CompuServe Messages

Jeffrey, While I have not looked at your scene, I would point the spot lights downward to create shadows. Because fluorescent lights cast very diffuse light, don't use ray-traced shadows and create very soft-edged shadows. You'll probably need several spotlights along the length of your 200' of lighting fixtures to get the hotspot and falloff cones at the right angle. Add omni lights to simulate the diffuse light bouncing around the scene. Most of your light should come from the omni-lights; the spotlights are just to create the shadows. (In fact, if you don't need the realism of shadows, you could probably just illuminate the whole scene with omni lights.) Use a self- illuminated material on the bezel meshes of the light fixtures to provide a "perceived" light source in the scene. If you're using bare bulbs, use the self-illuminated material on the bulbs themselves. This should get you started. Somebody else my have better solutions. ____kevin