Making a prop emissive

bruce_5a50d8e52b

Hi:

Okay: I have a prop called fire which created on a "plane".  It came with the "study" sceen in Daz Studio.  It's a FIRE, why can't it be emissive??  I've tried what I think is right, I've made plane pannels emissive but every thing I try doesn't work. What confuses me even more is when I turn off all headlights and dome to sceen only but if I turn out the lights (Ctrl+L) it still shows up but I can't fined Luminance in any Parameters or Surfaces.  I've tried the emissive shader alone and tried it with the iray uper base first.  No change.  This should be duable.

Using DS 4.9 on a Win 10 laptop.

Any thoughts out there???

Thanks,

Bruce

kaotkbliss

For Iray:

After you've applied the iray uber base, (select your plane, then go into the materials tab and select your plane there too) then you need to scroll down the materials list and find emissive. Change it to any color other than black and increase it's strength in the luminence channel right below it.

 

*edit*

if you only select the plane in the viewport or the node tree, then applying the Iray shaders has no effect. The surface must be selected in the materials tab as well.

barbult

The Emissive shader must be applied to the plane surface by selecting the plane in the Scene pane and then going to the Surfaces pane and selecting the plane Default surface in the Editor tab of the Surfaces pane. Once the surface is selected, double click on the Emissive shader to apply it. Now scroll down through the shader channels in the Surfaces pane until you come to Emission. Click that to see the things you can change for the emissive surface. You will find Luminance in that list.

 

nonesuch00

To get a 'glow' on your fire you need to turn on the 'bloom' controls in the Rendrr Settings 'iRay' and adjust to get the amount of bloom you want. Also, to get a lot of light cast with a lot of bloom I had to up the wattage way up - like 10,000 W (candelas / lumens / and other names used for light output also).

Another thing is the temperature of the emissive output is 6500K (Kelvin) which is the average 'color temperature' of the light on earth on sunny days at noon between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. However, flames from burning logs and such are typically about the same color as lightbulb light and the atmospheric light at dusk or dawn, at 2700K. You'll probably what to mix a few emmisive materials surfaces at 1000K to 10000K with 2700K and 3300K predominating to get a interesting flame rendered.

There are probably products in the DAZ Store that do flames as well.  

bruce_5a50d8e52b

Hi all:

Thank you for your help.  Nonesuch, the bloom controls (with adjustments) didn't make it show in render so I don't know why it shows in the design screen when lights are off.  Magic, like all computer stuff.

The other suggestions worked BUT once the pannel was emissive I could no longer see the flames :(  Think I'll stick in a spot and aim it at the fire for now.  When I become competent enough in 3D software maybe I can create my own emissive flames.

There are flames in Daz but I don't see anywhere that they light up so...

Thank you all again.  What a great users group

Bruce

barbult

Try putting the flame texture map in the image map of the Emission Color and into the Luminance (cd/m^2) channel. Make sure the Emission Color is not black (no light). Here is a thread that may help you.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/57743/show-off-your-iray-lighting-scenes-tip-tricks

bruce_5a50d8e52b

Thanks barbult.  Going to check it out now.

nonesuch00

The glowing part doesn't happen until you render.

bruce_5a50d8e52b

Hi Barbult,

That looks very promicing.  I started the process but I'm going to have to get Real Lights from Daz to complete the tutorial.  I will definately will report the outcome here.

barbult

bruce_5a50d8e52b said:

Hi Barbult,

That looks very promicing.  I started the process but I'm going to have to get Real Lights from Daz to complete the tutorial.  I will definately will report the outcome here.

You don't really have to purchase Real Lights to use the emissive shader successfully. The only thing Real Lights gives you is some handy presets. You can do all the settings manually yourself if you want to. Even with Real Lights, you have to do most of it manually anyway in the case of the flames. Try applying the Emissive shader to the fireplace flames and then loading the same image file that is in the Base Color channel into the Emission Color and into the Luminance (cd/m^2) channel, Set the Emission color to white and the Luminance to something around 500000. Then do a test render (or use the Iray preview in the viewport) and adjust the Luminance value higher or lower to suit your preference for the brightness of the flames. If  these instructions are all Greek to you, just ask for more detail.

Edit: Here's an important detail I left out! When you select your fireplace flames in the Surfaces pane, hold down the Control (Ctrl) key before double clicking on the Emissive shader. When the dialog pops up, Choose Selected and Ignore. That prevents the Emissive shader from removing your flames image from the surface. That is not absolutely necessary, but for me, it makes it easier to find the image I need to copy to the Emission and Luminance channels.

Here is a step by step illustration. I used a fireplace log and flame prop from a freebie that is no longer available. You can use whatever flames you have. The flames in mine are just planes with a flame image and opacity map.

Here is the render with only the fireplace flames providing illumination:

Here is the render with some additional ambient room light:

 

 

kaotkbliss

Oh dang, I never thought to add the image to the luminence channel as well. I've only just added it to the emissive channel.

I'll have to play with that at some point and see what the difference is.

Szark

just to add if you want to use the texture map for light colour only then you can set the Colour Temp (K) to 0.

IceDragonArt

Marking this for later.... I have the worst time remembering where to put the extra images for the flames.  Thank you for making this so easy to understand! A lot of the stuff I want to do requires torch light, firelight candlelight etc and I have been stalling because I get so frustrated.  (I also bought a couple of the new flame products as well lol, but I like to know how to do it myself, just in case)

bruce_5a50d8e52b

Hi all,

Just want to let you know that I haven't been ignoring these replies.  My computer finally bit the big one and had to replace it, ouch. 

