Digital Art Zone

bigh - 19 October 2012 04:05 PM

Good to see you are up at it again !

Thank you, I forgot how much work this can be. Fun but work.

DS 4.5.1.6 Light test. This was done just to see if Uber Area lights were working again.

Items used in render:
Level 19 Bay Doors
Sci-Fi Construction Set #1 Large floor 3

Light set up used:
1 Distant light rotated and set 100% white and Intensity set to 8% for ambient fill
3 Uber Area Tube lights scaled and positioned. All colors set RED, Basic Intensity set to 200%, Samples set to 128, Falloff set ON, Falloff End set to 800.

This has been a test.

Jaderail - 22 October 2012 03:03 AM

DS 4.5.1.6 Light test. This was done just to see if Uber Area lights were working again.

Items used in render:
Level 19 Bay Doors
Sci-Fi Construction Set #1 Large floor 3

Light set up used:
1 Distant light rotated and set 100% white and Intensity set to 8% for ambient fill
3 Uber Area Tube lights scaled and positioned. All colors set RED, Basic Intensity set to 200%, Samples set to 128, Falloff set ON, Falloff End set to 800.

This has been a test.

Thanks for the info Jader! I was well and truly behind schedule with news7 so I didn’t play any more with the light tubes… Though I will be trying again for episode 2

It was fun and quick. I had not used the Tube light before so I learned I like it very much.

Jaderail - 22 October 2012 11:39 AM

It was fun and quick. I had not used the Tube light before so I learned I like it very much.

I couldn’t get it to light up. So it made me grumpy lol! Haven’t touched it since haha

Nice that you left the Fall OFF start at 0…a common mistake made.

Szark - 22 October 2012 11:41 AM

Nice that you left the Fall OFF start at 0…a common mistake made.

I learned that one the hard way a long time ago.

Szark - 22 October 2012 11:41 AM

Nice that you left the Fall OFF start at 0…a common mistake made.

What do you mean? Does it have to be set at 0… or does it have to be set with a decent value? I couldn’t get it to light up at all!

Just leave Falloff Start at 0 or your light will be freaky. Just put a good value in Falloff End.
Here is a snap of the important parts on the light.

Leave the Fall Off Start at 0 for best results. There is nothing wrong in adjusting it as it depends on what look you want. From memory leaving it at 0 and setting the Fall Off End value will give to the proper ratio of light fall off. Start messing with the Start and this ratio alters unless you are a math geek.

The thing with Area Lighting is A: the Ambient Has to be turned on, even though the ambient strength can be 0%, it must be turned on. B: the light direction is governed by which way the normals are facing. So for example take sphere, it will emit light outward the direction of the normals. Scale it in a negative value (turning it inside out) will reverse the normals and light inward, making a niffy environment light. Especially when you apply the sky/ground map to the sphere in the Diffuse Colour Channel at 0% Strength, Ambient Colour Channel set to 100% Strength and in to the Light Colour Channel. Set the light to about 500 first and adjust. It will depend on the size of the sphere.

Jaderail - 22 October 2012 12:11 PM

Just leave Falloff Start at 0 or your light will be freaky. Just put a good value in Falloff End.
Here is a snap of the important parts on the light.

Ah… Now that’s prob why my light was non-existent.

1 - I mostly had a value on fall off start.
2 - I didn’t set the fall off end high enough
3 - The highest I went with samples was 80.

With the right Advanced Render settings I have never needed to go above 32 samples.. Humm I might try that with lower render setting and see the dif.

Szark - 22 October 2012 12:16 PM

Leave the Fall Off Start at 0 for best results. There is nothing wrong in adjusting it as it depends on what look you want. From memory leaving it at 0 and setting the Fall Off End value will give to the proper ratio of light fall off. Start messing with the Start and this ratio alters unless you are a math geek.

The thing with Area Lighting is A: the Ambient Has to be turned on, even though the ambient strength can be 0%, it must be turned on. B: the light direction is governed by which way the normals are facing. So for example take sphere, it will emit light outward the direction of the normals. Scale it in a negative value (turning it inside out) will reverse the normals and light inward, making a niffy environment light. Especially when you apply the sky/ground map to the sphere in the Diffuse Colour Channel at 0% Strength, Ambient Colour Channel set to 100% Strength and in to the Light Colour Channel. Set the light to about 500 first and adjust. It will depend on the size of the sphere.

Thanks man. My diffuse by default is grey and set at 100%... I didnt change it… May have been one of my issues.

I also had the light very close to a wall… Can that cause problems too? or is that fine?

The reason I use 128 for samples is it matches the Uber Enviro Hi Quality setting.

Edit: your placement should be fine. In the render mine are Propped to the Wall fixtures.

You don’t need to set the Diffuse to 0% for everything, just that example of the area environment sphere. The reason I do that is so the light coming from the sphere will not light up the sphere more than it needs.

A Diffuse of Grey shouldn’t matter.

Light too close to the wall, depending on the shape of the mesh, if a plane and the light is pint toward the wall then yes that would be an issue.

Area lighting is what other software call Mesh based lighting. Providing the normals are correct any mesh can be used to emit light. You can treat the surfaces just like other surfaces. You can put a transmap in and hide parts of the mesh etc.