hi guys !

Im workin on the lighting for the living room section, this is were the animation comes to an end and u see the characters. Just trying to create that beem of light that comes of of a screen, if any1 has gd advice or even a link to a tutorial i would be very grateful :p

Well let me know what u guys think.

Ill get a couple of shots up of other views soon

:beer:

Looking sweet there Davie.

For the light from the screen, volumetric lights are your friends - place the light behind the screen and set the cone height and base to get the correct positioning for the light beam - you'll probably need to use a gobo to get the correct screen proportions.

see to use the volumetric lights, id have to make a hole throu the entire screen then put that in a new layer and then tell the light to exclude them wouldnt i ?

also, what is a gobo....

With spotlights beeing round if i put the light behind the screen wont i get streeks coming from the outer edge...

nicely detailed toys, maybe work on the lighsaber more.

Not necessarily. You could make the screen object single sided (as is the LW default) to ensure that the light can shine through from behind it.

Gobo is a lighting term - also known as a 'cookie cutter'. It refers to a mask placed in front of a lamp to 'shape' the light that comes through it. By making a gobo with a cutout the shape and size of your screen you can mask off the light that would spill out to the other side.

The best bet you would have for a reasonable result I'd say would be to parent a large box to the Nintendo screen, and make it 100% dissolved for the animation, then pop a volumetric spotlight in there and dissolve out all the parts of the scene that won't be affected by it to help speed up the render. Then render it in a separate pass and composite in post...

I have a question, with most of the light coming from my screen, for the animation there will be actual game footage on it running, is there a way to project that movie back into the room and onto the characters ?

I was goin to do it with 3 point lights in front of the screen that i was goin to animate changing colour to ruffly match the action on screen so that the characters have actual light changes on their skin, but i was just wondering if lightwave can use a movie and can actually project light from it.....

hi, here is a wee screen before i turn off for the night.

This is alot closer to what i want, i want the game-boy and main characters to be the real focal point of this scene, if the light catches we bits here and their like the monopoly board ect.. then fine, but even if some of the other modelling bits dont get seen im not 2 bothered, they might catch a bit of reflection in some shots to help give the impreshion that their is depth and alot of junk lyin about.

The only thing im gettin annoyed at is the glow from the TV. I think the light path on the ground is prety good and the light hittin the lower section of the gameboy, but im not getin that feeling of light beeing forced out into the room.

Im really strugling with volumtrics aswell, :( :( :( :( :(

If anybody has came across a tut for screen ect... i would love to have a read throu it, im lookin mayself aswell the only 1 i found was this 1

http://www.altyna.com/lw/specrefl.htm ( but it seemed a bit wierd, but im not very good at lighting so i was a bit lost )

Any help would be great, Have a feelin i might have to go buy a Lightwave Lighting book ....... Only thing is their damm expensive, £56 or somthin

Cheers in Advance

here is an updated shot, this is pretty much what i set out to achieve it terms of lighting. Its really just we things texture wize i need to add, dust dirt ect.. because the light only hits a small focal point on the floor ect.. this actually makes texturing a bit easier, means i can focus on a small section.

Im just goin to start on the boiler room scene, this should be a lot easier. Lighting a dark scene is soo much harder than doin a lighter scene, so i should be able to shoot throu this pretty quike, I need to start animation at least this comin week.

Cya later :beer:

* Also the scan-line effect is somthin my whole animation will have, so ill start adding it before i upload to help give a better impression of the final result

scan lines?... really?...:confused:

yeah, u know, so it sorta like its lookin throu a wee camera. Wont be at the start, but will come in after intro.... I think

Ill do all this stuff at very end, easy to add

*Ill update the shot in my next render, Mario-Kart isnt goin to be on the screen, so ill get the proper game on it for the next render :)

fair enough, your animation, your call

i just checked back over my thread their, i see i didnt post any of my other renders with this effect applied, ill dig them out and let u guys see them, Also reminds me ill need to show u some renders of there living bit (behind the camera in the above shot) and the entrance to their living area... So ill get that up aswell.

For now thou. Its building and texturing the boiler room. After that its the home straight, animation and all the wee Patricle effects.

Hmm... must admit - the scan lines effect isn't doing anything for me...

Well..... Ill let the comments build up from now till editing. Ill post 2 versions of every final render i do know, and ill see how ppl react to them. I think scan-lines works better in a moving animation from the quickshade tests ive allready rendered. But i'll see how the comments go from now till the end, its an easy thing to remove or add. I still dont know how it wil look with the characters in it yet, thats the big 1 that will tell me stright away what to do.

:beer:

Post some links to test animations. Like you say, adding the scanline effect to a moving image might pass muster better than in a static one...