better glow for 3dsmax ?

[Taoizm]

can you post a sample pic so that we have a better idea of what you need? Personally I'd like to see how the scene is arranged.

[Airflow]

is your problem that glow does not work through a transparent object , cos Im sure it does in max 4, or there is an easy work around.

[Taoizm]

I think you have to raytrace for that. (been forever since I've use v-post) There might be a way around that if we can cheat.

[Avatar]

I created this picture to demonstrate the unwanted effect I get with standard max glow:

http://www.3dforge.de/pictures/testscene_sh01.jpg

The reflections of the glow effect don`t get scaled right in the distance. In the foreground you can see the glow at almost the same size as the vent - but in the upper right reflection the glow didn`t scale properly. Adjusting the Z Depth parameters of the glow effect didn`t help.

and here is a shot that shows the environment in which this will take place:
http://www.3dforge.de/pictures/testscene_sh02.jpg
as you can see there is a lot of reflection in there and that makes the glow effect look even worse.

here is a shot that shows where the glow effect will be used in the environment(the blue line is the pipe):
http://www.3dforge.de/pictures/testscene_sh03.jpg


rendering glow through transparent material is another problem I have (using max4.26). but that`s not as essential as the glow z depth problem

[Taoizm]

wow...lemme think on it for a bit...anyone else have any obvious ideas?

[Avatar]

maybe it would be possible to produce a cool looking stream without glow effects. I tried some textures and stuff but it always looks a lil dull.

[Chris]

one way you could do it, would be to do it with a GI renderer, have the streams self illuminate (highly - even use an over exposed HDRI image as a self illum. map) then output an unclamped image to a post program (like combustion) to apply a specular bloom, to the streams & hopefully to the streams reflection.

Another way: If you are using FinalRender, you have the option of having objects reflect a material ID. You could assign a material ID to the streams, which would also appear in the reflections of that object. Then if you applied a post-glow to the material channel, the reflections & the objects would both glow.

[Taoizm]

I imagine that you've tried the old self-illumination trick? It's doens't cast light, but it looks lit up. Minus the halo effect. or a volume light with a short falloff. Althought that would require a lot of prep time, and probably render time.

Give VRAY a try.

13sec render

http://www.taoizm.net/beta/sample.jpg

[aga22]

I would recommend you try something with homocentric cylinders with a falloff map in the opacity slot. (no glow) and self illumination maps (also with falloff) . and that way you can give it any texture you want. i would also put 3-4 omnis in the cylinder so it will illuminate the surroundings a bit. :p

[MetalElf]

The only thing that comes to mind is self-illumination with falloff. Sorry. :)

[Avatar]

thx everyone for your help! I played around with several things like falloff maps and stuff but it always turned out to not look right in some way. Vray was a nice hint but unfortunately I am already at 10 minutes per frame and using Vray would have increased the time dramatically. (I`ll definitely check this one out for some of my next projects ;))

anyway the solution I went with after trying all that stuff was excluding the whole object from reflections. then I created copies of the stream and excluded them from camera so that they are only visible as reflections. that way I was able to adjust the glow for reflections separately. I`ll post some pictures soon.

thx again everyone!

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