Digital Art Zone

Szark - 18 January 2013 12:43 PM

I have just amended the first post of this thread to include a link to show how to use Area Lighting Base on an inverted Sphere as an Environment light http://vidaru.com/creating-simple-image-based-lighting-in-daz-studio-4/77154604

Makes for a nice soft overalll ambient light with occlusion but yeah a bit slower at render times compared with other sorts of lighting but it is a trade off with what results you want. Personally I would use this method more in the future.

I know this works in DS4.5.1.6 but it seems that with the latest versions this won’t work as 3Delight will now render the normals outward no matter how an item is scaled, even negative scaling. This so called fix will hamper making the light Sphere. It seems that the normals have to be reversed in say Hexagon or Blender etc etc first. No one knows how or if the normals can be reversed in Daz Studio itself though there has been a suggestion that the Shader Mixer might be able to help.

But without access to Daz Studio I can test anything

I believe you can also reverse normals in UVMapper if you have that.

Thx Frank for adding that.

Not a clue about the scripting language/shader builder/mixer and so on, but would it be possible to invert the normals using a math brick to multiply the output from the normal brick by -1 and feeding that into whatever is needed?

Thx Simon that sounds logical to me but when I say I am a shader mixer newbie take that to mean real new. I have dabbled here and there over the years with it and understand a bit. I have promised myself when I get a new computer to get in to Shader Mixer on a more serious learning note.

Szark - 20 January 2013 10:56 AM

Thx Simon that sounds logical to me but when I say I am a shader mixer newbie take that to mean real new. I have dabbled here and there over the years with it and understand a bit. I have promised myself when I get a new computer to get in to Shader Mixer on a more serious learning note.

I as much in the dark over the intricasies of shader mixer as you are, believe me!

Thank you for both this tutorial and your Somethings to Consider when starting to learn CG.

Zylox Thank you…I hope you got something from them if not please let me know why so I can improve. Cheers

A big thank you Szark, for all your advise and tuts for using area lights, and UE2.  You are a true gentleman for sharing your knowledge.  I cant wait for my arm to fully heal, so I can get back into it and try out all your great tips!
Thanks again.

Thank you home and heart

I am still around, though in a limited capacity, if anyone has any questions regarding Area Lighting. Feel free to ask away. If I don’t answer quickly there are many here who know more about this than me.

Szark - 04 January 2013 01:50 PM

First off clicking on the image will expand the image a lot more which might help.

In this case, with Jack Tomalin’s Holiday Nook set, the light bulb has a surface (material) zone of its own. So in DS4.5 if I select the Light Prop in the Scene (or Scene Pane) then the surfaces that pertains to that light prop will pop up in the Surfaces Pane. Then select the Bulb surface zone and apply the Area Light Base to that one surface.

The way DS4.5 selects objects and surfaces is so much better than it used to be. If you select a surface it selects the object and vice versa, the old way was we had to select the object and then go looking for the surface/s zones in the surfaces tab among all the surfaces in the scene…now we can filter by showing the surfaces of the item/s we select But essentially you need both the prop and surface selected to apply Area Lighting.

There is a way to make your own material zones in DS4.5 if needed http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/14082/#204267

I have tried to get this to work by applying the UA to a lightbulb in this lamp prop. But as you will see from the render, it doesn’t light up (even with intensity set to 600%). What’s blocking it?

I can get it to work by creating an uber area sphere of the same size as the light bulb and putting it in the same position as the bulb, but I think it should work on the surface, right?

Can you post a screenshot of the all Area light surface parameters please. Yes it should work, is this DS4.5.1.45?

here you go

this is DS 4.5.1.56

What happens if you turn shadows off? It looks to me as if the shader is being applied to a surface that is covered by another surface.