We will create a simple light box for rendering objects.
It is a simple box with two glowing surfaces and an endless backdrop.
The light box enables us to dispense with setting up environments. Just copy and paste the desired object into the light box and render.
The light box starts –unsurprisingly– as a cube.
The cube then gets converted into a polygon group and ungrouped, enabling us to texture the faces individually.
Convert the cube into a Polygon Group, then Ungroup.
The top and right faces receive a glowing, soft edged texture.
The glow panel
The soft edges are achieved with a stencil map.
Apply this texture to the top and right faces.
For the endless background, we draw a profile from the left view.
The endless background profile
We then extrude this profile, ideally from an isometric view.
The extruded profile. We need to scale it, and eventually move it.
The idea is to have the endless background match the width of the box.
In case you find your endless background away from where it should be, you could snap it in place using the Snap Tool.
We should get something like the image below.
The endless background in place (top and right faces hidden).
The box is ready.
We need to put lights inside the box. In this case a couple point lights, one key and one fill light.
The Key light
The fill light. No shadows or photons.
Lights in top view. Key light is selected.
Lights in front view. Key light is selected.
We now need to put the camera, but first let us put a cube where we want our objects to be. We will use said cube to point the camera at.
The cube in place.
The camera pointing at the cube.
The first render should look like this (using the Local lights-Best soft shadow preset).
First render
We now convert the cube into a construction object (Cmd+7 / Ctrl+7) and add the objects we want to render.
A light box render.
Of course, there will be a need for tweaking lights and applying the glow panels to different faces of the cube for different cases.
The light box is ready. Here’s the one used for this tutorial, in case you want it as a starting point to play with.
