Silouette

[Iain McFadzen]

Make it light behind him (inside the building) and dark in front of him (outside the buidling). You know...kinda like how a sillhouette works in real life? Or is that too obvious?

[Seven]

ok theres no need to be sarcastic!

Ive tried and i either get black or a strong light. I cant get the right balance to see the figure. Also I dont know how to get the streams of light to shape the figure.

Only because you might be able to do this doesnt mean everyone else can. I find lighting hard.

[Iain McFadzen]

I wasn't being sarcastic, but I think I missunderstood the effect you were looking for.

OK try this:

1)Create a target diretional light behind the character pointing at him (and out the door).

2)Make the light shadow-casting, and use raytrace shadows.

3)At the bottom of the light's modifier panel, in "atmospheres and effects" click "add" and select "volume light".

4)Tweek the effect until you get the desired result.

There is actually a plugin or script somewhere which allows volume lights to cast proper shadows using a Shadow-mapped shadow instead of a raytrace one, but I have no idea where to find it. www.maxplugins.de or www.scriptspot.com would be good places to look.

[Seven]

ok cheers... ill give it a go :)

[Matt-Clark]

I think Iain's got his shadow types confused.
Shadow Maps will behave correctly with volume lights, but raytraced shadows will not.

(both will cast shadows, but only shadow maps will show the correct effect of the shadow on the volumetric lighting and also stop it passing through objects)

[Iain McFadzen]

Well blow me down, I would have bet hard cash that raytraced shadows were the ones which cast volume shadows. I stand corrected though.

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