Better Area Lights

Better Area Lights

I NEED area lights that cast highlights and reflections like real area lights, not like a point light. Right now, area lights in C3D are largely useless to me.

I tend to use area lights to cast gradients of light across surfaces. I'm a photographer, and I am used to that effect from real-life softboxes. Until this is added in C3D I will continue using Blender/YafRay/indigo for this purpose, unfortunately.
 
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An example of what I mean

Here is a scene I rendered in YafRay. The highlight near the top of the frame was created by an area light. That is the effect I am looking for in Cheetah.

katana-light-test-small.jpg
 
You could try to add a plane with a solid color (like a softbox). Check my Karman Ghia car rendering in this forum. I used a big white plane to add some highlights.

Regards,

Peter
 
Yes, that is a good way of simulating the effect on glossy, reflective surfaces. But I also need them to recreate the look like in the screenshot above, on non-glossy, non-reflective surfaces. Simply put, the highlight needs to take the entire surface of the area light into account, not just the center as it appears to now.

However, since this is a wish list, how cool would it be if we could check a box under the area light properties that would place an emissive rectangle (same color as light) at the location of the area light at render time? So instead of having to make your own plane and positioning it it, you could just set a property under the light? I think that might come in handy, even if it isn't a perfect solution for every situation.

This area light thing is the number one reason for me still hesitating to purchase C3D. I've made hundreds of renders with it testing its features, and this issue hurts me the most. I wish there was at least an indication as to whether or not this will ever be implemented.
 
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Found a solution! Mesh emitters. I feel kind of stupid for not thinking of this earlier.

A mesh emitter coupled with a render tag making it invisible allows me to replicate the effect. (rough render)

katana-meshemit.jpg


I would like to amend my wish. Martin, if you can, add a checkbox to limit emitting meshes to only emit in one direction. Right now the emitter is casting out of both sides of the mesh, and I work around it by adding another invisible plane on the side I don't want emitting to block the rays from hitting the scene. It would be much nicer to just be able to constrain the emission to one side, preferably the side that the normal is facing.
 
Hm, the sharp-side-down composition _looks_ better though…:)

Anyway, awesome model!

Thanks. I actually prefer the upside down orientation, for some reason it just seems to flow better to me.

It's kind of funny that after all the work I put into the model I end up making it a relatively small part of the scene.
 
I would like to see better lights period. Visible lights in the renderer should be a top priority IMO. Please give us complete functionality of one item first before adding additional items. I understand from a sales point of view it's good to have as many functions up and running as possible but I would like to see more complete implementation of what is there. :smile:
 
Visible lights in the renderer should be a top priority
What do you mean visible, better opengl representation in the 3D view or volumetric lighting?
Please give us complete functionality of one item first before adding additional items.
I'm glad Martin has provided a feature rich tool set, if he had focused on one area I wouldn't have bought Cheetah. Things move very quickly in 3D graphics technology so if Martin had focused on say light, as an example, he'd have his hands full just updating and implimenting. Lets not foget this is a one person operation.
I agree lighting is essential to 3D but so are a lot of other tools.

Andrew
 
What do you mean visible, better opengl representation in the 3D view or volumetric lighting?

I'm glad Martin has provided a feature rich tool set, if he had focused on one area I wouldn't have bought Cheetah. Things move very quickly in 3D graphics technology so if Martin had focused on say light, as an example, he'd have his hands full just updating and implimenting. Lets not foget this is a one person operation.
I agree lighting is essential to 3D but so are a lot of other tools.

Andrew

You're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to mine. As a consumer it makes no difference to me if it is one man or twenty, I buy the tools that get the job done. I understand there is a lot of loyalty to Martin and the program and I bought the program because it has a lot going on for the price but this is the wish list and that is my wish. :smile:

I would like to be able to make a lamp object for example and see the light source, that is what I mean by visible in renderer. The emissive function does not cut it as far as I'm concerned for this task.
 
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