Simple GI (and free)

Global Illumination is cool--no question. But it's expensive and difficult to set up. There are plenty of tools out there that will help you fake it--one really good example is GI_Joe.
While GI_Joe is good, it can be clunky. Kinda leaves depthmap files all over and it can be a pain to clean up if you want to get rid of it. And besides the real use of GI, maybe I just want a basic lighting setup so I can see what I'm working on. Well, I can just dip into my toolbox and drag this file:

http:\\jameszonta.prohosting.com\jimsGI_v5.zip

into my Maya window, and poof, I have a nice little lighting setup that's easy to control and that doesn't leave files all over the place, and that I can control from one place--dialogue windows are okay, but it's extra mouse-mileage that I can save if everything's in the Control Panel.

As you can see from the test image below, it does a pretty good job. Nice shadows between objects that penetrate and, if there was a ground plane to cast upon, it throws nice soft shadows in all directions so that there's no hard edged lines. If you want hard line shadows, then there's options to increase the Dmap resolution, or you can switch all lights to Raytraced Shadowing instead.


The idea is simple....three rings of directional lights--all of which have grouped controls (Top, Mid, and Bot). three separate set lights (Key, Fill, and Rim), and a Sun lamp for those nice top-down shadows. All are controlled by that blue circle/arrow thing. The arrow indicates the front of the lighting setup so that the Key, Fill, and Rim lights are positioned properly.All the lighting controls are on that circle/arrow thingie, and each group of lights has controls for Intensity, Specularity, Dmap Shadows on/off, Dmap resolution, and a Raytrace Shadows switch. (Raytraced Shadows on will shut off Dmap shadowing, but it's free to be overridden in the case that you need or want to.)
And that's that. Feel free to use/keep/modify the file. Just keep the credits and the names of stuff intact. If you improve on it, drop me a line and let me know.