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The Basics of Lighting and Rendering in Blender (Donut Finale)

The payoff chapter of the donut series, covering three-point lighting, camera settings, and render output. Where beginners finally see their model transform into a finished, believable image.

Blender Guru · 40 min · Beginner · VFX · VFX · 2026

What you take away

Lighting sells realism more than modeling detail does — a simple model with great lighting beats a complex one with flat light.

Watch it

Filed under

Oscar winners for visual effects

Books on visual effects

The workstation

Corsair 128GB DDR5 kit — For Unreal, caches and twelve open applications
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K — Quick Sync, which some codecs still love
Apple Mac mini M4 — The cheapest Mac that cuts 4K without complaint
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X — 16 cores — the sweet spot for a cutting room
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 — The sensible half-price render card
NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada — Workstation card, single slot, 20GB

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ILM Visual Effects Artist Breaks Down Hidden VFX | Vanity Fair — Vanity Fair · 14m · Intermediate
VFX Artists React to Bad & Great CGi 232 — Corridor Crew · 23m · Intermediate
Add CGI Characters to Live Footage | Blender VFX Tutorial — CG Geek · 22m · Intermediate
Lazy Tutorial - Easy IK Rigging in Blender — IanHubert · 13m · Intermediate
How to use Eevee - Full Blender Course — Blender Guru · 77m · Intermediate
Nuke VFX Tutorial: How To Composite Muzzle Flashes, Gun Smoke, & More Gun FX Stock Footage — ActionVFX · 18m · Intermediate

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