earticle

영어

Lighting plays a fundamental role in defining the visual atmosphere, emotional tone, and realism of animation. Beyond simple illumination, it functions as a visual language that conveys narrative intention and guides audience perception. In stop-motion animation, the use of miniature sets produces a distinctive “small set effect,” where lighting appears denser, sharper, and more dramatic due to the physical compression of space and reduced light distance. This phenomenon has long been recognized by practitioners as a defining aspect of the medium’s aesthetic identity.In contrast, 3D animation employing Physically Based Rendering (PBR) adheres to the inverse square law of light behavior, ensuring that when distance and intensity are proportionally adjusted, lighting results remain physically consistent across different scales. This raises a critical question: if the physical outputs are identical, why do smaller digital scenes often appear brighter or more intense to viewers?To explore this discrepancy, this study replicated the same scene at 1×, 2×, and 4× scales using Autodesk Maya and the Arnold renderer under identical lighting setups. Quantitative analysis through Difference operations confirmed pixel-level equivalence among all scales, validating the mathematical consistency of PBR. However, perceptual evaluations using 5-point Likert scales revealed a consistent bias: smaller scenes were perceived as exhibiting stronger illumination, higher contrast, and a more dramatic lighting mood.These results indicate that the “small set effect” in digital environments arises not from physical variation but from perceptual interpretations influenced by contextual visual cues. The study concludes by proposing a perceptual lighting design framework that integrates factors such as texture density, focal length, depth of field, and reference scale—bridging the gap between physical accuracy and emotional realism in digital lighting design.