XThejon
09-28-2007, 09:39 PM
I am new to XSI and am exploring ways to make nice lighting rigs. I have played around with Image Based Lighting, but I would like to have more control over the colors in the ambient lighting. To remedy this, I thought about making a sphere of lights that point toward the subject. By adjusting the light colors I would have complete control over the colors in the ambient lighting. Unfortunately, I am not satisfied with the way the lights blend together. You can see visible "lines" form where the lights overlap...
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/7843/badlightingexampleep4.th.png (http://img231.imageshack.us/my.php?image=badlightingexampleep4.png)
(I boosted the contrast of the render in this sample so that the "lines" would be more obvious)
My new idea is to use a low poly sphere coupled with vertex coloring...
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/7354/lightingsphereil4.th.png (http://img250.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lightingsphereil4.png)
...and treat it like an Image Based Lighting Sphere. Final Gathering would then take care of the ambient lighting with the exact colors I want...
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/3246/litexampledg3.th.png (http://img250.imageshack.us/my.php?image=litexampledg3.png)
...I like the result - there are no ugly lines cast onto the subject, and I have complete control over the ambient color of the lighting all the way around the sphere.
Here is where I would like some help - when using this as a Light Rig, it is nice to be able to fine tune the colors of the individual points. However, I don't see any kind of interface that will show the current color of the selected vertex and allow me to adjust it - as if I were adjusting the current color of a light for example. Since I will have a fixed number of points, I thought it would be nice to write a script that could store the color information for the vertexes and allow me to edit it in an interface like this mockup I made...
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/1586/controlpanelcl7.th.png (http://img250.imageshack.us/my.php?image=controlpanelcl7.png)
I need help understanding how to script something like this. I have not been able to find any documentation on ways to include color choosers in custom toolbars, and I have tried looking at the way that the commands are logged to learn what to program, but I don't know how to interpret the results. For example, while coloring one of the vertex points on the sphere I saw this command...
Application.PaintVertexColors("sphere", [27, 25, 18, 22], [2031615, 2031615, 2031615, 2031615], 1, "")
The command name is understandable, and the first two parameters I am guessing are the name of the object, and then in brackets the four selected vertices (since the one selected point touched four polygons). I am guessing the next brackets represent the colors to apply to the vertices, but I have no idea how the number "2031615" relates to color values.
Can anyone help get me started on this?
Thanks!
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/7843/badlightingexampleep4.th.png (http://img231.imageshack.us/my.php?image=badlightingexampleep4.png)
(I boosted the contrast of the render in this sample so that the "lines" would be more obvious)
My new idea is to use a low poly sphere coupled with vertex coloring...
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/7354/lightingsphereil4.th.png (http://img250.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lightingsphereil4.png)
...and treat it like an Image Based Lighting Sphere. Final Gathering would then take care of the ambient lighting with the exact colors I want...
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/3246/litexampledg3.th.png (http://img250.imageshack.us/my.php?image=litexampledg3.png)
...I like the result - there are no ugly lines cast onto the subject, and I have complete control over the ambient color of the lighting all the way around the sphere.
Here is where I would like some help - when using this as a Light Rig, it is nice to be able to fine tune the colors of the individual points. However, I don't see any kind of interface that will show the current color of the selected vertex and allow me to adjust it - as if I were adjusting the current color of a light for example. Since I will have a fixed number of points, I thought it would be nice to write a script that could store the color information for the vertexes and allow me to edit it in an interface like this mockup I made...
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/1586/controlpanelcl7.th.png (http://img250.imageshack.us/my.php?image=controlpanelcl7.png)
I need help understanding how to script something like this. I have not been able to find any documentation on ways to include color choosers in custom toolbars, and I have tried looking at the way that the commands are logged to learn what to program, but I don't know how to interpret the results. For example, while coloring one of the vertex points on the sphere I saw this command...
Application.PaintVertexColors("sphere", [27, 25, 18, 22], [2031615, 2031615, 2031615, 2031615], 1, "")
The command name is understandable, and the first two parameters I am guessing are the name of the object, and then in brackets the four selected vertices (since the one selected point touched four polygons). I am guessing the next brackets represent the colors to apply to the vertices, but I have no idea how the number "2031615" relates to color values.
Can anyone help get me started on this?
Thanks!