PDA

View Full Version : Las Vegas style light board

uroshp
05-01-2007, 10:20 PM
Hey guys,
here i am- for the first time posting... been able to find answers here and there but so far nothing about this little problem of mine.

OK- so here it is- I'm going for this Las Vegas style sign (1000s of little lights that are lighting up the word). I would do this in post but the thing is that the cam is going to be close to it so it needs the 3D depth.

MoGraph has done miracles in generating a rectangle lightboard but didn't have any luck when I tried making a boole with the Cloner and my text so it cuts out the unwanted "lightbulbs" lol.. i know.. i would have been amazed if that actually worked.

So my question is- any ideas on how to do it? other than going in and placing each bulb manually.

Thanks for all of your help in advance!!
Ollie
3DKiwi
05-02-2007, 01:43 AM
Why not arrange the bulbs with MoGraph around splines?

This page here (http://www.c4dcafe.com/reviews/Mograph/xpresso.php)may also be of help where I used MoGraph combined with XPresso to do Las Vegas type light.

3DKiwi
davesink
05-02-2007, 02:08 AM
This tutorial showshow to use the min value in the Shader Effector to -100% to make the "unlit" bulbs go away. Is this what you're looking for?

http://www.hypa.tv/tims/halftone.html
uroshp
05-02-2007, 03:24 PM
This tutorial showshow to use the min value in the Shader Effector to -100% to make the "unlit" bulbs go away. Is this what you're looking for?

http://www.hypa.tv/tims/halftone.html


Dave, Nigel thanks for your immediate responses and you help!!! really appreciated

Bulbs along the spline-- good idea, i was thinking of the same thing but then again wanted to explore further and see if i could achieve this in a more automated manner and more organized.

And that link to the hypa.tv tutorial was really useful and i really think that there is something there when loading up the texture in Xpresso and then generating particles on it- that approach is really close to what i had in mind-- but there is this one thing--

since i am going for a light board effect the bulbs (particles) have to be aligned in a X,Y grid so that it appears like it has order, is there any way of adding a math node that will contorl the particle generation in such a way?

thanks again for your help guys!! :)
Ollie
CGTalk Moderation
05-02-2007, 03:24 PM
This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.