a lighting-dailies session.
Aron offers his feedback to the studio in the
form of notes and paint-overs. For the
latter, he uses Photoshop and a Wacom
Cintiq display to paint the desired changes
directly over the submitted frame. The
artists on both sides of the Pacific utilize
Tweak Software's RV playback and review
application, which allows the lighting artists
to compare their submitted shots with
Aron's paint-overs. "I only have about 5 or
10 minutes for each paint-over," Aron
explains. "I usually do 10 a week, and it
sometimes goes up to about 20 or 30."
Concurrent with the lighting, Aron
shepherds the series' effects, including
atmospherics such as smoke, haze and
clouds, which "can get very expensive," he
says. To cut down on those costs, he adds,
"we go right back to the 2D method. We
can't let the computer do everything!"
As an example, he points to the
season two-episode "Relics of the Old
Republic," in which our heroes - who
have allied with aging clones Rex, Wolffe
and Gregor (all voiced by Dee Bradley
Baker) - are pursued through a blinding
dust storm by a trio of hulking Imperial

American Cinematographer - February 2016

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