Barbuilt:  You nailed it!!!!!  I just set it up and its great.  Not only that but I like DzFire's "Fire" better too. 

Thank you all so much. 

Bruce

barbult

I love to hear when someone gets something worked out!

fastbike1

If you like DzFire's "Fire", check out the "Torch and Construction Kit".

unknownmystery445

barbult said:

bruce_5a50d8e52b said:

Hi Barbult,

That looks very promicing.  I started the process but I'm going to have to get Real Lights from Daz to complete the tutorial.  I will definately will report the outcome here.

You don't really have to purchase Real Lights to use the emissive shader successfully. The only thing Real Lights gives you is some handy presets. You can do all the settings manually yourself if you want to. Even with Real Lights, you have to do most of it manually anyway in the case of the flames. Try applying the Emissive shader to the fireplace flames and then loading the same image file that is in the Base Color channel into the Emission Color and into the Luminance (cd/m^2) channel, Set the Emission color to white and the Luminance to something around 500000. Then do a test render (or use the Iray preview in the viewport) and adjust the Luminance value higher or lower to suit your preference for the brightness of the flames. If  these instructions are all Greek to you, just ask for more detail.

Edit: Here's an important detail I left out! When you select your fireplace flames in the Surfaces pane, hold down the Control (Ctrl) key before double clicking on the Emissive shader. When the dialog pops up, Choose Selected and Ignore. That prevents the Emissive shader from removing your flames image from the surface. That is not absolutely necessary, but for me, it makes it easier to find the image I need to copy to the Emission and Luminance channels.

Here is a step by step illustration. I used a fireplace log and flame prop from a freebie that is no longer available. You can use whatever flames you have. The flames in mine are just planes with a flame image and opacity map.

Here is the render with only the fireplace flames providing illumination:

Here is the render with some additional ambient room light:

 

 

Hi what's the purpose of adding an image to the luminance? I know that adding an image on the emission section adds to the color of the light emitted right? Aside from the color that you'll choose but what will the effect be if you add an image and/or change the color of the luminance tab also was I right in explaining that the image imported in emitted light tab and the color that will be chosen in the emitted light tab will affect the color of the selected material and also the light that's going to be emitted? And another thing what's the effect of translucency if you change it's colors? :)

Diabola

I followed @Barbalt 's excellent tutorial and was able to get a fire / plane prop to glow like fire.  However, I can't figure out how to hide the "plane" part of the figure.  For reference, it is the fire / plane prop from one of the expansions for The Study.  Here is a quiick render.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

SimonJM

Diabola said:

I followed @Barbalt 's excellent tutorial and was able to get a fire / plane prop to glow like fire.  However, I can't figure out how to hide the "plane" part of the figure.  For reference, it is the fire / plane prop from one of the expansions for The Study.  Here is a quiick render.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 The surface settimgs lok to need a transparency map - if the prop has one (when loaded, add the map (it will be black/white) to the Cutout Opacity under the Geomerty parametrs in Surfaces.

Diabola

@SimonJM , ahhh, you are a prince among Samedii.  That did the trick.  Thank you !

SimonJM

Diabola said:

@SimonJM , ahhh, you are a prince among Samedii.  That did the trick.  Thank you !

 

Glad it worked for you

Son of the Raven

Recently switched from 3DL to Iray and am having trouble getting a moon sphere I made to work. It's just a sphere (made in blender, exported to fbx), added moon image to it from solarsystemscope. Making it emissive removes all visible detail (had to reapply the moon image after using emissive shader). Also made bump and normal maps for it. Have been playing around with various settings in surfaces, but no joy. When I made this in 3DL it worked perfectly and easily, any suggestions?

Fishtales

Son of the Raven said:

Recently switched from 3DL to Iray and am having trouble getting a moon sphere I made to work. It's just a sphere (made in blender, exported to fbx), added moon image to it from solarsystemscope. Making it emissive removes all visible detail (had to reapply the moon image after using emissive shader). Also made bump and normal maps for it. Have been playing around with various settings in surfaces, but no joy. When I made this in 3DL it worked perfectly and easily, any suggestions?

Put the moon image in the Emissive shader under the Surface tab and adjust the Lumen until you can see it. 

Son of the Raven

Fishtales said:

 

Put the moon image in the Emissive shader under the Surface tab and adjust the Lumen until you can see it. 

Wonderful, thank you. And, in hindsight (of course), it makes perfect sense.

Son of the Raven

Fishtales said:

 

Put the moon image in the Emissive shader under the Surface tab and adjust the Lumen until you can see it. 

And should it reflect off of water with the right camera angle?

I was able to get some light and light reflection by adding a distant light or a spot light. The distant light leaves a spot in the sky near the moon, even though it is positioned right on the center front face of the moon.

3 pics: with distant light, with spot light, and a 3DL render from a few months ago of a beach scene (not to point of working on that scene in iray yet, so if you have suggestions for replicating shadow effects, feel free to share them).

Edit: also a shot without adding a distant or spot light - there is some light and light reflection coming from the moon.

Fishtales

Those are Viewpoint captures not a render. Try a render and see what happens. 

Son of the Raven

Fishtales said:

Those are Viewpoint captures not a render. Try a render and see what happens. 

Same, so I just opted to use the spotlight for the little bit extra.