Adding Materials to Lights

[bighop]

This one is new to me, did you know you can add a material to lights? I knew this was available in other programs so I tried on AM. I read some post about lighting effects, and I thought I would add this.

 

Again, new to me but this could be old news to some.

[John Bigboote]

Nope. THATS the cats-whiskers...so, can you add an image to a light?

[bighop]

I added a material to the light. I haven't tried an image yet. ***Just tried a jpg onto the light, it comes out as a rotoscope, and not visible when when I test rendered. But I didn't play with the render settings.

[bighop]

I was wrong, you can add a picture to a light. I didn't have it on the light in the Chor. Cool!

[John Bigboote]

THANX for testing that out...now, my mind is really blown with trillions of possibilities....ow! Thanks Bighopper! AY---I just noticed you hail from MI...where?

[bighop]

Glad you liked it. I can't take full credit for this. I teach some night classes at ITT Tech in Troy. I'm teaching a basic 3ds class, and I saw that you can add a map to their light system, so I tried it on AM. I live in the Clinton Township area. How about you?

[max]

hi! that is cool! show please settings for chor, light and render, i try this light method but it is do not work! THank you!

[Fuchur]

Yes this is very cool if you want to give the light some shape. Thanks for letting me remember that.

This is for example done by Victor Navone in his aliensong-movie to create the disco-like lighteffects at the ground.

An image is applied by a projection-map-material. In this way you can define dark and light colors to your light,

so that it for example looks like the light is shining through a window, without having to model the window and without having to render it as well (it is much faster than rendering the shadows, etc.)

 

*Fuchur*

[Tralfaz]

So, if you can add a material and an image, can you add a video or series of images for an animated light?

 

Hmmmmm.......

Al

[bighop]

I think if you can key frame a light, then you could key frame images. I don't know about video. That will be one to try later.

[Gerry]

Wow, this is a really cool effect! Thanks for the tip!

[John Bigboote]

Great stuff!

BH- Live in White Lake and work in Farmington at Grace & Wild/HDStudios. Good to know there's another Hasher in the area- I've been wanting to put together a usergroup called 'D.A:M.N.' for Detroit Area Animation:Master Network but haven't for the lack of local users. I taught for a semester or 2 at Schoolcraft College: Motion Graphics 101 (Adobe After Effects)

[bighop]

Hey John,

 

You're not too far. Teaching a program will help sharpen your skills, that's for sure, but doesn't cut down on your time for working on your own stuff? That's what I've been running into anyway. A Hash group would be cool. Do you use AM at work or one of the "Other" programs?

[John Bigboote]

I do use A:M in my production workflow. I'm the rebel, as our facility is pretty devoted to Maya. Originally, as the 3D craze hit (1996-7) I was pigeon-holed as the '2D' guy and was overlooked when Maya training happened, and as a reaction I went out and procured myself an A:M license and began splining away to show that I COULD do 3D...well, it worked-sort of... I was given a copy of Maya but no-one wanted to teach me and by that time I was pretty 'set in my ways' with A:M...Maya did'nt take on me and it nearly cost me the gig. Today, I work apart from the others on my own projects which are quite diverse whereas the Maya group pretty much JUST does spinning cars. I've found I can do stuff faster in A:M than a team of Maya-mators- with the tradeoff being photorealism...they are quite good at Photorealism (mostly cars) and I take what I have come to call the 'low-end' 3D, and there's a LOT of call for it...though the money is not as high.

 

Here are some links to some recent TV spots I've used A:M and AE to produce:

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=y29l0h-1yAE Recent ArtVan spot...fisheye lens...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xgHDIqj23Sc Carls Golfland

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yhv88Vakq6Y ArtVan 50percent...snow...cloth

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9so-Q9NkhjI ArtVan Christmas....3D box, ribbon untying-retying

Fisheye test... chickypoo

Rolling Stones 'Don't Stop' cartoon

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pP4xpeqaifI 1st Motor Club - I love making quick and dirty TV spots like this!

[bighop]

That's great that you are able to use AM for production. I'll check out those spots you linked at home (They filter out uTube here). So far I've had to work with 3ds at ITT, and soon Maya. I bring in examples of AM when ever I can. At least it's a program that students can afford, and still learn the 3D trade.

[John Bigboote]

And to get back on topic--- I just tested a sequence of images on a light...works!

[bighop]

Do you mean you keyframed each light with an image, or an image sequence and dropped it on the light? Very Cool. Do you have an example?

[Luuk Steitner]

For a movie project I had to build a cinema and with a projector projecting a movie on the screen (and objects in between). I tried many ways to get this right, but it wasn't fixed easily. When I was doing this I didn't know about the possibility of adding an image to a light, but I just tried it and it did not work out as good as I had hoped.

When I do a multi-pass render the image gets blurred, and single-pass is not what I need for production. Also, the image projection does not seem to work with a sun light when the image is directly added to the light.

 

The way I finally solved my problem was by actually building a real projector. I've build a projector model with a light, and in front of the light a surface with the image sequence applied to it. To get this working you'll need two sequences; the first sequence is the normal colored video, the second sequence is a negative gray scale video applied as transparency map.

 

This method was the start to get to get what I need, but again, with multi-pass rendering the projection gets blurred again. An other huge problem was the quality. When I tried single pass rendering I could not get the image smooth, no matter how large is was. If I rendered to a larger size, it just pixelated more.

Then, I tried a sun light for the projector, and the image was as sharp as the original image, even with multi-pass rendering.

 

This way I got my project done, the only disadvantage with the sun light was I had to make the projector as big as the screen. But it worked

 

I'd love to show the final result, but I'm not allowed to show it before the film is released. But you can see it in the film festivals in a while

See the website: http://www.erikvanschaaik.com/phantomofthecinema/?page_id=21

[Gerry]

Luuk, that's a great workaround. I'm sure you must have been pulling your hair out at times, but once you get something like that to work all the frustration somehow melts away. I hope we can get to see it here (or you can link to it) sometime.

 

And John, whenever you can post your test I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to see it.

[John Bigboote]

mocap.mov WARNING! bikini girl.

 

Here's my test. I dropped an image sequence onto the default klieg light and cranked it up to 200 brightness. The image sequence is a 'water' depth matte I made a long time ago from a water tutorial so it was generated from an AM material, I also set it's scale to 200% on the light- which is cool to be able to do. This test also is testing my latest hair settings, BensLens4 fisheye lens, and a BVH mocap file I downloaded from ANIMAZOO.com ---her hand is passing thru her leg, so I am redewwing it. BIG FUN!

[Luuk Steitner]

Luuk, that's a great workaround. I'm sure you must have been pulling your hair out at times, but once you get something like that to work all the frustration somehow melts away. I hope we can get to see it here (or you can link to it) sometime.

 

No, I wasn't really pulling out my hair I took a while, but I'm getting used to such situations where you have have to be patient and eventually always find a solution. I'll post it here (or Erik might) when the Phantom is released.

[bighop]

Very Cool John!

[robcat2075]

btw, this feature is documented in the manual (aka Help) "Light Gels"

 

I'm glad you're all doing well with it.

[zandoriastudios]

sigh...I miss Tincan's "RTFM" advice.

[robcat2075]

I'm glad you're all doing well with it.

 

And by "it", I mean the feature.

[mtpeak2]

Use a light list. Then the light/image would only project on what model you set the list to.

[John Bigboote]

Just reread the thread...I couldn't see where anyone was looking for any advice. Thanks for your positive input tho-