Seperating the sun (key light) from sky (ambient)?

[RyanSpaulding]

Hey guys,

 

Is there a way to seperate these 2 for compositing purposes for use in programs like Digital Fusion? I'm sure it's possible when using say a distant light for the sun and a VRayDomeLight for ambient light...but can we seperate the two from each other?

[mahorela]

yeah mate.......just turn off the dome light, make sure your environment override is off and make sure your max environment is black and just render your scene with the sun (key) light. Then switch on your dome or vray environment override switch off the key light and then do your ambient render.

 

comping them in fusion is pretty damn easy and if you render out RLA's or something like that you can work your light in real time which is, I assume what your doing here.

[RyanSpaulding]

This concept works, but I think they're linked...I cant find where to turn the sun off...hiding doesn't do it, if I turn the intensity to 0.0, it wont give me the ambient. They seem to be tied together. Maybe I'll switch to direct light and a dome light so that I have independent control.

[mahorela]

are you using the vray sun and sky?

 

if you are you have to instance the vray sky into your material editor then click on the "manual sun node" checkbox.........that will seperate the sky from the sun.......can be a useful trick if you want strong blue tones from a midday sun and sky, but you want to cast longer shadows.

 

hope this helps

Edited May 17, 2008 by mahorela