PDA

View Full Version : window lights

bonestructure
09-30-2007, 05:01 AM
My situation is this. I want to do a warehouse scene, and I want to use bitmaps for the windows which are up near the ceiling. BUT, I need light coming through the windows to be the main lights. Now, what I can do right now is create self illumination maps for the windows, shine spotlights through each one, exclude the windows themselves from the lights, and apply projection maps on each spotlight to mirror the windows. That could work, but I was hoping maybe someone here might have a better way to do this. The windows are dirty and colored, and I've never had any luck whatsoever applying a diffuse map to a glass texture and having it look anything like it should. So I'm looking for tips on how to do this in a convincing way.
CaptainObvious
10-01-2007, 12:25 AM
Transparency mapping?
MikeBracken
10-01-2007, 06:16 AM
What Software are you using to render ?
bonestructure
10-01-2007, 06:29 AM
Max 7 default scanline with supesampling and catmul rom antialiasing. My usual renderer.
mister3d
10-03-2007, 02:37 AM
Max 7 default scanline with supesampling and catmul rom antialiasing. My usual renderer.

That is the problem, you would have much more flexibility with MentalRay. Scanline is limited in shaders and lighting, and slower. You can't make nice reflections, transparent shadows, you need to use these fakes all the time. It's 2008 soon, it's time for something new than scanline. ;)
bonestructure
10-03-2007, 03:57 AM
"That is the problem, you would have much more flexibility with MentalRay. Scanline is limited in shaders and lighting, and slower. You can't make nice reflections, transparent shadows, you need to use these fakes all the time. It's 2008 soon, it's time for something new than scanline."

I like scanline. I really do. It's capable of much better results than people give it credit for. I have no trouble making reflections. I definitely have no trouble with transparent shadows. Heck, I've been criticized for making my shadows too transparent. Now if you were talking soft shadows, then yes, it has trouble with that. So does MR, though. I don't find scanline slower than MR most of the time. And the scenes I do that are slow would be slow in any renderer. Mostly, I just don't like what mental ray does to my textures. I especially dislike the fact that I get displacement set where I want it and then mental ray multiplies it to an unusable extent. I wish I could afford Cebas Final render. That's the renderer i really want. Unfortunately, I live in quite desperate unimaginable poverty getting the best results I can with a rather crappy computer and my sister paying my bills, in constant pain and illness and about half blind. I do pretty good art, even so.

I dislike Vray too. I think it does wonderful things for architectural rendering, but the renders just feel too cold to me otherwise. I was a traditional artist and illustrator before moving to CG, and I'm not doing photorealism. I'm struggling to do art, as I see it in my head. I'm not there yet, but I've progressed a ways along the road to it. I can't work as many hours or as steadily or regularly on it as I'd like, but I do as much as I can.
CGTalk Moderation
10-03-2007, 03:57 AM
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.