#Glowing light bulb help?
12 messages in this thread
Hi everyone,
I wonder if anyone can help me? At college I'm doing a 15 frame animation, I
have a light bulb and a couple of old style computer valves being ran by a
clockwork generator, both of these have electrical filaments modelled in side
the glass. I want to have the bulb filaments glow from very bright to a soft
warm red, can anyone suggest a technique for doing this?
Thanks very much in advance,
Kieron. (UK)
Animated texture and opacity maps on a glow sphere object. But 15 frame, half
a second, is not very long animation to see much effect. <G>
Don,
Thanks for the reply,
please excuse me for being dumb is there any chance of explaining in
depth what that means? I know about animated texture and opacity maps but what
do you mean by a glow sphere object? Would it be a sphere that surrounds the
light bulb that animates from being invisible to opaque? Ideally I wanted the
filaments to glow hot then white hot, the bulb and valves are made of clear
glass, if it was a pearl one I think I could get around it.
>>But 15 frame, half a second, is not very long animation to see much effect.
<G><<
The playback will be much slower than 24 fps and will loop over 🙂
Regards,
Kieron (UK)
>>Would it be a sphere that surrounds the light bulb that animates from being
invisible to opaque? Ideally I wanted the filaments to glow hot then white hot,
Yes.
You can use the IPAS module "Glow" to do this but the glow sphere would have
the animated maps mapped to it for a good effect. There is an example of this
effect on your CD-ROM of a candle flame but I don't believe it has the texture
map animated.
Don,
I think they have 'Glow', would the best approach be to render an alpha channel
of the filaments and/or bulbs only, then do a glow to them and then composite
them over the full animation? I guess I could fade the glow in and out to give
the variation of heat? Would the animated maps be used for a flicker effect?
Well thanks for the pointers they are most appreciated.
Cheers,
Kieron.
Kieron,
>> I could fade the glow in and out to give the variation of heat? Would the
animated maps be used for a flicker effect? <<
sounds like you have the right idea. If you don't have the ipas glow. You can
always render a frame with the filament alone, take it into a paint package
(most have glows or gaussian blurs) and create a glow frame. I often use
gallery effects for a really good single frame glow effect. Then composite in
3ds' video post with a layer to fadeIN, a layer for any hold (if desired), and
a layer for fadeOUT. This would all be on top of the original non-glowed
rendering. If the camera is moving you'd want to do it with an ipas, like glow,
instead.
Martin,
thanks for the advice, it's hard to know if I'm on the right track at all
sometimes <g> I think I've got the effect where I want it, just have to get
the fade in and out sorted out. I've used Photoshop to enhance the glow to look
'right', it makes a big difference using the layers mask function to be able to
see how the final image will look.
BTW are you the same Martin Foster who is in the NRP 3D Studio SFX book? I
assume you are. Falls to knees 'I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy' <BG> Are you
still doing games work? I'm awaiting news of my 1st possible job working on 3ds
for the Playstation, I think I'm going to pop my knuckles crossing my fingers
for it! <g>. Have you any advice/tips on working in the games field?
Kind regards,
Kierom
Kieron,
>> I've used Photoshop to enhance the glow to look 'right' <<
that's the way to do it, although only feasible if the camera is locked off.
>> BTW are you the same Martin Foster who is in the NRP 3D Studio SFX book? <<
yes, that's me. At least it was last time I checked the name tag on me y-fronts
<g>.
>> I assume you are. Falls to knees 'I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy <<
no need for that, son. They were scraping the barrel when they asked me to
write something for the book <g>.
>> Are you still doing games work? <<
somewhat, but less than before. I now work for MetroLight Studios and we do a
mixture of film, TV, and interactive entertainment. I just finished a heavy 6
month stint on the film "Virtuosity" due out August 4th (USA) – I worked on a
mixed bag of background screen graphics, video wall graphics, and also a full
plate composite shot (CG and live elements). The full resolution shot is the
crowning glory for me and I was quite pleased with how it turned out. We're
finishing up a broadcast commercial for Lucky Goldstar electronics for Korean
TV. We also have a 32-bit polygon game in development, but I'm not sure how
much I'll be involved. Probably only in pre-production when we do the motion
capture sessions.
>> Have you any advice/tips on working in the games field <<
get some grungy clothes and grow a pony-tail – you'll fit in nicely <g>. Other
than that most important advice, all I can say is become really good at 3ds,
and in particular blowing things to bits. Also, modelling low-poly characters
(for real-time games) and study the movies for colour and lighting styles which
can be very useful when creating lush cinematic sequences. Put a few killer
sequences on a demo reel (quality not quantity) and they'll knock themselves
over to get to you 🙂
Martin "English Bloke living in SoCal" Foster
Martin,
thanks for the reply made me grin.
I've got the animation to work, yay! Not my first but first time for video post
use, a glimmer of understanding abounds <g> I did the frames as 24-bit tiffs
then did the glow and some steam puffs and at the final stage took it to 8
bit. I put an attenuated omni light where the bulb is and raised and lowered
the strength in time with the glow effect to light the other object, I think it
just about worked.
Virtuosity sounds very interesting. Is the UK release date likely to be next
year? 🙁 Was this all done on 3D Studio?? I would've guessed at a Silicon
Graphic feeding frenzy? <g> How much do you able to put your 'touch' on
things or are you very much part of a team consensus in film FX?
>>get some grungy clothes and grow a pony-tail – you'll fit in nicely <g><<
Ha ha, well all I need is extensions and I might be able to slip in unnoticed
until I get the killer demo reel made on their equipment! <g> I have a plan for
a short film which I think will certainly end up teaching me lots if I want to
achieve it's completion. Would you say 3DS is only half the story and knowing
IPAS use is very much in demand as well? Did you find games work a stepping
stone to film FX or did it just happen?
I have some vague long term plan for emergrating from the UK (not sure where
yet!) is that what you did to get to California or did the job come up first?
Cheers,
Kieron "English Bloke Living in South Wales" Helsdon
[B
Kieron,
glad you enjoyed my response. I have a lot of fun on CI$ <g>.
Virtuosity probably has more 3ds effects than any other film before. I think
the vast majority were done in 3ds (about 120 effects shots), but there's also
some shots being done by the SGI department of Sony Imageworks. I certainly had
some influence on the shots I was involved in. We had a great Visual Effects
Supervisor/Art Director [C (John Townley) who actually listened to the
animators suggestions. And mine too. I was the animator and CG supervisor for
quite a lot of the sequences.
Games weren't a stepping stone into films. They both sort of happened at the
ssame time, and in parellel.
Martin
Martin:
I was looking for you mate when I saw one of those "behind the scenes looks" at
Virtuosity blurbs on some show like Entertainment Tonight. Anyway, they
interviewed a few people on the CGI side and showed a bunch of folks animating
away. The 3DS interface was in several shots but you must have been out having
a spot of tea. Actually, I don't know where the footage was shot but it was
cool seeing 3DS prominently displayed.
Bob
Kieron,
BTW, I've no idea about the release date of "Virtuosity" in the UK. I'll ask.
I actually came to the USA as a summer camp cook through BUNAC. I'd just
graduated from Manchester Polytechnic, reading Computer Science. I was a cook
for a year, then a sportwear salesman, then a car salesman, then a programmer,
and finally for the last 4 years, a 3ds geek!
Martin