For 3D objects, Word contains 11 different materials and 15 different lighting options. That, together with the lighting Angle setting, allows for unlimited combinations. How do I choose the right one? It is not very intuitive, as Word, in order to make it look simple, hides a lot of information. You cannot see what is happening behind the scenes. But you can try it. Let’s start with the Material options and focus only on the standard ones for now.
We have four options to choose from: Matte (1), Warm Matte (2), Plastic (3) and Metal (4). The names sound splendid, but what thew really change are basically just the size and brightness of the highlight. For the lighting settings, we will only look at the Neutral section. There are six options available: Three Point (5), Balance (6), Soft (7), Harsh (8), Flood (9) and Contrasting (10).
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As you can see on the preview image, some lighting options do not have any, or only very little, shadow, while some have very strong contrast. As mentioned previously, the size of the highlight is set by the Material. And to set the direction from which the light shines, you need to change the lightning Angle value. While you cannot set the lighting intensity, color or even number of lights, you still have some degree of freedom for your creations.
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