Starship Window Lighting Help Needed

Posts

• Berkut1 Posts: 0Member

  June 2009 #2

  do you intend to have a volumetric effect from the light? Or do you just want the light to leave through a window? Either way the basic thing to do would be to place your light inside the room, turn on the shadows (advanced ray traced with global on is good) and exclude the shadow casting of the window object in the light parameters window. If that doesn't help it would be useful if you posted what you're getting and an image with a similar effect as what you're trying to achieve
• Melak332 Posts: 0Member

  June 2009 #3

  

  Does Max6 have area lights? Those could be helpful too.
• L2K0 Posts: 0Member

  June 2009 #4

  i'd do a render to texture with GI (or at least a skylight) then, use the self illumination for them.
  
  i usually do that way.
  
  and if you really want light from inside the rooms to lighten the outside, just put a direct light with far atenuation. one by group of windows should do the trick. and make sure they only include the exterior mesh. no need of shadows as the illumination settings should be pretty low (as its a very subtle effect)
  and of course, make sure the color matches with the interior colors (usually a yellow/orange for artificial lights)
  
  if you just want the windows to glow, just do it in photoshop/after effect.
• Falin0 Posts: 0Member

  June 2009 #5

  is te room actually there, furnished and all or is the hull just empty and you want light pouring ou the windows?
  
  if the first, a light souce in room is probably best, if the latter, just make the glass texture self iluminating.
• D.M.J.0 Posts: 0Member

  June 2009 #6

  Do you have an image of the effect you'd like to achieve?
• captain_mills174 Posts: 0Member

  June 2009 #7

  

  Thanks for the replies, and sorry that I wasn't clear enough.
  
  I'm familiar with the self-illuminating textures, but I was hoping for a more dramatic effect... Something that might spill out onto the hull from different windows. I can put a whole bunch of spotlights all over the place, and do some glow work in photoshop, I was just hoping to nail a few of those in one step, if possible.
  
  Is it possible to make a self-illuminated texture glow?
  
  Anyways, here's an image of my wildly inaccurate but highly detailed kelvinesque hull I'm working on in Max 6. I was hoping to put the Omni light right smack dab in the middle of it and I gave each of the windows a self-illum texture. I tried changing the opacity, but it only made the windows darker rather than lighter. Also, there are no rooms inside...
  
  The image below also has no light sources at all. When I add a few point lights (Omnis with different intensities in a tetrahedron-type pattern) some of the windows disappear and look just like the rest of the hull...
  
  I guess I'm just trying to get the most realistic look with the least amount of work and wondered if it were possible with Omnis...
  
  Thanks again!
  

  testimg01.jpg 468.6K
• L2K0 Posts: 0Member

  June 2009 #8

  use square direct lights instead of omnis. put them next to the window and aim them at the hull. use really short intensity value (0.15 or 0.2) and put the far atenuation start to 0 and end a few meters away.
• captain_mills174 Posts: 0Member

  June 2009 #9

  

  Here's sorta what I was hpoing to achieve... The image attached here has 3 Omni lights over the "blinkers" and are assigned colors. I understand since they are different colors, I'll have to have them be independent. However, there are three other Omni lights, two by the two port-side windows about 60 degrees off, and one more up by the bridge... These are reflecting off the hull and make the ship look so much more realistic. The other windows don't have the Omni's next to them, and they look very static. I also put two target spots on the front bow plane to light up the registry.
  
  The original intent of the question was to inquire whether this effect was doable with only one light source (or maybe two, inside the heart of the ship, either the exact center or one toward the bridge and one toward the "planetary sensor"), or if it had to be done the "old-fashioned way" with a light source next to each window...
  
  Thanks!
  CMills
  
  p.s. This image has no photoshopping done...
  

  testimg02.jpg 143.5K
• D.M.J.0 Posts: 0Member

  June 2009 #10

  Actually I'd skip the placing of lights altogether and paint the light directly on as a texture in a "self-illumination" or "luminance" channel. In fact that's what I'd do for all light effects on the hull, like registry lights and spotlights.
• EBOLII205 Posts: 362Member

  June 2009 #11

  

  Do explain that when you get a free chance?
• D.M.J.0 Posts: 0Member

  June 2009 #12

  Does this help?
  
  I'll check back tomorrow to see if it needs any more explaining, for now I need some sleep, it's 1:30am here!
  

  Fake_Lighting_Demo.gif 23K
• Berkut1 Posts: 0Member

  June 2009 #13

  D.M.J. wrote: »

  Actually I'd skip the placing of lights altogether and paint the light directly on as a texture in a "self-illumination" or "luminance" channel. In fact that's what I'd do for all light effects on the hull, like registry lights and spotlights.

  
  I dunno. The problem with that is you loose the realism added by the lights creating shadows on the geometry.
  
  Mills, does the inside of the ship have geometry or no? If you make geometry (walls) inside the hull you can potentially do it with 1 omni the way I described before......I think.
• D.M.J.0 Posts: 0Member

  June 2009 #14

  You're right Berkut, that is a disadvantage of self-illumination maps, but then I suppose that that's limited by your patience and how much time you want to spend cutting out shadows in your illumination maps!
  
  Two additional disadvantages are:
  
  No specular highlights from the illumination (although the angle is usually shallow enough that it doesn't matter much).
  
  Adjusting your mesh will need updates to the self-illumination map to reflect the new shadows cast.
  
  These three are all disadvantages I have chosen to accept in many of my meshes in the past, but I should have mentioned them in my posts above. I blame lack of sleep