Loading...
> >

Iray - Making electronic panels light up

Sparkie ShockSparkie Shock Posts: 96
edited August 2015 in Daz Studio Discussion

Hey everyone. I'm trying to make a scene on a space station and so far this scene looks great. But I can't figure out how to make some of the computer panels look like they're self lighting themselves and the things around them. I want to see a nice glow from the panels.

 

I've been playing with the emmisive settings but I can't get anywhere. I can either have the panels .. with no lighting up effect ... or a general light tht glows nicely .. but then you can't see the panels. I'm looking to get that Star Trek Next Gen computer panel look. I understand that if the panels were alpha channeled this would be easier .. but I guess they're not .. the panels are probably just a jpeg.

Is there a way to do what I'm looking for here? 

Post edited by Sparkie Shock on

Comments

  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300

    Put the bitmap for the panel into the emissive shader channel (click the down-arrow on the left, choose Browse, then select the image you wish to use). The light will appear to shine through it.

     

  • Sparkie ShockSparkie Shock Posts: 96

    Gods damn .. that's so simple it's positively retarded :P. You'd think I could have figured that out for myself .. well all I can say is that it wasn't obvious.

    Thanks a billion for sharing this knowledge, this will help considerably.

  • KurzonDaxKurzonDax Posts: 228

    If the "panels" still look sort of flat even though they are emissive, adding a barely perceptible bloom filter to the scene can really help enhance the effect.  Here's a link to an image that helps visualize what the parameters of the bloom filter do.

    http://docs.daz3d.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/new_features/4_8/bloomsettings2.png

  • Sparkie ShockSparkie Shock Posts: 96

    Interesting. I've not seen that Bloom filter before .. is it something that is native in DAZ or a plugin I'd need to download. Either way it looks like something I would use on a lot of things. That's for pointing this out. Very useful image too.

  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300

    The bloom filter is a render option when you choose Iray as the renderer. When in the Iray render panel: 

    1. Click the Filter category

    2. Turn Bloom Filter Enable on.

    3. Play and have fun.

    To answer your question, the bloom is a native part of Iray.

  • Three WishesThree Wishes Posts: 471

    *slaps self* I had no idea built-in bloom was even a thing. This is good to know!

  • Sparkie ShockSparkie Shock Posts: 96

    It's s shame that there's clearly so much built in to DAZ that they don't tell you about .. and there's no big almighty tutorial from DAZ that covers all these things. Cos clealy DAZ can done seriously professional stuff .. if you can find someone that knows how to explain it. Well anyways, very glad you told us about this. It makes a huge difference and it is appreciated.

  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300

    You're welcome!

    Adequate documentation is a weakness for both D|S and many vendor products. I personally believe that if the documentation were better, more people would use D|S, which means DAZ would sell more product, which means vendors would make more. Funny how these things work, but then (despite all my typos from rendering while I post!) I write how-to books for a living, so it's ingrained.

  • namffuaknamffuak Posts: 4,073
    Tobor said:

    You're welcome!

    Adequate documentation is a weakness for both D|S and many vendor products. I personally believe that if the documentation were better, more people would use D|S, which means DAZ would sell more product, which means vendors would make more. Funny how these things work, but then (despite all my typos from rendering while I post!) I write how-to books for a living, so it's ingrained.

    This is the classic dilemma for complex software - the people who know what features are there and how they work tend to not be good at writing procedural (how to use) documentation. So you get a wiki that documents each and every option for each and every function but gives no clues on why or when you would want to use them. This can be fixed by a good technical writer, but only at the expense of locking up the coders and designers for a number of extended memory-dump sessions.

     

    I've been on both sides of the problem and there is no easy or inexpensive fix.

  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300

    There's one solution that's both easy AND inexpensive: Offer free product for curated contributions to a how-to documentation project. DAZ has enough originals content to avoid giving away vendors' goods.

    DAZ goes to great lengths to de-complicate their software, but there are still non-intuitive interfaces. It costs more, not less, to provide human support -- via phone, email, or here -- to individually answer customer questions. So in the end, over time good documentation saves money.

    I'm quite sure DAZ's programmers are required to comment their code. This is common, and in most companies, required practice. The latest code tools can pull those comments out, and they can be used by writers to produce documentation.

     

Sign In or Register to comment.