How to achieve this flashlight effect?

[Emcs07]

Greetings everyone,

I've been wondering how to achieve this flashlight effect by Blur studios:



I have tried using a VrayEnvironmentFog on the environment variables but it just makes the whole scene foggy and blurry. I want a way to control the effect, just in like those two photographs. Unfortunately I just don't know where to start, any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Eduardo


P.S. As for the lens flare, I assume that was added as a post process.

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Create TUBE
Use FFD to create shape of light
Apply texture of ur light shape to that TUBE - can be transparent texture so it changes over angles. Add animated noise and so on for details...
Glow, Curve,Sat in Post
Done.

[Emcs07]

Create TUBE
Use FFD to create shape of light
Apply texture of ur light shape to that TUBE - can be transparent texture so it changes over angles. Add animated noise and so on for details...
Glow, Curve,Sat in Post
Done.

Hi Dadal,

I am using Maya, so bare with me a little.

If I understand correctly you mean I should make a cylinder and modify its shape to that of a light cone, in 3DS Max this would be done with a FFD modifier, correct?

Now what I don't understand is the following: "Apply texture of ur light shape to that TUBE". Do you mean a vray light mtl, or an alpha map? Should I apply it to the original cylinder?

Thank you so much for your response.

Regards,

Eduardo

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

I mean dont use any physics - effects etc etc. Just make texture of the flare you want to see and then round tube/cylinder object with shape of light flare you want and just apply to it.

U can use standard render + standard material for it to speed up renderings.

Render that effect on passes and there u go...

Do the rest in post...

[Emcs07]

I mean dont use any physics - effects etc etc. Just make texture of the flare you want to see and then round tube/cylinder object with shape of light flare you want and just apply to it.

U can use standard render + standard material for it to speed up renderings.

Render that effect on passes and there u go...

Do the rest in post...

Hi Dadal,

We may not be understanding each other. What I am looking for is not the flare on the first picture, what I am really looking for is the cone of light that emanates out from the flashlight.

Something like this:



If its the cone you are refering to, how would a texture give me that sort of effect?

Thank you and I appreciate your help,

Eduardo

[joconnell]

Not sure exactly how but that's likely not vray. Blur probably rendered a separate pass in the scanline using the volume lights in max. I'm not 100% sure how it works in maya but here's a wee video of volume lights - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AUba28QUlM - you can make them look better too if you can load a texture into the light with a random black and white pattern so it's broken up into smaller beams of light rather than one cone. Here's a tut to load images into lights - http://www.spafi.org/iso-8859-2/maya...omitani-obrazu

The normal approach for this is not to render it with the main scene as you'll want to tweak it afterwards, so you assign a pure black material to everything or make them matte objects, and then render a pass with the light on set to white. You'll end up with a black pass with your nice white shafts of light only that you can then layer on in a compositing package.

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Heres max example.

U use fallof, noise, gradient play with settings - render in 0.1 second.

My1 is just 5min example, spend 1-2h + post and ull be fine

Flashlight 2.zip

3Ds Max...

And yea I know u work in maya - but u can do that same thing in maya... and ehh I have to start paying atention on what forum Im posting lol...

[Emcs07]

Not sure exactly how but that's likely not vray. Blur probably rendered a separate pass in the scanline using the volume lights in max. I'm not 100% sure how it works in maya but here's a wee video of volume lights - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AUba28QUlM - you can make them look better too if you can load a texture into the light with a random black and white pattern so it's broken up into smaller beams of light rather than one cone. Here's a tut to load images into lights - http://www.spafi.org/iso-8859-2/maya...omitani-obrazu

The normal approach for this is not to render it with the main scene as you'll want to tweak it afterwards, so you assign a pure black material to everything or make them matte objects, and then render a pass with the light on set to white. You'll end up with a black pass with your nice white shafts of light only that you can then layer on in a compositing package.

I am going to try this, sounds pretty straight forward. I assume you would most likely have to use Maya lights for this in your scene, like the standard spotlight? Otherwise you wouldn't be able to render with the Maya Software.

Heres max example.

U use fallof, noise, gradient play with settings - render in 0.1 second.

My1 is just 5min example, spend 1-2h + post and ull be fine

[ATTACH]8737[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]8738[/ATTACH]

3Ds Max...

And yea I know u work in maya - but u can do that same thing in maya... and ehh I have to start paying atention on what forum Im posting lol...

That's a very nice trick. I'll definitely keep it in mind.

[ivaylo.ivanov]

Are you trying to achieve something like this


spotlight.zip

[Emcs07]

Are you trying to achieve something like this

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8752[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]8751[/ATTACH]

That's exactly it. I'll try to dissect your scene to see what you did. Thanks a lot!

[ronald_a]

pretty much on the same topic, is it possible to share the scene that was used to create the second half of the video (the on with the colored caustics):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nYHA...ure=plpp_video


thanks,

Ronny

[vlado]

I'm not sure if I can find the scene, but in general it uses the VRayEnvironmentFog shader combined with photon-mapped caustics and dispersion in the V-Ray material.

Best regards,
Vlado

[ronald_a]

Thats what i thought. but i can't figure out though how to make the caustics visible in the env-fog.

cheers,

Ronny

[vlado]

Well, if you only need a flash light effect, it might not be necessary to use caustics as such... A simple spot or IES light might do.

Best regards,
Vlado

[ronald_a]

well, this actually goes beyond the flashlight effect (i just took the post hostage) as it is more about volumetric lighting in an efficient manner and actually about volumetric caustics that i am after.