Point Light - Black Scene
Stryder87
Posts: 899
Hi All
I'm trying to add a glowing light to a panel and from reading the DAZ help file it would seem a Point Light would be what I'm looking for. However, whenever I add one, the entire scene goes black, with only a small amount of light on the main figure from the point light. If I try to render it, thinking it might not translate through, everything is black. If I turn off 'Use Scene Lights', everything is fine, although I can't see the point light shining, and when I turn the Scene Lights back on, everything goes black and all I have is the point light and it's reflection on my main character.
I've played with the setting for the light but can't seem to figure out why it is cancelling out every other light source in the scene, the environment lights, the Skydome lights, everything that works fine until I add a point light. I've dialed the intensity down to 1% and the Intensity Scale to 10% but it's still knocking everything else out. I've had this problem before, couldn't figure it out, so opted not to use it, but I'd really like to know why this is giving me such grief as this one light will add a lot to the mood of the scene. I must be missing something simple, but I can't figure out what it is. I've even gone through the tutorial video from LightMaster on Point Lights, but he never addressed how to add the point light without the rest of the scene going black, he just briefly acknowledged that the rest of the scene went black in his video as well.
Any help would be appreciated as I can think of a lot of applications for this type of light that I'd like to use.
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Comments
If you don't have any lights in the scene, you will get the default "camera light", as soon as you add a light, you will need to add enough lights to light up the scene, a distant light might be a good start.
Then to make a panel glow, I recommend using the UberAreaLight. It is applied as a shader to the surface you want to glow and you can control the light from the surface tab.
How are you adding the point light? If you are loading it from a preset it will, by default, delete all other lights - either use Create>New Point Light (or New Linear Point Light) or hold down the ctrl key (Windows)/cmd key (Mac) while loading the preset and in the options dialogue choose to keep your existing lights. You might also consider applying the uberArea light shader to the monitor (again with the cmd/ctrl key held down so you can select ignore maps to keep the existing textures). If your point light iss et to cast shadows make sure it isn't inside the console - from your description I suspect that is why you are getting an all-black render.
I suspect that was what I did wrong. I added it from the Smart Content/Files/Lights/Other/dzPointLight. I think that may be why, when I threw the scene at Reality, only the PointLight was listed (checked) along with an IBL light (unchecked). None of the other lights were listed, even though there's about 12 lights/effects in the scene. I'll give it a try using the Create/New Point Light option instead.
Thanks for both suggestions. I'll try the first one as well.
Well I tried the Create/New Point Light option and it still makes the scene go black. I tried it with the default settings as well as the 'Apply Active Viewpoint Transforms'.
I also tried a Linear Point Light but it didn't work either.
Have you tried moving the light? A newly created point light defaults to the 0,0,0 position; that may create a dark scene...
Also, the point light is an 'inverse square' light, meaning that the intensity gets less with the distance increased (twice the distance, a quarter of tthe light intensity),
As already mentioned, an area light might be a better solution if you want to create the effect of the light coming from a panel
I moved the light quite a way from 0.0.0 (6500.365.-5900), and it still blacks out the scene. I'll give the area light a try and see how it works.
Thanks.
here a sample with UberArea lighting, the laptopscreen and the keys are set as an UA light... no other lights used
As i mentioned, the pointlights are inverse square lights; you moved the lights very far away, which means they will hardly illuminate the scene anymore, unless you set it to an inmensely high intensity
How do you do that? I'm totally lost here. Nothing I'm trying is working. I'm trying to add a point light holding down ctrl and setting it to Add instead of replace, but it's still blacking out the scene.
This is going to drive me to drink! haha
If you had other lights, which you appeared to say you did, then adding a point light from the Create menu or choosing not to replace existing lights shouldn't black out the scene - if not, you need to add some real lights to provide the general illumination.
To use the uberArea light, you need to select the surface of the monitor - depending on how it's made that may be possible by clicking on it with the Surface Selection tool, but if it is two-layered (with a clear glass layer for reflections over the picture layer) you may need to sue the surface list in the Surface pane. Once you have the monitor screen selected go to DAZ Studio Formats>My DAZ 3D Library>Light Presets>omniFreaker>uberArea Light in the Content Library pane, double-click the !uberAreaLight Base preset (you don't actually need to hold down ctrl to preserve maps) and go to the Surface pane (not the Lighting pane, this is a surface shader) to adjust settings - you willwant Ambient active and the ambient colour set to white or light grey with the monitor image as the map, set the falloff on, and you will probably want to turn up Samples for the final render.
A very simple way to get a surface to glow on an instrument panel is not to create a light, but to change the "Ambience" of the surface material.
I never use any of the complicated light systems like uber lights. I just use standard DAZ lights. usually the "distant" or "spotlight", and rarely the "pointlight" which is pretty much useless for distances more than a foot.
