Tip of the day: More realistic spotlights

#1

Hi everyone,

The spotlights in EI (and the rest) all look very CG to me, no lens effect etc. However this is an easy one to fake. Download the gradient.zip attached to this post and add it into your light as a projection map (see below). Nothing to stop you from making your own map if you donā€™t like this oneā€¦
Ian

Have fun!
Ian

PS. Be sure to check out my tip video at Paralumino.com before it dissapears forever! :slight_smile:

#2

Nice trick, Ian, i will test it. BTW, where in the Paralumino site is your tip video?
FelixCat

#3

Ianā€™s Workflow Tips for EIAS can be found in the store.

http://www.paralumino.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=26

#4

Using the ā€œinner cone is offsetā€ option under light properties gives better results than the default spotlight setting, worth experimenting.

Just a comment on the use of image maps and lights, iā€™ve created small light map images with Photoshop and used them together with the lightplane shader, it made excellent area lights.

Reuben

#5

Have you got an example we could see? :slight_smile: Iā€™m curious, iā€™ve not tried that with the LP shader yet.

Ian

#6

Hi Ian,

Iā€™ll have to search around for the projects, i remember working on a virtual ā€œsetā€ or photo studio if you likeā€¦ the idea was to create area lights around a sports car model and have the car indirectly illuminated, i think the render time started to get longer and longer, i gave up :rolleyes:

Iā€™ll see if i can do a simple example to upload.

#7

Cool tip, very cool, Iā€™ll add that you have to enter the degree of offset into the inner cone box as the manual instructions were incorrect on how to use this feature the last time I checked.

5 to 10 degrees is pretty good starting point.

Ian

#8

Hey Reuben,

I did exactly the same thing when I was learning the LP shader, a smart car lit by a load of diffuse boxes and light planes.

I too gave up when the render time became impractical.
Ian

#9

But that was before i got a Dual 3ghz Xeon machine :love:

Well, iā€™ve found one project but its using reverse illumination instead of LPā€¦

#10

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