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Neon type lights?

MeatHead_2010MeatHead_2010 Posts: 0
edited December 1969 in The Commons

Is there anyway to add neon type lights to your daz scenes like in the image? is there anything you can get for this?

thx.

blue-neon-lights.jpg
512 x 384 - 14K

Comments

  • chrisschellchrisschell Posts: 267
    edited August 2012

    I don't know if there are any products out there like that... but I do know of a way to simulate it....

    For a straight bar type light like that the easiest way would be to create 3 cylinder primitives... and postion them so they overlap and then make each cylinder slightly larger than the one before it... but make sure they are the same length (Use the paramters dials to adjust the sizes of the cylinders)... Also not that the more cylinders you use the greater the range you can get in the next steps to simluate the glow effect...

    layer the cylinders over one another and parent them together so that you can position them as one group...

    In the surfaces tab... set either a base colour or texture for Diffuse (the colour you want you light to be), set the Specular colour and level of glossiness

    Again in the surfaces tab set the Ambient colour for each cylinder... the lighter you make this colour the more the cylinder will seem to 'Glow" in the scene... the inner most cylinder should have the lightest ambient setting with darker settings used as you move outward with the other cylinders...

    Also in the surfaces tab use the Opacity settings to make each cylinder transparent... a setting of between 7 and 12% works well and simulates the fall-off of the glow...this is the reason for overlapping the cylinders and resizing them...


    It may take a bit of fiddling around to get the effect you desire but if you experiment with this you should be able to acheive a reasonable effect...I used it in a scene to simulate laser beams and it works fairly well.... the best results are acheived by experimenting with varying the opacity and ambient settings for the cylinders...

    As an extra option you can create a pointlight and set it so that it's inside the inner most cylinder and then scale it out to match the size and shape of that cylinder... but that adds an extra level of difficulty to the set-up as you'll need to experiment with the settings for the light to get the right effect from it...

    lasereffect.JPG
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    Post edited by chrisschell on
  • SpyroRueSpyroRue Posts: 5,020
    edited December 1969

    I have done it on 3ds Max, but when I searched and searched the how toos for daz, I havn't been able to achieve it on Daz :down:

  • chrisschellchrisschell Posts: 267
    edited December 1969

    Perhapse someone else here more skilled than I has a better way to acheive it than I've suggested....?

  • SpyroRueSpyroRue Posts: 5,020
    edited August 2012

    chrisschell said:
    Perhapse someone else here more skilled than I has a better way to acheive it than I've suggested....?

    Not necessarily, I think you've got the right idea, if the brightness, ambiance, and Hue and Saturation was fiddled with I reckon it'd work! - Anything that exists in the real world IS possible in the 3D world. Just can take lots of trial and error lol

    Post edited by SpyroRue on
  • chrisschellchrisschell Posts: 267
    edited August 2012

    It worked fairly well for the laser effect in the sample image I posted... that point light would be nessessary if you want it to actually fucntion as a light... as opposed to just giving the appearance of a glowing bar... but it should be workable I think... and it could be exported as a prop so that it could be re-used...

    Post edited by chrisschell on
  • SpyroRueSpyroRue Posts: 5,020
    edited December 1969

    When researching it in 3ds Max, Many tuts used 'Many' small and evenly spaced point lights along the glowing shaft. Requires lots though! In the end it was the parameters of the Render settings that had to be altered which removed the need for the point lights.

  • chrisschellchrisschell Posts: 267
    edited December 1969

    That may also be the case in Daz if you wish to get the best effect from it... but render settings can make a huge difference in any image...

  • SpyroRueSpyroRue Posts: 5,020
    edited August 2012

    Render ----- What I'm talking about in 3ds max. This actually took about 3 hours to render!!

    RE_E_HQ.jpg
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    Post edited by SpyroRue on
  • chrisschellchrisschell Posts: 267
    edited December 1969

    Damn!... That looks great! :)

  • SpyroRueSpyroRue Posts: 5,020
    edited August 2012

    Lol, Thanks... I fell in love with the set on R.E. Had to make it work in 3D! lol

    EDIT: R.E. = Resident Evil (Film)

    Post edited by SpyroRue on
  • Zev0Zev0 Posts: 7,089
    edited August 2012

    I'm sure I saw a neon light from omnifreak in my Daz presets somewhere..Maybe you can copy those presets to your prop? Then Again I cannot remember if it came with a pack I bought or if it is standard in Daz. Marcus, that image is Fantastic!!

    Post edited by Zev0 on
  • JimmyC_2009JimmyC_2009 Posts: 8,891
    edited December 1969

    Yes, great image Marcus

    There are Omnifreaker Uberarea Lights with DS4P, and one is a tube. You can find them in My Library > Light Presets > Omnifreaker > UberAreaLight. Being shader lights, they can take a bit of time to render, especially with hair in the scene, but you could give them a try?

  • SpyroRueSpyroRue Posts: 5,020
    edited December 1969

    JimmyC_2009 said:
    Yes, great image Marcus

    There are Omnifreaker Uberarea Lights with DS4P, and one is a tube. You can find them in My Library > Light Presets > Omnifreaker > UberAreaLight. Being shader lights, they can take a bit of time to render, especially with hair in the scene, but you could give them a try?

    That's true, but make sure you up the samples to reduce the noise in the final render! And Yes it certainly ups the render time. But hey you gotta sacrifice render time for good renders anyway ;-P

  • rocknrolla6527rocknrolla6527 Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Hello everyone.
    Just found out about tube lights today.
    I was not using it because I thought the noise was like part of its effect :)
    I tried the above advise about increasing the sample.
    It worked great in taking the noise off.
    Just got 1 question though.
    Is there a trick in lessening the render time?
    Thanks a lot.

  • FirstBastionFirstBastion Posts: 7,760
    edited December 1969

    The Reality plugin for DAZ studio can produce neon type lights. Users can set up meshlights using any model including tubes.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    rocknrolla6527 said:
    Hello everyone.
    Just found out about tube lights today.
    I was not using it because I thought the noise was like part of its effect :)
    I tried the above advise about increasing the sample.
    It worked great in taking the noise off.
    Just got 1 question though.
    Is there a trick in lessening the render time?
    Thanks a lot.
    Depends on your render settings which depends on what is in the scene. Without knowing what the settings for the Area light and render settings it is hard to advise.
  • adamr001adamr001 Posts: 1,322
    edited December 1969

    I did this in DAZ Studio almost three years ago...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7qsLErDJ_8

    You can use surface lights and cylinder primitives to achieve a neon effect pretty easily.

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