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View Full Version : Clipper - Light Range Visualizer

surfer3d
10-03-2004, 12:30 AM
Just got done working on a script idea that a friend gave me. She wanted a method to see how far her lights with decay on them were reaching when she was looking through them, so that she could know what they would affect. The result is this quick little script. Enjoy!

http://sfdm.ca.scad.edu/vsfx/student/tasmith/clipper.mel

The only real issue that I've had at this point is that you must move forward in time to get the change to show. Other than that, if it is visible through the light as you "look through selected" it will have some light hitting it. I may later add a locator or another object that indicates the point/range at which the light intensity is 1, so that you have a more accurate idea how far your light will truly go.

--Surfer3D
wrend
10-04-2004, 10:00 AM
handy! :) if you do a direct connection to the light's intensity in your expression, it'll update interactively when you tweak it. you cant direct connect to decay rate, so it wont update when you flip it about, but will be taken into account correctly upon next intensity tweak. world locator would be easy as parenting locator under camera and giving it negated far clip value on its z (would need to take into account any scaling of light/hierachy). couple notes on the script, you should pop the proc above the other pieces, and you need to concatenate one of the external variables into the expression string.
surfer3d
10-05-2004, 02:04 AM
Hey, thanks for that tip on connecting the attributes. I went ahead and did that, so that now, it updates as you slide the intensity across its range. The file name is the same, so the link above should still work for getting the newest version. Again, enjoy, and comments are always more than welcome!

-- Surfer3D
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