#images used in spotlight
6 messages in this thread
<<It renders out more washed out and with less color than what it looks like as
viewed in windows paint shop or other such program.>>
Since the bitmap is being used as a projector it isn't the same as displaying
the bitmap directly, since it is projected into a real-world scene where other
factors will determine how "well" the projected light appears. Did you want to
have the projected image(image shown on the object) exactly like the bitmap,
then you'd be better of just mapping it directly onto the object.
DaviD "shadow puppeteer" GouID
I've been working on a piece in which the camera starts outside a house, enters
the house, zooms in on a monitor sitting on a desk, and seems to enter the
monitor. I rendered frame 1 of the animation and then mapped that frame onto
the screen of the monitor (yeah, it's a cliche, but it still looks kind of
cool). But, no matter how I treat the bitmap that's mapped onto the monitor,
there's still a little palette flash as the animation loops, so the effect
doesn't quite work. Someone's suggestion that ambient light needs to be set to
zero sounds logical, I'll try that. But I suspect that it's probably really
tough to have a mapped image look exactly like a first-generation rendering.
<<I rendered frame 1 of the animation and then mapped that frame onto the
screen of the monitor (yeah, it's a cliche, but it still looks kind of cool).>>
Since you want the impression that it is a television screen, make the
television screen material 100% self illuminated.
<<But, no matter how I treat the bitmap that's mapped onto the monitor, there's
still a little palette flash as the animation loops, so the effect doesn't
quite work.>>
Are you rendering to a flic? If, so then you're coming across the problem of
creating a palette of 256 colours from an animation consisting of possibly
thousands of different colours. You could try using a custom palette so that
you don't get the "flash".
DaviD "Flash, ah, ah, saviour of the universe!" GouID
I was the one who suggested setting the ambient to zero. As long as you've got
ambient turned up, both that, and any other lights in the scene are going to
alter the color intensity of the surface of the monitor (and, therefore, the
bitmap). Another way around this is to make the monitor surface self-
illuminated. If you turn self-illumination all the way up, the full intensity
of the bitmap will be used, regardless of the ambient light — or other lights.
– Jack
Yeah, self-illumination sounds like exactly what I need to do. This forum more
than pays for itself; I don't know how long it would have been before that
solution finally occurred to me (never?). Thanks.
Dan
>But, no matter how I treat the bitmap that's mapped onto the monitor, there's
still a little palette flash as >the animation loops, so the effect doesn't
quite work.
What palette are you using for your rendering? Are you using Medium, or a
custom palette? It sounds to me like this might be your problem (as opposed to
the actually mapping).
For a monitor image, I wouldn't use a spotlight, but just a self-illuminated
(100%) material mapped onto the screen. I have done this a lot and it works
just fine.
> But I suspect that it's probably really tough to have a mapped image look
exactly like a first-generation >rendering.
For the opening of my show I had a giant screen (kind of like the one in Times
Square) representation that showed clips of the show as you zoomed down the
street. The clips were TGAs grabbed from live video, and in the final
animation (rendering to video) you could not tell that it wasn't a TV screen.
Is this the kind of effect you're looking for?