How do I turn something into it's own light source, again?

Charlie Judge

Have you considered using Marshian's UV and glowing shaders?
http://www.daz3d.com/ultrueviolet-light-and-glowing-shaders-for-daz-studio

If you get them and they don't work out for you, you can always return them (within 30 days)

WillowRaven

That's what you see in the render ... that's the glow shader I have on the lights. They don't cast light anywhere, though. They just look glowy on the surface, which I like. But I also want light to emanate from the purple glow area.

WillowRaven

I was using it wrong, it appears. I didn't realize I had to load the UV light separately. But I'm not sure I like the effect on the rest of the scene ...

Charlie Judge

The UV light is adjustable and poseable. You could try selecting the light and adjusting its parameters

See also this thread for some help on how to use them:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/26261/P15

mjc1016

Charlie Judge said:

The UV light is adjustable and poseable. You could try selecting the light and adjusting its parameters

I'd start with turning Falloff on, setting it to 1 (linear) and with a start value of 0 and end value of 1500 or 2000...(DS is in cm, so that value would mean 1500 cm...or 15 m). That would have the intensity of the light decrease over the distance instead of continually being at a constant value like it is currently. That should help it quit lighting up so much of the background. In the third image I posted before, you can see where it no longer lights up the walls, like in the second one. I would probably play around with changing the falloff distance in steps of 100, until I got close to what I wanted, then in steps of 10 to 'fine tune' it.

Szark

mjc1016 said:

One of the things about area lights is they rely on surface normals to emit light in a particular direction.

From the sounds of it, they are pointing the wrong way.

If you used one of the material zones on the aircraft, then I'm not sure how to 'flip' them around....but if you attached the light to a plane, just flip it 180 around the X axis.

it maybe a mute point but you can flip normals of a material zone by using the Geometry Editor Tool.

As for the glowing parts on the ship I am not sure what you want as Area Lights will do the job if the glowing parts are separate material zone and have a Shadow Colour parameter as part of the Area Light surface properties.

mjc1016

Falloff makes a huge difference in the control of the light...

Added a glow shader to the sphere, parented it to Genesis' hand (parented the plane to the sphere) and played with the falloff to get the effect I want.

Pete, I keep forgetting about the GeoEditor...but yeah, that would work. We've had it for years now, and I still keep forgetting about it. I swear, half the time my brain is stuck in DS3.

Second image is a much smaller falloff distance.

Szark

I use the tool all the time so it is always fresh in my memory. :)

mjc1016

And here's one putting a geometry shell on the sphere and attaching the UberArea Light to that, instead of using a plane.

murgatroyd314

Any suggestions for what to do if the item I want emitting light already has its own special shader incompatible with UberAreaLight? Specifically, I'm working on a scene with smay's Fire and Smoke, and I want light coming (or appearing to come) from the flames.

WillowRaven

mjc1016 said:

And here's one putting a geometry shell on the sphere and attaching the UberArea Light to that, instead of using a plane.

What's a geometry shell?

Would it maintain the shape of the surface area I am trying to make glow?

And how do I control the falloff?

mjc1016

To create a geometry shell, select the item in the scene tab and then go up to the Create menu, then scroll down to the Geometry shell and click on it. A new item, parented to the original will be created, in the scene. It has its own entry in Surfaces, so you can now alter them separately from the original. First image.

For the falloff settings...in the surface tab, on the surface you've applied the light to....second image.

WillowRaven

mjc1016 said:

To create a geometry shell, select the item in the scene tab and then go up to the Create menu, then scroll down to the Geometry shell and click on it. A new item, parented to the original will be created, in the scene. It has its own entry in Surfaces, so you can now alter them separately from the original. First image.

For the falloff settings...in the surface tab, on the surface you've applied the light to....second image.

I don't see some of the settings you're showing me. :(

Here's mine:

WillowRaven

mjc1016 said:

To create a geometry shell, select the item in the scene tab and then go up to the Create menu, then scroll down to the Geometry shell and click on it. A new item, parented to the original will be created, in the scene. It has its own entry in Surfaces, so you can now alter them separately from the original. First image.

For the falloff settings...in the surface tab, on the surface you've applied the light to....second image.

What does the shell do? What is it for? How do I make the surface areas in purple, with the glow shader, just glow on the ground and not light the entire scene? Well, some of the scene, but not everything.

mjc1016

The shell is just that, a copy of the surface of the item, slightly offset. This allows you to add additional features to a surface...like glowing lights. It's a quick way to add layered effects, without the complexity of a mult-layer surface shader.

Since you have the surfaces with all the shaders already set, you can safely add the UberArea Light to the 'windows' of the shell without altering the surface of the actual model. Create the shell, then select the window surface and apply the light shader. Then turn the Opacity on all surfaces of the shell to 0%. Then for the window surfaces, change the light color...it will be near the falloff settings...down near the bottom of the list...to the purple of the window. That will be the light color. Lower down the list, you'll find the falloff settings...about 1000 to 1500 should be enough for the end distance. The start is fine at 0.

The falloff is what is going to control the amount of glow you get in the rest of the scene. It's a distance determined/dependent dimmer switch.

One of the problems you are running up against is the fact that the Studio surface shader and the version of 3Delight it was written for did not have a true emissive glow capability. Yes, you could have an area light (light emitting surface...but it didn't glow). You could 'fake' it to some degree with the ambient channel or specially written 'glow' shaders...but neither method actually casts light. So you need to combine a light shader and a 'glow' shader to get the effect you are after. Now, 3Delight IS capable of true emissive surfaces...except they require new surface shaders, that aren't in Studio (yet).

jestmart

Your screen shot showed you are using just the UberSurface shader not the UberAreaLight shader, the later is found under Light Presets in the Content Library. This is asuming you are rendering with 3Delight and not IRay as IRay would require IRay Emitter shader.

WillowRaven

jestmart said:

Your screen shot showed you are using just the UberSurface shader not the UberAreaLight shader, the later is found under Light Presets in the Content Library. This is asuming you are rendering with 3Delight and not IRay as IRay would require IRay Emitter shader.

The last screenshot was using the ultraviolet light that came with the glow set.

And I only render in Daz. I don't use anything like Reality or some of the others. Lazy

WillowRaven

I'm still not understanding how to control the UltueViolet glow UV light. :(

mjc1016

As far as I can tell, the UV shader just makes the surface 'glow'...there aren't really any 'level' controls for it other than 'off'.

Just create a Geometry shell, select the windows/viewport material on the shell and apply the Uber Area LIght shader to it. Then turn ALL the shell surfaces to 0% Opacity.

WillowRaven

This is what it's looking like so far, with the shells ...

mjc1016

AidanaWillowRaven said:

This is what it's looking like so far, with the shells ...

Looking better. If you want a bit more light from it, increase the falloff max distance and/or the intensity.

WillowRaven

Thanks for all of the help and new tricks, guys :D

Here's the final result: