Design Nomenclature / Light & Optics
Practical
Also called practical light, motivating source
- Light & Optics
- Composition
- 2D & 3D
This entry has not been translated yet and is shown in English.
A fixture that appears in frame and is actually lit — a lamp, a screen, a candle. It motivates the light the audience is asked to believe in, though it rarely supplies the exposure; that comes from sources outside the frame, matched to the practical's direction and colour.
In practice
The word survives intact in CG, doing the same job: a visible emissive object that justifies the off-camera area light doing the real work.