#Shaft of Light ?
7 messages in this thread
I am curious to know if any AM users know how to produce a shaft of light,
by that I mean the visual effect of light entering through a window into a dust
or smoke filled room.
Any ideas ?
Chris D.
Chris,
Issue #11 of 3D artist has an article on creating the illustion of a
flashlight beam that is probably close to what you want. I'll describe the
flashlight, once you get it, just change the shape for what you need (I hope).
Basically, start with a tube that gets wider at one end, that end will be
where the beam fades out. Create a texture map that is just a gradation from
%50 gray (for partial transparancy) at one end to white (for full
transparancy…, or is it black) at the other. Use this as your transparance
map. Put a spot light in the tube pointing in the same direction and Viola! a
beam of light. Change the shape of the tube, maybe add some noise to your
texture map (to simulate particles in the air) and hopefully you got what you
need.
Hope this Points you in the right direction,
Jim Jonah
P.S. If I'm way off base, you didn't hear it from me <G>.
Jim,
Thanks for your lighting tip. I don't think it will work for the animation
I had in mind, but I might be able to make use of it on another project.
What I am looking for is a solution independent of the light source.
Something that would react to a moving light without reguiring me to animate
it. Perhaps a semi-transparent material with small reflective particles in it.
The search continues..
Chris D.
Chris,
Have you experimented with the FOG.MAT? It is an example of the material
moving and expanding over time.
The material editor seems like it can quite powerful, I hope there will be a
detailed training tape just on this module.
Jim Jonah
Jim,
>> Have you experimented with the FOG.MAT? It is an example of the >>material
moving and expanding over time.
I have rendered a few test images using FOG.MAT as atmosphere, but I
didn't notice anything. What should it look like ?
Chris D.
Chris,
Over about thirty frames the material "Moves" in space. If you check out the
settings in the material editor, you'll see what I mean. This opens up alot of
possibilities, although, without a little better explanation of the "theory"
behind whats going on, its still shotting in the dark for me. It would help to
be able to render a test sphere AND a series of frames directly in the material
editor so the experimenting time would be kept down (steve?).
Hope this helps!
Jim Jonah
>>It would help to be able to render a test sphere AND a series of frames
>>directly in the material editor so the experimenting time would be kept
>>down (steve?).
It looks like I will have to keep experimenting. Back to the Salt Mine.
Suggestions appreciated,
Chris D.