Lighting

Excellent course by Alexei Zhuravlev. Competent lighting is a special art that is taught in very few places. But in vain. You can draw with light. You can make a harmless character look like a villain, and a boring room become mysterious.

I recommend this course to almost everyone who works with computer graphics. In addition to the artistic part about lighting, you will get a lot of useful information about how to properly adjust the materials in the scene. How to get a nice glow on any surface. How to make a "picture" beautiful and why the light works here, but not there. How to properly configure the render and refine the result in compositing. Theory and practice, lots of valuable tips and tricks, interesting homework and detailed feedback. I got a lot of useful information from this course that I am already using in my work. It was very cool, thanks Alexey.

Alexey is one of the strongest lighting experts in our animation and film industry with whom I have worked. In fact, he turned out to be the first colleague and teacher for me, who at the beginning of my journey taught me to analyze other people's work, to see an image and look at shots from the point of view of narrative and art of the frame, and not just blind repetition and random scattering of light sources. The knowledge and experience I was able to learn from him about lighting helped me a lot in the future and still helps me in compositing.

I have had the pleasure of working with Alexey on numerous occasions. It has always been a huge advantage to have him on the team, not only for his ability to breathe life into any shot with creative lighting, but also to harness his exceptional technical skills, speed of working and problem solving abilities. It is inspiring to watch Alexey masterfully craft a beautiful image out of darkness.

I worked under the guidance of Alexey Zhuravlev for more than a year. We managed to work with him on such projects as "The Princess and the Dragon", "Two Tails" and "The Great Journey". Alexey knows how to find an approach to each of his collaborators. During the time we worked together, I learned a lot of useful tips that I still use. Alexey is calm and understanding, which is a very important quality for a manager, because in the course of work different situations can arise. He always helped and explained several times when it was necessary. He always encouraged and supported me when something didn't work out. Alexey has extensive experience working in different studios and projects. He is an excellent technical specialist with a great artistic vision. All his advice helped to improve the image in the visual solution. Alexey is constantly developing in his craft, looking for new ways, studying more interesting and faster solutions to tasks. Besides, he is a specialist of a wide range. Not only employees of his department, but also other specialists always turn to him for advice. As a professional who knows his job one hundred percent, he confidently leads almost any scene and brings it to perfection.



I am very glad that I was able to work under Alexey's direction. I hope we will have time to work with him on the same projects in the future.

Alexey is, without exaggeration, the best specialist in artistic lighting I have ever met. In 2017, under Alexey's leadership, we worked on the coverage of the cartoon "The Princess and the Dragon". Every day of work under the guidance of this talented master was priceless. Every day for six months, Alexey generously shared his knowledge of lighting theory and his vast experience of practical lighting in Maya and pre-compositing in Nuke. In addition to his vast technical experience, Alexey has one quality that impressed me the most: an intuition for the emotions that light creates in the frame. This is such a subtle, purely artistic, non-technical intuition that it is difficult to express in words, but it creates the magic that light should create in animation. Throughout my career, I have relied on the invaluable knowledge and love of the profession that Alexey has so generously and kindly shared with us. And apart from that, Alexey's most important qualities as a teacher are: optimism, lightness and patience. No matter how much his course costs, I recommend it to every light artist, both beginners and experienced. I can't imagine what stars were aligned in the sky that Alexey had the opportunity to start a training course with his busy schedule of working on animation projects. But to get to him for training is an invaluable opportunity that you must take advantage of before Alexey is taken away again for five years on some next cool project.

Alexey Zhuravlev is a talented professional computer graphics artist, lighting and shading artist. He has many years of experience and excellent artistic taste. Alexey is a charismatic and polite person who is very pleasant to work with. He always explains the task clearly and gives precise comments, after which the work always gets much better. He generously shares his professional knowledge in an accessible form, which can be immediately applied in practice, so the information is well absorbed. Always ready to help with advice in difficult situations. Creates a positive, comfortable atmosphere for learning, where you can ask any question without hesitation.