Object glow vs. Lens flare glow

[Darthlister]

Is there a good tut out there that points out the differences in usage in the inherent glow (when turned on) of an object vs. the glow caused by lens flares. Looking at a "beam" type glow from the eyes of a character.

 

I created this effect initially with a couple of bone/Cp-driven bolts eminating from the eyes. Looks good, but I'm thinking there should be a way to duplicate the "late night headlight" effect without the normal circular "lens flare effect.

 

As always, any advice is appreciated.

 

Rich

 

EDITED: "good" instead of "food"

[robcat2075]

You want a visible beam of light emanating from the light? For that use a Kleig light and turn on volumetric, fiddle with settings.

 

Here's an example with PRJ...

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...p;hl=flashlight

[Darthlister]

romlook15.tga

You want a visible beam of light emanating from the light? For that use a Kleig light and turn on volumetric, fiddle with settings.

 

Here's an example with PRJ...

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...p;hl=flashlight

 

 

Nice, but I'm looking more for the type of sharp distortion beams that you'd see from a headlightt. I've included what I've got in attachment. This is close, but I'm using a pose to do this and I'd like to use a lens flare beam

 

Richromlook15.tga

[robcat2075]

I'm still not sure what you want. Do you mean like the way bright lights mess up digital cameras?

[robcat2075]

Here are lensflare settings that imitate the vertical and horizontal streaks of a digital camera

 

[Darthlister]

Here are lensflare settings that imitate the vertical and horizontal streaks of a digital camera

 

 

 

Exactly what I'm looking for; is there a programming reason why light emitters aren't themselves visible? Since the visible light object should be reflective, and the "bulb" slightly larger than the model, does the emitter emit on both sides of the normal?

 

Rich

[robcat2075]

is there a programming reason why light emitters aren't themselves visible? Since the visible light object should be reflective, and the "bulb" slightly larger than the model, does the emitter emit on both sides of the normal?

 

In short, CG images are created backwards. In real life light is coming from a source, bouncing off something and then into a camera...

 

In CG, a line is drawn from the camera until it hits an object surface, That surface is examined to see which way it is facing. If it is facing a "light" (really just a point in XYZ space) it is drawn brighter, if it is facing away it is drawn darker. So there's nothing really "bright" about the "light" itself. It's really just a marker that the computer uses to calculate if the object should be light or dark.

 

 

In A:M, when a light is given "width" other than 0, it isn't like a large sphere that is emitting light outward. The position of the light is jittered randomly around that space. It's possible that if a light width were larger than an object at the center some of the jitters might result in a surface being illuminated.