HIt a snag with lighting

[johnjohn]

Ok! I'm definitely a newbie! I have a lighting project where I have multiple characters, each with at least one light focused on it. During Cho I am turning lights on and off during the music score. There are thirteen lights added beyond the basic key, background and rim. Apparently I have hit a limit and I can't figure out how to get around it. With several lights on at a keyframe I turn another on and it does not illuminate in the cho view. If I turn another light off at that keyframe my new light comes on. How can I fix this?

[heyvern]

Silly question I'm sure but how are you turning the lights on and off? Are you keying the intensity or using the "active" property? Keying intensity would be a gradual fading of the light from the last key frame. Or it might be that turning on one more light isn't changing what you see. It isn't adding any more light that is already there. Like... using a snow machine during a blizzard . Are you sure the lights are all pointing in the correct direction? I am not aware of any limits on lights but there might be some kind of limit to how that many lights are displayed in real time. Post the file and maybe we can figure this out.

 

-vern

[johnjohn]

You may be on to how to re-work the project, even tho I shudder to think about it. Once I toggle the light on in the timeline I am using the intensity to vary or reduce to zero. Maybe I need to go thru and toggle off each light instead.

[heyvern]

Yes, imagine the light's "max" intensity you want is say, 85%. If you key it 85% on frame 1, then on frame 20 key it to 0% it will slowly fade from 85% to 0%. If you want the lights to "flash" on and off the quickest easiest way is to use the "active" on/off property. This is a "step" or "hold" key frame value. It's either on or off, there is no inbetween.

 

This will work but if you want "realistic" flashing of lights with a tiny bit of dimming and brightening like a real light (a real light would have a small barely perceptable brightening from 0 to full brightness and visa versa) then you would want to put key frames just before the light goes on or off and key intensity...

 

So... something like this...

 

Frame 1 - 85%

Frame 15 - 85%

Frame 20 - 0%

frame 35 - 0%

Frame 40 - 85%

 

Just making those numbers up. 5 frames might be too long, or not long enough. You can experiment to get what looks good to you. the key is that doing it this way will add that extra touch of "reality".... if you need it. Otherwise you can just use the active property and put in single key frames to turn the lights on or off.

 

-vern

[johnjohn]

Thanks Vern--

 

I may have to resort to re-working. Further clarification tho! This is not the first time I have turned on this particular light in the cho, but is at a point where I have half of the lights on. If i turn up the intensity on this light at this keyframe there is no ilumination in the workspace until I turn another off. Then my light magically comes on and illuminates my subject clearly.

 

I have read in the tech ref. there is a cache limit on number of objects in memory at one time where adding another object will release the least recently used object in memory. This description is under the animation topic. I suspect this is what is happening but can't find any way to change the cache setting. By the way, I am running version 11 on a PC.

 

Any more thoughts would be appreciated.

John

[Bendytoons]

John-

 

To clarify, are you talking about lights showing interactively in the choreography, or light showing in a rendered image? If the issue you are having is in the interactive choreography it is probably an issue with memory available to your graphics card. If it is in rendered images then something is wonky in your procedures, as I don't think A:M should have any trouble with rendering that many lights.

[johnjohn]

This is a problem in the interactive cho. And you probably are right about the memory issue since I am using the NVIDIA chip instead of a graphics card. Going Christmas shopping today. Maybe Santa will solve my problem!

 

Thanks and have a merry Christmas all!