Invisible spotlight with geometry
I looked around for the answer but the suggestions didn't work for me. I have a point light with a rectangle geometry and it wont become invisible no matter what! I use the latest beta 4.9.
Also, it gives me problems with hair when it has geometry, the transparency comes out solid white. Any suggestions for that one as well?
Making it a Point instead of rectangle does hide it and solves the hair problem but I don't get the same results in my render.
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Hide where? Render Emitter set to off in Parameters wills top it from showing in direct view, but it wills till show in reflections. The hair issue sounds as if reflections/specularity are showing - the larger source spreads them out more and so makes any issue in the hair material more obvious.
So there's no way to hide it from reflection? I can see it in the eyes all the time. I hoped there was a solution like the one in this thread
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/97431/how-do-i-make-a-spotlight-with-geometry-emit-light-but-not-be-visible-in-render
I haven't tried the make Cutout Opacity almost zero trick, but other than that I am not aware of a way to hide lights in reflections.
The opacity thing doesn't work :( Too bad but thank you for the help Richard :)
Last year I did a comparison of the three major techniques for hiding emissive light sources (as such, it's valid for 4.8; I have not retested under 4.9):
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/62526/quick-howto-making-mesh-lights-invisible-to-the-camera
This post only indirectly addresses seeing the emitter in reflections, but elsewhere I did a comparison showing the effect in mirrors. Who knows where it is. You can try these, even in combination, to see what works best.
Your thread title suggests you want to do this with a D|S spotlight. This type of light is virtually produced in D|S, and while an area emitter has a "geometry" it's not the same as a geometry you add yourself in the create geometry methods. If you want to combine an emissive object based on a geometry with a light source that has a spotlight cone, add an IES profile to the geometry to "shape" the light according to what you want.
That said, I really don't understand the desire to hide the light in eyes. That's what most of us *want* in renders. It adds realism and depth. In any case, if that's the only reflection that's bothering you,
1. Be sure the reflection is not, in fact, "painted into" the texture used for the eyes. This was quite common pre-Iray.
2. Dial down the reflectivity of the eye surfaces so they don't reflect anything.
Thanks for the link, I did read it when I was first looking for the answer but no go. The problem isn't the reflection, it's that on closeup, the reflection is a great big rectangle. I have tried lowering the reflectivity but the eyes become to dark and lifeless. Anyway, I can live with it, I'm just nitpicking. Your info on meshlights is invaluable, I'll use them more, thank you :)
What is in the scene? What is the figure? What skin? Iray or 3DL? Can you show a screen cap showing the scene view and the scene tab? Can you show what happens to the eyes in the render?
Ok, here's an example.
There's nothing in the scene except for G3F and the default ruins environment map. The skin is Annora by MDD and the eyes have no reflection burned on.
The render is IRAY. The render settings are set to dome and scene with the Draw Dome turned off. (The white on the back is when I turned it into Jpeg)
The only light in the scene is a point light with rectangle geometry and the Render Emitter set to off.
As I noted aqbove, there is no way to hide the emitter of the built-in light types from showing in reflections. The Render Emitter option is for *direct* view of the emitter. The emitter will show in reflections, as well as when cast through a volume, such as a fog effect. When it's an issue, you can revert to a plane geometry, and then dial out the opacity as previously noted. Being a simple square, you can use a plane with the lowest number of divisions possible, then apply the Emissive shader to turn it into a light. This will help improve efficiency.
Yes got it, but I hoped Cris Palomino might have any aces up his sleeve :) With complex programs like DS there can always be a workaround for a situation.
Make light geometry height and width smaller, like 0.1 (or even smaller), so you get tiny white reflection.
Change its shape to disc, so at least it will be roundish reflection instead of blockish. :D
Make a "real" geometry light and put black texture map in the Cutout Opacity image slot while leaving opacity value at 1 and you will get invisible (in reflections as well) light emitter.
All good suggestions Ben, Thanks! I just found out the the real reason I don't get the same results when the pointlight is point and not rectangle, is that the luminosity differs and I just have to adjust it. There are still some differences in the outcome but I'm good with it.
The biggest difference between a point/small source and an area source is the sharpness of the shadows. In Iray the emitter size is how you control the size of shadows, so if you want soft shadow detail, you don't use a small emitter. If the shadowing is of no consequence, you can opt for a point source, which is "infinitely small," and appears -- at most -- as a pinprick of light in reflections.
Thanks Tobor, I didn't know that about the shadows. I'm starting to replace point lights with mesh lights. I like the results and it seems like it's faster.