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Glowing Lightsabre Prop?

XenomorphineXenomorphine Posts: 2,421
edited September 2014 in The Commons

Is anyone working on a variety of pre-made lightsabre-like blades (for inserting into original handles made by the user)? Or even just a shader we can place over prim objects?

With the upcoming trilogy and spin-offs, I'd love to recreate some of the novelty lightsabre-themed props I once made in Second Life (never figured out how to sell them, but had lots of fun with them on my own) for fandom art reasons. Not weapons - other stuff. I've got the excellent 'Tron'-like UV shader set, but if memory recalls, that requires a specific light to be shone on everything to give off that illusion. If I understand rightly, it should be relatively easy to just parent a bunch of prims together in Daz to make a temporary prop.

Alternatively, if there's a quick-and-easy way to make a physical object appear as if it's glowing and reflecting off things within the surfaces tab, that'd be grand. The only work-arounds I've found involve a lot of complicated-seeming stuff involving the 'Uber' sets, though... A shame, because I'm sure it'd come in tremendously useful for things like headlights on vehicles.

Post edited by Xenomorphine on

Comments

  • srieschsriesch Posts: 4,241
    edited December 1969

    I would encourage you to give UberAreaLight a second chance. It's actually super-simple to use, not complicated at all, here's what you do:

    To make a surface emit light, select the surface, then select "!UberAreaLight Base.dsa". Then, in the Surfaces(Color) tab:
    To see the light source itself, set "Ambient Active" to On, and set the Ambient color, and apply an image to the Ambient Color if you want the light to have surface features.
    To change the color of the light emitted, set Color .
    Change the Intensity slider up to make it brighter; note some lights may need to be dramatically brighter to be seen, work with powers of 10 to start with. Opacity can also be used at the same time.
    To fix any graininess, especially in shadows: increase the samples parameter (at the cost of greatly increased render time). The value varies greatly depending on the light. I have seen 32 work for some lights, 1024 was needed for one.

  • XenomorphineXenomorphine Posts: 2,421
    edited September 2014

    Would if I could find a guide or video in layman's terms. :)

    All of that is of much use, thank you.

    Hmm, opacity could work... I used to make an authentic blade by sticking two tubes, one inside the other and decreasing the outer one's (the one with colour) opacity. Rounded caps are of a vital importance of course!

    Post edited by Xenomorphine on
  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412
    edited September 2014

    I need to find some links, lol. Szark, prixat, etc, had discussed that in his Uber lights thread, and elsewhere I guess. How-to starts at this post, yes it is the same for a candle, just a different shape for a lightsaber.
    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewreply/633185/

    using the uber tube light, and the 'glow' shader mixer applied to the surface of a second primitive over that, or was it under that. I ended up doing both.

    Thing is, a simple cylinder primitive dose not have a rounded end like the real deal has, so the effect only looks good from a few angles. Just look at the examples in my gallery "MiscCoolStuff" in my sig. I tried adding a sphere to that. Yes that lightsaber was made entirely from primitives in Daz Studio.

    FwEveZiva_Lum04004SaborEnd_ThisThread1.jpg
    1600 x 811 - 528K
    LuminaraLightsabor1r.png
    1047 x 573 - 30K
    Post edited by ZarconDeeGrissom on
  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412
    edited December 1969

    Here is another thread, where we were experimenting with different types of glowing spheres. surface effects vs lights.
    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewreply/661998/
    unfortunately, some of them wont work on a cylinder. The uber surface is probably your best bet.

  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412
    edited December 1969

    Sorry about the leftover text in that one pic, I just fixed it, that was for the Amazing skins thread not this one. This is quite an appropriate thread to discuss Lightsabers.

  • godzilla19870310_41ad93f1cagodzilla19870310_41ad93f1ca Posts: 4
    ZarconDeeGrissom said:

    I need to find some links, lol. Szark, prixat, etc, had discussed that in his Uber lights thread, and elsewhere I guess. How-to starts at this post, yes it is the same for a candle, just a different shape for a lightsaber.
    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewreply/633185/

    using the uber tube light, and the 'glow' shader mixer applied to the surface of a second primitive over that, or was it under that. I ended up doing both.

    Thing is, a simple cylinder primitive dose not have a rounded end like the real deal has, so the effect only looks good from a few angles. Just look at the examples in my gallery "MiscCoolStuff" in my sig. I tried adding a sphere to that. Yes that lightsaber was made entirely from primitives in Daz Studio.

    Is this possible with 3Delight? If so can you make video tutorial on this topic please.

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