To our left, a circle with an outline. To our right, a simple sphere with a primary lightsource. Notice how the edge would glow on a shiny sphere.

• First, in order to have a sphere, we must have a circle... and we are going to outline it for visibility's sake. Simple enough, I hope to presume. Next, we define a primary lightsource to strike the sphere. Given the angle of the round reflection on the ball, the lightsource is undoubtedly in the upper right hand corner, and also, if you could imagine so, out somewhere in front of your monitor. Let us assume that it is a normal lamp lighting this sphere. Becuase of the nature of a glossy sphere, the areas near the perimiter outline are also highlighted by this lightsource. My knowledge of the physics to describe why this happens is not with us today, so I wont pretense the notion of expertise in this matter. Just know that it happens, and it is for this reason I have chosen a glossy sphere for this tutorial. Please note that i did not bother do accurately shade the underside of the sphere that is not hit by light... at least not yet. Be patient and read on.

Notice how the perimiter of a glossy sphere shines, regardless of the absence of a direct lightsource underneath of the sphere.

• Now let us assume that the sphere is sitting in a normal room that is well lit, with the primary lightsource being the nearby lamp casting the shine on the top right of the sphere. Because there is other light sources bouncing every which way around the room, light rays hit the edge of the round sphere and onto your retina. This will create a ring of light near the perimiter of the sphere, irregardless of the fact that the main light source is on the top right side of the sphere, not the lower left hand corner. Pay no attention to the outline inconsistencies in the sphere, i promise to fix it later. Note that there has been a bit of shadow added where the main light source would cast a shadow on the rest of the sphere. This darkness is a very crucual aspect of intense ambient lighting effects, as you will see next.

More shadow has been added, yet the glowing perimeter only grows brighter, well relatively speaking anyways.

• lets add the shadow that this sphere deserves, given the intense lightsource that is apparently nearby. The shadow cast only gets darker, and yet the glossy ring still remains around the sphere. Why? just because the main lightsource is a bit more intense now, does not negate the fact that the other light within the room is being reflected off of the glossy surface around what you percieve to be the edges of the sphere. Although we havent touched the brightness of the glossy ring on the bottom of the sphere, it appears brighter than ever. Thanks to the added shadow, it only seems that way. These are all applicable concepts which are well known in traditional art books, and i teach it to you now to help you add realism to your pixelated renders. Getting back to the point, the luminosity of the gloss did not change, but note that it was carefully blended into the shaded regions. In fact, ever aspect of this sphere is heavily AA'ed.... why? Because without it, the sphere wouldnt look smooth, would it? If your ambient lighting sources are not blended into the shadows... then the effect might wind up hurting your render in an aesthetical sense... which brings us to another observation.

What makes this ambient lighting effect so tricky? A lot of amateur artist would attempt to blend one hue into the other, given that the primary and secondary lighting cast different hues on the object of study. If you did this, you would find that your image would turn into either a rainbow, or a cloudy mess of randomly and senselessly mixed hue values.

So here is the trick... ambient lighting is usually only noticable where the primary light source does not touch the object of study. This means, in laymans terms, that an ambient lighting effect, in a sense, "lives in the shadows" of the primary light source. Look at it this way, When an intense primary light source hits an object, it creates an intense highlight, and in turn, an intense shadow (For light cannot exist without darkness). So in the case of a single, intense lightsource, this highlight would strike the surface of the object, and blend rather abruptly into darkness, possibly absolute darkness. Now, if there is a secondary, ambient light source hitting the other side of the face, which by definition is not as intense as the primary, it also will cast light on the surface of the object that did not recieve light from the main light source. Therefore lighting the "dark side" of the object, which would quicky and abruptly blend into darkness. Often times, to make an image more dramatic, this ambient lighting would cast a different hue onto the object of study, breaking up a monochromatic image, adding an extra flavor to the candy for the eye to savor.