CompuServe Messages

Of course you can merge just cameras. Do a MERGE or MERGE PROJECT/CAMER/ANIMATION. You can merge anything you want. I'm not sure about overhead, but using more lights without scrims definitely renders faster. Having to calculate shadows (scrims) takes longer. Besides, when have you lit a normal scene with just one light? The projector light works just as a scrim does (a scrim is, I'm sure you know, the wiremesh disk that gets put into the brackets on the light). Scrims really don't do much in the way of precision light reduction as you seem to be implying. For precision you need flags, nets, dots, fingers, c-stands, etc… the stuff the grip department deals with. Anyway, using exclude does exactly what putting a scrim in a light would do, and setting extra lights renders much faster than making a single light go through all sorts of objects. John Tissavary (LUNA cie)