In 3d, there's many way of doing things to get almost the same result and this is one awesome method. Clint Diclementi have an awesome video on his YouTube channel and have a very clear explanation. Clint D basic light meant for indoor scene with a strong light entering from outside.
Skylight (standard) used it to give an ambient light to the environment. mrAreaSpot (standard) us as the strong direct light source. and mrSkyPortal (photometric) use to bounce light from Skylight (standard) into the jail cell.
Each step in his video is really good to understand and if you want more just Google example "3dsMax shadow parameter" and you'll get more explanation in 3ds max help page.
Important points:
- Be careful when you raise certain value, it might eat up rendering time.
- When you have a scene example like this, a light source coming in to light up the scene, and it still look dark doesn't mean you add more light because that will kill your render time imagine if it's a big scene. Only once you set the necessary lights, than try go to Render Setup tab and adjust the FG precision presets, how much you want the light to bounce off and make the final render not to look so fuzzy. Careful not too high though cause it might wash out the edges.
- I think using mrSkyPortal (photometric) light is useful because instead of adding another light source, we just use this to bounce off light into the scene.
- Marc Tan once said, an indoor scene wall without any thickness, 3dsMax light might pierce through if there was any pierce on wall surface. Therefore it's either you extrude the wall thickness or, the fastest way is to apply a Shell modifier.