I'm assuming you're using DAZ Studio not Poser. I don't know how Poser does it. But in DAZ Studio, just get your scene to work and render using standard DAZ lights without adding the problem light. Then select the "Surface" tool and use it to select the surface texture you want to glow*. Then dramatically increase the "Ambience" value for that surface. If after playing around with that you find a satisfactory setting, you win without having to add the complication and computation time of another light in the scene.
*Note: the "glow" does not cast light on nearby objects. It just looks brighter than the surroundings. The technology of casting light on nearby objects is called "radiance". Some light systems permit that but in DAZ Studio a surface's texture "ambience" does not cast light it just increases the apparent brightness of the surface.
Also note that a DAZ "Point light" isn't visible in a render. Only the things it illuminates are visible. None of the DAZ lights show up in a render, only the things they illuminate show up. As a simple example try making a lit candle on a table with an opaque vase in a dark room and have it produce nearly proper shadows on the table surface using only a DAZ point light. An interesting scene. Easier done with more sophisticated light sets but not impossible with DAZ lights if you are clever and forgiving of the definition of "nearly".
Ok, a bit late reaction (different time-zone)
Richard's explanation is pretty much the actions I took to create the effect for the laptop (there is a little more adjusting done with the lightsettings for the UberArea lights ...)
LeatherGryphon's solution is indeed a lot easier, but increasing the ambient settings only makes the screen(surface) stand out, it does not produce light that effects the environment, so additional lights would be needed for that.
Which option is the best depends on the effects you seek (and the skills you have)....
Hmmm... the surface I want to create a light on is not a selectable area, at least not the small part I need the light on (the dash in a car). I'm trying to create a small part of the dash glow red, like a warning light (see attached pic). Since I can't select just that panel, I don't know if an uber light would work. Perhaps a spotlight of some kind, with very low intensity, set just in front of that part? Having the red reflect off the steering wheel would be a bonus.
I think I get the point of what you want
Yes, a very low intensity pointlight can do the trick, but a pointlight will give a round light effect on the dash
With an area light, you can use just about any shape; the UberAreaLightPlane good be a good start for that, rescaling the x and z scales
some examples with the use of an arealightplane and a pointlight
How to setup an arealight? here some examples (used the arealightdisc here, as that suits this 'fancy' panel better :lol:
The big picture shows the posiition of the area light, now for this example, the arealight's opacity is still set to the default 100%; for rendering that would have to be set to 0%.
The 2nd image shows some additional settings for the arealight.
The 3rd is the rendered result
(There is also an UberEnvironment light used to produce the ambient light for the scene...)
Now in this way, the area light would not illuminate the wheel, but for that effect you could create a second arealight at the same postion, but rotated 180degrees compared with the 1st arealight....
What intensity works best is a matter of (loads of) trial and error ...........
I hope this helps
Thanks glaseye2!! Being new to all this, the pics help a lot! I'll give this a try later today and let you know how it worked out, or perhaps have some more questions.
Cheers!!
Well I gave it a try, and woohoo! I think i got it as close as I can hope for! I used the light panel, shaped it and set it right on the dash where i wanted it. I did up the setting similar to yours (the hardest part was actually finding where those settings were!!) and did some test renderings, adjusting the intensity. The weirdest thing was how it didn't, at first, actually shine forward. I played with the angle and that changed it. Funny enough, it didn't seem to actually shine from the 'surface' area of the light, but from the edge of it. To overcome that, I pointed the light towards the drivers headrest to get the right angle and it's going to do the job.
Thanks so much for the help!!! I'll post a link to the finished product when I get it done in the next couple days. I just have to figure out how to lower the environment lights to simulate more of a sunset than midday. Dropping the intensity of all the lights didn't seem to do anything, nor did changing the colour of the lights to something a little darker.
glad to hear it is working..
As to the area light; if you notice my setup, the area light is a little above the panel not directly on it. Also look at the green pointer. The light surface is on the opposit side of that (and thus shining on the panel). It is not limited to the edge, but the whole surface (on that one side) emits light.
If you can post your light settings (type of light, x,y,x, position, x,y,z rotation, intensity etc), maybe I can help with adjusting those as well. Also, there are a lot of freebie light(pre)sets available that might help you getting started. Here in the free section or on - for instance - ShareCG
(I've got a few simple UberEnvironment light setups (and a skydome with texture-sets) on ShareCG myself, just follow the link in my signature if so desired...)
I made a change taking into account the info you gave about the direction of the light. It looks much better now. however, the light shines through the front of the car where the hood meets up to the windshield. I was wondering about the Headlamp Blocker part, but I did some reading and learned about it being a dummy light. Instead what I did was duplicate the one area light I already had. I put one in front of the panel so it would glow red, and put the other behind it so it would 'reflect' red. I played with the Fall Off to get it the way I wanted. Now to put it through Reality for a 20 hour render! haha