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Easy way to make a blade gleam in the dark?

HylasHylas Posts: 5,069
in The Commons

I'm working with IRAY. A warrior holding a metallic blade in a dark-ish environment. How do I make the blade gleam?

I can try to place some lights just so and make them reflect off the blade... It's what I did in the attached example.
But I'd like the effect to be stronger, and I find it really tedious to figure out the correct placements of the lights.

Is there an easy way to know where to place the lights? An easier way to achieve that effect? Post work? Open to all suggestions!

Screenshot 2022-10-16 135319.jpg
830 x 900 - 116K

Comments

  • FirstBastionFirstBastion Posts: 7,826

    I think a light is still the best way to achieve what you want,  but to make it a little less tedious,  parent the light to the blade,  so it always follows the blade regardless of pose,  then you only need slight tweaks to get the glint just right.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,503

    make the bkade emissive? use a reflection map in emission maybe too

  • EboshijaanaEboshijaana Posts: 506

    Hylas said:

    I'm working with IRAY. A warrior holding a metallic blade in a dark-ish environment. How do I make the blade gleam?

    I can try to place some lights just so and make them reflect off the blade... It's what I did in the attached example.
    But I'd like the effect to be stronger, and I find it really tedious to figure out the correct placements of the lights.

    Is there an easy way to know where to place the lights? An easier way to achieve that effect? Post work? Open to all suggestions!

     Assuming what you posted is not edited, make the blade's texture lighter. You can see the gleam on it already, but due to how dark the blade is in the light it is only slightly gleamy.

  • HylasHylas Posts: 5,069

    Eboshijaana said:

     Assuming what you posted is not edited, make the blade's texture lighter. You can see the gleam on it already, but due to how dark the blade is in the light it is only slightly gleamy.

    The blade is already light gray. But because it's metallic it reflects the surroundings, which are dark. That's why it looks black.

  • jag11jag11 Posts: 885

    Hylas said:

    I'm working with IRAY. A warrior holding a metallic blade in a dark-ish environment. How do I make the blade gleam?

    I can try to place some lights just so and make them reflect off the blade... It's what I did in the attached example.
    But I'd like the effect to be stronger, and I find it really tedious to figure out the correct placements of the lights.

    Is there an easy way to know where to place the lights? An easier way to achieve that effect? Post work? Open to all suggestions!

    Enable Bloom Filter, I did in this short clip https://youtu.be/znR6CdPA-_c

  • HylasHylas Posts: 5,069

    Emissive blade. Not exactly what I meant but at least you can see the blade in the dark.

    Screenshot 2022-10-16 164410.jpg
    952 x 899 - 169K
  • HylasHylas Posts: 5,069

    jag11 said:

    Enable Bloom Filter, I did in this short clip https://youtu.be/znR6CdPA-_c

    Bloom is already enabled, you can see it best on her right hand

  • DripDrip Posts: 1,206

    There's this tool in the store here: https://www.daz3d.com/reflection-designer

    Which you might want to combine with rendering the blade to a seperate canvas (yes, you will want to investigate canvasses, it will improve your renders in the long term anyway), so you can light the blade to your hearts content without lighting up the rest of the scene. Then you can overlay the canvas render onto the old render, and the dimensions should match perfectly, but with the added dramatic lighting effects on your blade.

  • HylasHylas Posts: 5,069

    Rendering the blade separately is prolly the way to go. That's for another day, this is as much time for rendering as I have today.

    Still interested in suggestions, if anybody has any!

    Gallery link

  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,276

    What about some gel prop or something you could smear there, that is reflective? Maybe from SickleYield? No idea if there is something like that, have a migraine.

    I have been dealing with a fill light reflected in a charater's glasses, and decided to go with it. It the 'thing' she is running from.

  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,276

    What about some gel prop or something you could smear there, that is reflective? Maybe from SickleYield? No idea if there is something like that, have a migraine.

    I have been dealing with a fill light reflected in a charater's glasses, and decided to go with it. It the 'thing' she is running from.

  • HylasHylas Posts: 5,069

    memcneil70 said:

    What about some gel prop or something you could smear there, that is reflective? Maybe from SickleYield? No idea if there is something like that, have a migraine.

    I have been dealing with a fill light reflected in a charater's glasses, and decided to go with it. It the 'thing' she is running from.

    Don't know what gel props are, but your post made me think... IRAY decals can be emissive, right? that might be the easiest solution.

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