Glow stick shader, how to ?

[irwit]

Hi all

I've had an idea and I am trying to come up with some ideas on how to make a glow stick type shader but I am gettinga bit stuck ? Would it be along the lines of am sss shader or a light material with textures ?

Any ideas would be much appreciated ?

Thanks

Will.

[Mokiki]

Out of the top of my head I'd go with a vray light shader or the self illu option in the standard vray mtl and control the color intensity with a falloff map or gradient.

[stevesideas]

I'd be inclined to use a vray 2 sided material with a custom vray light mesh constructed from a cylinder.

Alternatively you could use a standard vray material with high refraction and then reduce the glossy effect for the refraction.

[Mokiki]

I just did a quick test to try both methods. I attached the result.


The upper stick is a vray blend mtl including vray light mtl + glossy glass shader and I'm blending between the two with a gradient. The one below is a simple 2 sided mat dark grey as diffuse white refl with 0.55 gloss and fresnel and a vray mesh light (cylinder) inside. The 2 sided approach gives a more realistic feel while the vray light blend version seems more stylized. Not the best glowsticks in the world but for 5 minutes I think they work okay

[voltron7]

I just did a quick test to try both methods. I attached the result.


The upper stick is a vray blend mtl including vray light mtl + glossy glass shader and I'm blending between the two with a gradient. The one below is a simple 2 sided mat dark grey as diffuse white refl with 0.55 gloss and fresnel and a vray mesh light (cylinder) inside. The 2 sided approach gives a more realistic feel while the vray light blend version seems more stylized. Not the best glowsticks in the world but for 5 minutes I think they work okay

Love the lower one!

[Joelaff]

Odd. I much favor the upper one... Especially down near the two prong part (lower right of frame). This one lights up and refracts those two prongs much more realistically.

What gradient are you using to blend between the two materials? (You said you were using a gradient...)

You could always use a VRay Dirt to give a little darkness to the edges in the top one. The cap (top left of frame) looks better in the bottom one. Perhaps you could mix and match...

[stevesideas]

You might want to reduce the radius of the light inside. I'm assuming you are using a cylinder as a vraylight ? It would probably give more light in the middle and falloff more to the edges. I looked online for glowsticks and think the lower one looks more like the real thing. Check out: LINK

It looks like a liquid in these sticks so might be worth modelling a liquid inside that gives off the light.

[voltron7]

You might want to reduce the radius of the light inside. I'm assuming you are using a cylinder as a vraylight ? It would probably give more light in the middle and falloff more to the edges. I looked online for glowsticks and think the lower one looks more like the real thing. Check out: LINK

It looks like a liquid in these sticks so might be worth modelling a liquid inside that gives off the light.

guess it's been quite awhile since I actually held one...your example does look more like the rendering, I do agree...

[Mokiki]

Joelaff I'm using a simple dark grey to white to dark grey gradient from left to right

[...] It looks like a liquid in these sticks so might be worth modelling a liquid inside that gives off the light.

Think so too. Especially if you want to go for something like this: LINK

I attached the scene (max 2012) pw for the zip is: vray