A more optimal method than V-Ray Light Material?

[CGShaq]

Hi there,

I'm currently doing a project which has lanterns and are the primary lighting source, however I want to create a glow effect as if the lighting coming from the within:

This is a render I did with using vray light material:


the way I set up the light material on the lantern is: using a blend material->(base material is the texture)->vray light mtl (coat mtl 0) which is masked to only emit in the small grids. (<- is this an optimal method)

I'm still a junior and have a lot to learn and I was wondering if there is a more render optimal way to render something like this because there around 20 of these lanterns (2 big and the rest are smaller) which will rendered at the same time. What are your suggestions to get similar result?

thanks

[AlexP]

Just realised this is maya forum, not sure why this shows up in my "whats new" sorry