"Advanced" distant light?
Dumb and Furious
Posts: 21
Hello, here comes a stupid question
I vaguely remember watching a tutorial video once and the uploader brought up something about an "advanced distant light" (no I'm not talking about the product) that I've now forgotten how to create and I can't find the video or anything about what I'm trying to do anywhere. It could very well have actually been an advanced spotlight and not a distant light, I don't remember clearly, but it basically did the same thing as a distant light, except with more controls such as controlling shadow softness etc. I know there are better work arounds for that, but this is just a thing that's really bugging me atm and I would like to know. They were basically taking a distant light, or maybe it was a spotlight but regardless they took either of those and went to I think the "create" tab to apply something to it that would let them turn the light into what was supposed to be this advanced distant light that I'm looking for. And before anyone asks, it was a relatively new video and I remember them working with Iray specifically and not 3Delight. That's all I can say so far... Any help is appreciated, thanks!
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Comments
I suspect they were using the Age of Armour Advanced lights, in 3Delight, even if that wasn't clear in the tutorial.
Nah if it was any sort of product they used I would know, I remember very specifically it was something done in the software without the help of any addons, Idk how to explain it
On another note, I have to give you props for getting out of your way to be so helpful, I see you in like literally every thread lol
There are no "Advanced Distant Light(s)" on the Studio "Create" menu.
What, exactly, are you trying to accomplish?
The only way I've been able to soften shadows in Iray is by using the Sun node, which is a distant light of sorts. You can specify the diameter of the Sun, making shadows sharper or softer, but I've never been able to do that with spotlights, distant lights or point lights. I'd be interested in seeing the answer to this question.
Could it be turning on the 'Photometric mode' in a spotlight and then changing the shape to a disc?
If you create a spotlight and change the geometry to disc / rectangle, you can change the height / width. Larger sizes give softer shadows, so something like 100 x100 centimeters will be softer than the default 10 x 10.
Now I'm actually embarrassed I asked this question, everyone stop bumping this thread beyond this point okthxbai
Since Iray lights model actual light, you can soften spotlight shadows by using geometry. Bigger or closer light source makes softer shadows. Units for height and width are cm.
I got that to work, but the OP was asking about distant lights. I don't think any of these controls will work. Specifying a width should be pointless if the light source is supposed to be an infinite distance away. I'm just speculating, though. I don't really mess with the built-in lights, I'm more of a mesh-light man.
That's so cute. You think leaving will stop people from posting. You have no idea what you've started.
@Kitsumo "I don't really mess with the built-in lights, I'm more of a mesh-light man."
Point being, if you use geometry with the Photometric spot, you can get the soft shadows of the mesh light with much faster rendering.
FWIW, the OP wasn't really asking about the distant llights.
The OP actually only guessed at the "distant light" name, and noted it could have been an advanced spotlight. In any case, you are correct the distant light has no control for emitter size.
Unless you use a profile, mesh lights always provide diffuse lights (little or no shadow), and no specularity. So they do indeed never cause those nasty little shadows! But I'd propose that lighting is as much about the dark as it is about the light. Obviously, it all depends on the type of art you're trying to produce, but I can't imagine a Vermeer or Rubens without deep shadow. I think it could be argued the Old Masters were keenly interested in the detail in the shadows. They knew this is what makes people stand in front of a picture for hours on end.
So IMO, getting to know how to use the spotlight is well worth it, and can pay dividends in expanding a person's creativity with D|S.
I just want to clarify once more that this isn't something I absolutely must know as I'm aware of better solutions such as the ones you guys've mentioned, this was just a case of "Aggh I knew how to do that thing but now I can't figure it out again" and I was extremely annoyed at that :p And I might've been delusional but w/e, you've all came with good tips and tricks though so thanks for that
Yeah, after rereading the OP, I see he's not asking about actual distant lights. But, to be fair, I'm from South Carolina and reading is not really a big thing here. :P
But anyway, I never really dealt with the point and spot lights because of how they work. They're supposed to be light emitting from a single (infinitely small) point, which to me kind of violates the intent of physical based rendering. I know it obviously works and lots of people are happy with it, so I guess it's just me being stubborn. I've actually created my own Iray spotlight before. It was a cylinder that was closed on one end and open on the other and the inside surface was an emitter. That way I could point it anywhere and create a spotlight. By changing the size of the opening I could make it narrower or wider. Why, yes, I do have a lot of spare time on my hands.
In 3Delight there's no emitter size, as things like shadowing are synthesized by the biased rendering engine that renderer uses. In Iray, the starting default is a point source, and you can enlarge it. For that matter, the default lumens value is way too low to produce any kind of workable scene illumination. So the idea must be to insert the light and fiddle. It's clearly not click-and-go.
The point source isn't really infinitely small. It will cast a pinpoint catchlight in a model's eyes, so there is some dimension to itInternally, I believe at render time Iray creates a geometry for the light, and then applies internal shaders to produce the lighting effect (in Iray lights and cameras are types of shaders). If you look into the folder with the Nvidia-supplied shaders you'll see MDL (materials definition language) files for several light types.
@Kitsumo " I never really dealt with the point and spot lights because of how they work. They're supposed to be light emitting from a single (infinitely small) point,"
That is absolutely not true for the Iray Photometric Spot Light. There as several choices for the geometry of the light plus height and width settings as previously discussed. You are spreading false information.
Sorry, I was mistaken.