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Old 14th October 2003, 10:13 AM   #1
Cowboybebop
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Default Lighting

I'm not totally understanding light in ac3d is their only one type of light ? I can't find a way to light a scene(generic basic one) in the right way. I've tried one light in different positions, many lights above and in front and etc. I guess I'm aiming for ambient lighting, I'm trying to make it look like the middle of the day and it looks more like sunset. And I actually read thru the doc ops: (unlike last time)and it has just a brief mention of it.


Any and all help appreciated thanks
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Old 14th October 2003, 10:39 AM   #2
Andy
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Default Re: Lighting

You are correct. The single light type is a point light.

In the future there will be other types of light.

Andy
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Old 14th October 2003, 10:44 AM   #3
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Default Re: Lighting

There's a couple of things you can try. You could try selecting everything in your scene and scaling it down very small in that way the light radius would increase ( the opposite for a small radius light ). The only thing is that AC3D's light gives a hard shadow effect.
If you are using Pov-Ray to render, then you can do this. Set up your scene the way you like it then delete all existing lights. Now render your scene which will be pretty dark ( remember to turn your 3D headlight off ).

Now at the bottom of your Pov-Ray render file place your cursor below the last entry then in the menu click on "insert" then there are several different types of lighting effects that you can add. Here's an example of what I did for the dog scene:

light_source {
0*x // light's position (translated below)
color rgb <1,1,1> // light's color
area_light
<8, 0, 0> <0, 0, 8> // lights spread out across this distance (x * z)
16, 16 // total number of lights in grid (4x*4z = 16 lights)
adaptive 1 // 0,1,2,3...
jitter // adds random softening of light
circular // make the shape of the light circular
orient // orient light
translate <-1.16488, 4.20202, 7.26376> // <x y z> position of light
}

Be sure to get the right position first. In your scene, place a light or object where you want the light source to emanate from, then write down the x, y, z, coordinates and after that delete the light or object. Be sure to copy what you've entered to a note pad document so when you render your scene again after changes, you can easily copy and paste the light info back in again.

After you enter the light info, just hit the re-run command and Pov-Ray will prompt you to save. Just click yes and it will re-render your scene with the updated info. keep in mind that the time will greatly increase for Pov-Ray to render your scene. Click ok and go have a cup of coffee or something. MMMMmmmm coffee sounds pretty good right now.
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Old 14th October 2003, 01:22 PM   #4
Cowboybebop
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Default Re: Lighting

:shock: That was such a quick responce, man thanks you two you motivate me more to learn a great, powerful, easy to learn program. I have been Going thru my downloads of different demo's of 3dmodelers and let's say my harddrive has a lot more space now :lol:
One in partiular help me get rid of my timidness toward AC3D. It was so hard to use, just to move obects and changing your viewpoint, I tried hard not to give up and banged my head against the wall only because it has animation support and I figured I could draw in AC3d and animated with it. Well not to be vulgar I delete that @#*&@ @# %$^# and opened up AC3d determined to pump out a beach with a palm tree scene that I tried with this program. In less that 15 minutes I was about 500% more effective(literally) and further along than in this other program which I refuse to name and after this I will never speak of it again. :evil:


Got it going woody, thanks again this is wonderful, great solid product, great support and regular updates Best purchase I have made in a long time. Btw I guess after I tweak it a bit make the palms and get a decent sand texture I'll post a pic up in your other thread. It's not good or anything just want to feel part of the community.
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Old 24th October 2003, 02:38 PM   #5
foxa
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Default Re: Lighting

Once again it works, but the output is BMP when I re-run the POV file how do I set that and can I put that light in the include or header file? (I have ordered a book on POV Ray, but it aint here yet). :lol:

Thanks as usual

Art
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Old 24th October 2003, 02:58 PM   #6
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Default Re: Lighting

If you've created a "header.inc" file, you could try entering the light information at the bottom of the list if you want to use it with every scene you create.
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