Advanced lighting

[Enix]

Ok, I was testing out advanced lighting in brazil
and stuff. I modeled a flashlight real quick for
nice little test, but I ran into a problem. The light
source from inside the flashlight doesn't project
through the plastic plate, it just refracts to the back.
And also I dont know how to get the little light
bulb in there to act as a light source. Can anyone help?

Heres the test scene:

http://img157.exs.cx/img157/1363/light_fl.jpg

[FatAssasin]

Can you give more details, like are you using a Brazil light, do you have Brazil correctly set as the renderer, is the object one mesh or seperate pieces, and what are the material settings for the glass?

If the object is seperate pieces, you can always exclude the glass from the light and use a shadow map to simulate the light effect you get with light passing through glass, like you get here (http://www.flashlight-fan.com/flame_page/frame_l4.htm) (scroll down to the bottom). Maybe if you posted the max file itself it would be easier to see what you need to change.

I know there are ways to make objects emit light, but in this case I think it would be easier and quicker to render by faking it with an actual light.

Have you tried checking out the Splutterfish forums?

[Joshua Stubbles]

There are other approaches as well. You can always use an Advanced Lighting Override material. If you assign it to the bulb with a value of 10000 or so, and use Radiosity or Light Tracer, instead of Brazil, it will act as a light source.
Here's a shot I put together for ya:
http://www.digitalinfluence.net/temp/light.jpg

This is with standard max radiosity. Obviously for a final render, you'd have a higher photon sampling rate /images/graemlins/wink.gif

**Edit - you also need to make sure that you have a skylight in the scene. Otherwise, the radiosity won't compute.

[Enix]

Im using a target linear light with brazil set as my renderer.
Photon map server is set to caustic and global active.
And in the luma server box, it has skylight active. And heres
a pic of the scene:

http://img67.exs.cx/img67/5379/SP32-20041218-175410.png

And the only thing that is sperated is the flashlight button, the plastic cover, and the round reflector inside
with an architectural material on. And all the glass
materials have standard settings, didn't mess with them.

[FatAssasin]

Did you want to know how to do this with Brazil specifically, or just how to achieve the result in general. You can do it without Brazil at all like Vassago shows.

If you want to use Brazil, I'd suggest using Brazil lights and materials. But the first thing you need to change is the direct light. You need a spot light, otherwise the light's ray just go straight out and will never hit the ground.

[Enix]

Doesnt really matter which renderer i use, i would just
like to know how to get an object to act as a light
source. I tried assigning an advanced lighting override
moaterial to the bulb, but it didn't do much. it
didnt even project the light onto the floor. Hmmm..

[Joshua Stubbles]

I'm about to go to a late lunch right now, but if I have time when I get back, I'll write ya a mini-tut on it on using advanced lighting override materials, and radiosity.

[Joshua Stubbles]

Well, I didn't have time to write a tutorial, but I've made a sample max scene to show you the material setup. I think the one that prevented it from working for you, is that you probably didn't check the "regather indirect illumination" under the rendering tab, in Advanced Lighting.

Here's a pic of the scene:
http://www.digitalinfluence.net/temp/light2.jpg

And you can get the max file right HERE (http://www.digitalinfluence.net/temp/lighting.zip)