CompuServe Messages

Good wishlist, but most of this stuff can be simply acheived right now. 1) Save your "set" mesh to use over and over, and just MERGE you actors, lights, cameras, etc… 2) Using the EXCLUDE feature on lights is exactly like using scrims. Just use one light for the wall, but exclude the picture, then use one light for the picture and exlude the wall. You'll have great control over light intensity intensity this way, and reduce your render times. And you can consider the second light a scrim of sorts, because even in a movie you would have to take the scrim (or more likely C-stand, arm, and flag or net) and place it, almost as much of a PIA as setting the light in the first place <g>! If you force the renderer to look through cookies (shadows) then your render times will REALLY increase. BTW, have you tried using projector lights? You can also control light intensity in this way, and it IS using a scrim. Just draw your "scrim" in a paint program, then project it through a spot. Great cookie tool, too. 3) NEVER in my days as a lighting director did I count on source light (i.e. green lampshade lamp) to provide correct lighting for the camera. If it did, great, but that was pretty rare. Ususally we would augment the colored source light with an appropriately gel'd, sized, and placed mole, thereby getting better control over the throw of the source light. This is what you've got to do in 3DS, too. Just place an appropriately tinted omni or spot where your source light is, and bingo. Give EXCLUDE and PROJECTOR a try, and let me know how it works for you. These are my favorite lighting tools in R3. cheers, John Tissavary (La Luna cie)