Lighting in the merge3D? or Relighting after the renderer3D

Hello There,

I am trying to create the cartoon look in my 3d scene:



I am trying to get this kind of look:



I am unsure about how to do the lighting. I am working with my 3d objects direct in Fusion (in the Merge3D). So not with a 2D plate which is rendered out from
a 3Dprogram. I guess there is 2 options:

1) create all the lighting effects in the 3d scene in the so called 3D space in the merge3d (with the lights inside fusion). So before the Renderer3D

2) create the lighting after the renderer3D (the so called relighting, with a normal, position and Z-depth pass)

I am very confused now and i was hoping that somebody could tell me what would be the best way to go for me, when it comes to lighting my scene and doing the scene creation.

What i would like to know is:
-should i do all my lighting & lighting effects in the merge3D ? -->with the lights inside fusion (spotlight, ambient light, directional light and the point light)
-Or should i do the lighting effects (like the rim lights, shadows, etc,..) after the Renderer3D Wit the so called relighting, with a normal, position and
Z-depth pass?

-Is the relighting after the renderer3D (the so called relighting, with a normal, position and Z-depth pass) more for if you work on a 2D plate which is rendered out of a 3d program. Or is it also ment for creating lighting and shadow effects, even if you have the 3D objects/fbx-files direct inFusion in the Merge3D?

-And where should i do the Depth, fog/haze, type of effects? Before the renderer3D or after?

I hope somebody can help me out

thanx in front
Greetz Lenny

You should do atleast the main lighting and look in 3d, after the rendering (renderer3d) you could do some additional relighting to tweak it.

religthing technics are mostly used if you only got a rendering (2d) with the render passes (z, normals, ...) and you need/want to adjust the lighting of that rendering. but also here the main look is defined in the 3d part

if you do the 3d part also in fusion then you can try to build the haze and dof also in the 3d renderer, this is maybe more a matter of you personal working style.

I would prefer lighting in 3D space. you get more or less realistic lighting and nice shadows (shadows only with the spot light). Just read the manual about shadows, it's sometimes a little tricky to adjust all settings to get good looking results. Depth effects like fog or DOF can be added after the render3D when you enable Z-channel in the render node.