Lit up fire, how to get my fire and candles lighting?

yandrisyandris Posts: 93
edited December 1969 in New Users

Hello,

I want to have two candles in my scene and i tried to lit them up with an pointlight, but all i get was a dark flame but the light in the rest of my scene was right. Only the flames itself did not shining as they should do.

How to set up my candles and fire so that the effect is nearly like real fire?
Any help?

Thanks a lot!

Comments

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited March 2013

    Daz Studio??

    easy select your candle/flame prop, go to the Surfaces Pane scroll down to the Ambient channel and pop the flame texture map in to the Ambient Colour Channel and increase the Ambient Strength to 100%. If you want it to glow more increase the Strength value.

    You may have to use the little Cog wheel next to the strength slider to increase the max value. Pretty self explanatory, just enter a higher value in the max box and hit Accept, then you can go beyond 100%. :)

    Post edited by Szark on
  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    You still need the point lights, that will fix the Dark part of the flame only.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Sorry yes you will still need points light, thanks Jaderail.

  • Miss BMiss B Posts: 3,071
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    . . . go to the Surfaces Pane scroll down to the Ambient channel and pop the flame texture map in to the Ambient Colour Channel and increase the Ambient Strength to 100%. If you want it to glow more increase the Strength value.

    This is good info Pete, thanks from me too. I usually have a problem getting the point light positioned properly and have to add a "top" camera looking down over my candles so I can see if I've got the light directly in the center of the candle top.

    This new info, though, will help get the candle flames looking more realistic. :coolsmirk:

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    My pleasure as always Miss B.

    yeah I have done this for years now, it just seemed the natural thing to do, mind you I do mess around in the surfaces pane a lot, did with my very first image I made in Daz Studio.

  • Freelancer604Freelancer604 Posts: 0
    edited March 2013

    Best way to do this is with a point lights. Create a point light o appropriate color and intensity and position it at the center of the flame. You should also select the flame's "surface" and turn up its ambient setting like the others have mentioned. Those 2 should combine to make a convincing light.

    EDIT lights look very unrealistic without shadows, but take care not to use too many lights that cast "deep shadow maps" because that will cause a whole bunch of graphical glitches like rainbow dots and shading stripes.

    Post edited by Freelancer604 on
  • yandrisyandris Posts: 93
    edited December 1969

    ok,

    thanks to all of you.

    I had a pointlight in the Position of the flame, but there was allways a dark flame. i will try to make a flame-prop so that i cam Position it to the flame and set up the ambient.
    Unfortunately the prop in my Scene has no extra flame surface. it is the prop out of DRMLynettesDarkRites.

    thanks

  • Freelancer604Freelancer604 Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    The "dark flame" must be a surface, no? If you can see it, then you can modify it.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited March 2013

    Yeah if the flame parts doesn't have a texture map then set the ambient colour what you want. It will glow what ever colour or map you place in the Ambient colour channel providing you increase the ambient strength. If the flame part itself does not have a surface of its own then that can be solved also in Daz Studio two ways.

    1: Select the prop that has the flame and go to Tools > Poloygon Group Editor Tool and follow this post

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/14824/#215496 it has a PDF tutorial zip lonk.

    2: is to take the texture maps with the flame on in to GIMP/Photoshop etc and select the flame, copy it to a new layer, then make a new laher below that copy making this new layer all 100% black. Hide the orginal layer and save out the result as a jpeg. You then place this map in to the Ambient Colour and Strength channels. Anything black will not glow. :)

    EDIT as I didn't read your last properly. :)

    Post edited by Szark on
  • yandrisyandris Posts: 93
    edited December 1969

    ok, thanks again, now a second question about the light, in render you can always see the spot of the pointlight, it looks like a round lightpoint. i tryed to get them away by scale the pointlight, but this Point is always there, scalling the light has no influence to the scale of this Point. how to get this away from render, so only the light, not the source is visible?
    i mean the spot or point looks like the source of the light, but it should be the fire/flame.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Are you really Rendering? If yes then what you are seeing is the POINT of the point light Reflecting on the inside of the prop.

    Personally I never place a point light INSIDE a prop. For a candle flame I will do one of two things.
    For close up renders I will use a ring of low powered point lights around the center of the flame.
    For images that have the candle as just a item in the scene I set the point light just above the Flame prop.

    You will need to experiment to see which works better for you. I still set the Flame prop to 100% ambient with the texture applied.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Most times you get a spot of light as you call it is becasue it is so close to a surface. Trying putting the point light directly above the flame wiith a small gap, that should minimise the highlight you are getting. So it isn't the source of light you are seeing but the highlight it makes on a surface.

  • edited March 2013

    I am glad this question was asked and thanks y'all for all of the info. I used to have a link to a great walkthrough on how to make your magic glow and I found part of that somewhat useful with lighting other things like this stuff but with the migration of the site last year, I lost it. Does anyone happen to have that or know where that tutorial is?

    The person was showing you how to make things like those throwing balls magic affects "glow". I also have trouble when trying to make fires glow, like torches or braziers - EDITED TO ADD: some of the braziers have graphics set up in 4ths and there is an odd gap in the middle and putting something in between there can be a little awkward it seems, or is that where the coloring comes in handy to fill in the gaps? Maybe I am just not doing something right and need to keep practicing, or am not doing the right settings. I have a terrible memory and if i dont have a walk through type to refer back to, I am lost... so, PDFing this post =)

    Post edited by Tangled Web Creations on
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Sorry Lady Bree but I am not familaier with that tutorial and I am not sure I understand your brazier problem. Making anything glow is the same principle as above.

  • OstadanOstadan Posts: 1,123
    edited December 1969

    But if you need a sort of nimbus or halo over or around the glowing object, this needs to be done in postwork, or else you need to learn about volumetric lighting. In real life, if you look up at a streetlight, for example, you don't see a 'glow' around it ... UNLESS it is a slightly foggy night, in which case the light illuminates the fog itself. So you need to simulate the sort of fog you want to create the glow effect you are looking for, or else just use Gimp or Photoshop to add it later.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Ostadan here is the how I make that type of effect in GIMP/Photoshop using the ambient colour and strength channel only render in Daz Studio http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/12654/#184042

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