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Christmas lights in Poser?
- Thread starter Janet
- Start date
I know when I was still using DS, and I think when I started using Poser again, I used to place small point lights inside small light bulbs and candle flames. That said, however, if you want a bunch of small Christmas lights, that would be a bit much, and not that easy to do.
What if you made the light bulb's material emissive? I think raising the Ambient setting high will accomplish that. I'm not sure how you would accomplish it if you wanted to set up an animated version where the lights would be blinking, UNLESS, you had two different materials for each bulb, one emissive, and one not.
I'm sure someone will come up with a better idea.
What if you made the light bulb's material emissive? I think raising the Ambient setting high will accomplish that. I'm not sure how you would accomplish it if you wanted to set up an animated version where the lights would be blinking, UNLESS, you had two different materials for each bulb, one emissive, and one not.
I'm sure someone will come up with a better idea.
skylab
Esteemed
seachnasaigh
Energetic
Is this for Christmas tree lights, or what? I'll agree with Miss B that if there are a lot of lights, it will be better to make the lights emissive.
In P9+ Firefly, I would duplicate the light bulb array mesh, "shell" it inward slightly in a modeler program, and use that new mesh as an (unseen) IDL emitter.
In Superfly, it's much easier; add lightcasting boost nodework to the light bulbs.
If you can show a pic or give a verbal description of what you want to light up, that would help.
I'll let Janet explain what the lights are for, but basically, they'll be wrapped around something as you would wrap them around a tree, and they're nice lights.
It never occurred to me to duplicate the mesh and inset it, but now that I think about it, that's how I've done liquid in drinking glasses, so a very good suggestion. I just thought raising the Ambient on the materials of each light she wants "lit" would give the light a glow.
As far as your suggestion for SuperFly lighting, what nodes would you suggest for a lightcasting boost?
seachnasaigh
Energetic
Raising the ambient would cast a little light, but not with the strength you would expect from the apparent brightness of the bulbs. Using a LightPath node with a pair of math nodes (as magnifiers) will enable the "emitter" lights to actively cast light. It is the difference between the amount of light diffusively bounced off a passive object, versus the amount of light broadcast out from a luminous source source.
Once I see what Janet is trying to light up, I'll try firing up workstation Cameron, and hope she's intact. Two of my workstations (TinkerBell and Galadriel) have lost their C drive connection, and I'll need to modify them to use a PCI/PCIe RAID card and rebuild their C drive. Workstation Urania's secondary drive died, and that contained my older (pre-UAC) programs, my Poser runtime, my scene and modeling files, and my tut screenshots. I'm having a bad computer summer.
seachnasaigh
Energetic
That's a good candidate for mesh lighting. Particularly because of the antlers and wiring in close proximity to the lights; the antlers and wiring should be passively illuminated by nearby lights. Simply making the bulb materials ambient won't do that (well), but mesh lighting will.
What version of Poser do you have?
If P11, do you have a preference for Firefly or Superfly?
Do you model?
Geometrically speaking, the Firefly IDL emitter will be a closely-fitted mesh surrounding each bulb. This emitter mesh will have its properties set to be *not* visible in camera (but the camera *will* see the lightcasting effect). The emitter's material will be hyper-ambient (beyond 1), maybe 15 or so. For Firefly, you will need to render with indirect diffuse lighting enabled, and give that (and the IDL quality) several samples.
In Superfly, no new emitter mesh is needed; just add my boost nodes to the bulb material. Rendering in Superfly, give mesh lighting extra samples. The cluster of lightcasting boost nodes is in a couple of my freebie materials packs. The boost node cluster is a partial MT5; add it -don't replace- to your existing bulb material.
I'll have to boot Cameron up to be able to post any diagrams/pics.
Particularly because of the antlers and wiring in close proximity to the lights; the antlers and wiring should be passively illuminated by nearby lights. Simply making the bulb materials ambient won't do that (well), but mesh lighting will.What version of Poser do you have?
If P11, do you have a preference for Firefly or Superfly?
