Glowing columns

[Jtrudeau]

I need some help making some columns sculptures glow at night within a scene with Mental ray. When I render it using photometric lights the scene is almost all black even if I make the multiplier really high. I have to zoom in really close to see anything at all. I have attached a picture of what I am trying to have emit light. It's a cylinder within a wire mesh.

 

Thanks

[amer abidi]

well i'm new to mental ray, but i'm loving it and am excelling at it rapidly.. and from my firm, yet short experience, i can tell you mental ray rendering quality is all about accurate size and scale modeling (units have to be correct), and environmental exposure.

 

once you set those correctly, all of your photometric lights will act correctly and physically based.

[Jtrudeau]

The Units and exposure all are correct when I render outdoor scenes during the day. It's when I get into any night shots that things start to get weird. I had some small success when I put some free point lights inside the cylinder but nothing near what I was looking for. I has to get real close to see anything. Any tutorials about lighting outdoor scenes at night ?

[amer abidi]

i personally didn find any, but after searching a few forums, it all biled down to scale and exposure! =) let me try to help you out.. are you using mr sun and sky? if so, turn off sun, turn sky multiplier to 0.01, and then switch to physically correct night scene (whether exterior or interior depending on your desired effect) in the Mr photographic exposure settings.. that way, you should be base your light settings realisticly without having to use excessive multilpiers here and there. hope this helps..let me know if not.

[SandmanNinja]

Amer,

 

Did a real quick test and those settings work pretty well!

 

Thanks, and I've added them to my MR Notes

[Jtrudeau]

Amer,

 

 

" then switch to physically correct night scene (whether exterior or interior depending on your desired effect) in the Mr photographic exposure settings"

 

 

 

Could you tel me where those settings are located. I've only started using Mr in the last month.

 

 

Thanks,

 

Justin

[amer abidi]

i was referring to max 2009, what version are you using? you'd want to lower your camera exposure settings to about 3 in a nightview... sorry i dont have max open in front of me, but you should be able to figure it out

 

glad to help..let me know if you still need any

[Jtrudeau]

I have 3ds Max 9. If you could reply when you open up max it would help. Thanks.

[Jtrudeau]

I've just dug around max trying to carry out what you've suggested with no success. When I click on the camera there is nothing that has to do with exposure control. Also by "night scene" I'm not really sure what you mean (turning the daylight parameters to 2100 hours?) I looked in advanced lighting but found nothing I could set to 3 for a camera under exposure. When you have a chance your help explaining what to do would help a lot.

 

Thanks

[shaneis]

These people love and excel at mentalRay too...

 

http://www.mymentalray.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=114:-glowing-material-with-mental-ray&catid=45:lighting&Itemid=55

 

You can also map procedural textures such as ramps or file textures to the glowing material for variation and specific effects.

 

All the best,

 

S.

[Tommy Burns]

I've just dug around max trying to carry out what you've suggested with no success. When I click on the camera there is nothing that has to do with exposure control. Also by "night scene" I'm not really sure what you mean (turning the daylight parameters to 2100 hours?) I looked in advanced lighting but found nothing I could set to 3 for a camera under exposure. When you have a chance your help explaining what to do would help a lot.

 

Thanks

 

These settings are only available in Max 2008 it's worth the upgrade!

[amer abidi]

Yeah sorry Justin, i'm not familiar with mental ray in max 9, was a vray user myself. Only just getting into MR now on max 2009.

[SgWRX]

so the area light is supposed to light the columns? i noticed in another post you had a screen shot of the area light. how about cranking up the multiplier on the area light. 500% or more?

[SgWRX]

i am not sure if i read this somewhere? i just tried it for a scene where the time was set to 1am and a default free point light - i turned off the exposure control altogether and i seem to be getting OK results. you could also turn off exterior daylight. (i have max 9).

[Justin Hunt]

You can get the material to glow (and emit FG samples) in Max9, by using an output shader in the self illumination slot. The intensity is controled by the output amount. Higher than 1 will emit FG samples.

 

jhv