Do you model?
Geometrically speaking, the Firefly IDL emitter will be a closely-fitted mesh surrounding each bulb. This emitter mesh will have its properties set to be *not* visible in camera (but the camera *will* see the lightcasting effect). The emitter's material will be hyper-ambient (beyond 1), maybe 15 or so. For Firefly, you will need to render with indirect diffuse lighting enabled, and give that (and the IDL quality) several samples.
In Superfly, no new emitter mesh is needed; just add my boost nodes to the bulb material. Rendering in Superfly, give mesh lighting extra samples. The cluster of lightcasting boost nodes is in a couple of my freebie materials packs. The boost node cluster is a partial MT5; add it -don't replace- to your existing bulb material.
I'll have to boot Cameron up to be able to post any diagrams/pics.
Ahhhh, good information. Thanks!
Oh no, not good news. I think I've always read about TinkerBell in most of your comments in various forums. I always liked how you named each of your workstations. Makes talking about them interesting.Once I see what Janet is trying to light up, I'll try firing up workstation Cameron, and hope she's intact. Two of my workstations (TinkerBell and Galadriel) have lost their C drive connection, and I'll need to modify them to use a PCI/PCIe RAID card and rebuild their C drive. Workstation Urania's secondary drive died, and that contained my older (pre-UAC) programs, my Poser runtime, my scene and modeling files, and my tut screenshots. I'm having a bad computer summer.
That said, I hope you get them all back up and running at full speed sooner, rather than later.
seachnasaigh
Energetic
Ah, you model; that opens possibilities. If that string of lights is one of your models, I'd say export an OBJ of it in that "pose" used in the scene, and send it to me. I'd make both the FF IDL emitter and a surrounding "glow aura" mesh. If it's a purchased item, then I'll suffice with making screenshots of an example bulb, emitter, and aura mesh group, plus the properties settings, material setup, etc.
Howdy, Miss B!
Chances of recovery are good for TinkerBell if I don't try to boot her up until I have installed a new RAID controller. Similar for Galadriel. I'm not sure either way for Urania's secondary drive. That secondary drive had all of the screenshots and diagrams, my modeling build projects, plus my main Poser runtime, and all of the older programs which need to avoid Windows' User Account Control. I'll have to look through some external hard drives for a D drive Acronis backup.
If that string of lights is one of your models, I'd say export an OBJ of it in that "pose" used in the scene, and send it to me. I'd make both the FF IDL emitter and a surrounding "glow aura" mesh. If it's a purchased item, then I'll suffice with making screenshots of an example bulb, emitter, and aura mesh group, plus the properties settings, material setup, etc.Howdy, Miss B!
Chances of recovery are good for TinkerBell if I don't try to boot her up until I have installed a new RAID controller. Similar for Galadriel. I'm not sure either way for Urania's secondary drive. That secondary drive had all of the screenshots and diagrams, my modeling build projects, plus my main Poser runtime, and all of the older programs which need to avoid Windows' User Account Control. I'll have to look through some external hard drives for a D drive Acronis backup.
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seachnasaigh
Energetic
It glows! Oh, for mesh lighting in general, I lower the scene lighting (looks like you've done that), and to get rid of the grain in Superfly, I set the overall samples absurdly high, let it continue to render until it clears, then cancel the rendering and export image. It *will* take considerably longer to render than a conventionally lit scene.
Oh, for mesh lighting in general, I lower the scene lighting (looks like you've done that), and to get rid of the grain in Superfly, I set the overall samples absurdly high, let it continue to render until it clears, then cancel the rendering and export image. It *will* take considerably longer to render than a conventionally lit scene.
seachnasaigh
Energetic
I often apply the anisotropic node to water or jewelry to get that sparkly starlight effect.
In the meantime, here's a small sampling of simple glowy props. Feel free to reverse engineer them. The glowy bioluminescent ball *might* have animated texture, but I don't remember offhand. I *think* they may have dual root materials, so that they work for either Firefly or Superfly.