Turning an object into a light source.
ewangrant1
Posts: 0
Me again. I have looked for an answer to this elsewhere to no avail. I am creating a novel magical light source for my scene and placed a Linear Point Light in the center of a sphere. Lo an behold the sphere stops the rays of light dead, opacity on the sphere makes no difference to this. I parented the light to the sphere, no joy there either. Is there a way to stop the sphere blocking the light, or to make the sphere the light source?
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
If this is in Daz Studio you just need to apply the UbraRea light shader to the sphere (user ctrlclick if you wish to retain any textures already applied) and do not forget to turn Ambient on to give a glow-effect.
Okay, thank you, but umm, let's pretend you're talking to someone who is not very bright. In fact let's not pretend. I assume you meant to type UberReal? I searched content library and looked in Smart Content Lights but found no such thing. I did see lots of other ubersomethingorothers.
If I select the sphere then double click a shader it will be applied to the sphere? I don't know how to control click, unless I can control double-click?
I will remember ambient.
Thank you again.
EDIT: Ok, nvm. I did it. Yay me. :) It was uber area and control double-click worked fine.
Tutorial for uber area lights: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/14536/
And for the sphere, in order for light to go through it, go to parameters tab of the sphere and in Display menu turn off Cast Shadows option.
Sorry about that horrible typo - yes, as you found out I DID mean UberArea ...! :)
Of course that wasn't really a typo, that was a test!
And a good one, I've always known you learn more completely by discovering things for yourself - Simon merely gave me a signpost. :D
Rather than start a new thread on a totally separate subject I'll add another question here on the basis that some bored individual will keep reading this thread.
I've made a scene of an apothecary with a herbalist working in front of a small pile of glowing embers, she's about to burn some herbs to add the properties to the item in her other hand, yet to be decided, I'd like to make a few wisps of smoke rise from the herbs. Is there any tutorials out there as I see a smoke .duf or somesuch in smart content.
Little puffs of smoke such as you suggest can either be added in postwork (as their effect on the scene as a whole would be minimal - no real shadows, etc.) or via a prop of some sort (probably resized to suitable dimensions and, if a 2D prop, rotated to face the camera) - Jepe and Smay are just two PAs I can think of who'd have such things in their store.
Thanks Simon, I think I've taken this work as far as I can go currently. Since I've added the Gen2F and minimally dressed her I can no longer render the scene.
3Delight message #45 (Severity 2): S2069: the interface of shader 'C:/Users/John/AppData/Roaming/DAZ 3D/Studio4/shaders/brickyard/{407f8e5c-3a9b-4708-b5e5-799ff1fe7c1d}/shader_Surface.sdl' is invalid
There is nothing in there that I have not rendered before so, as usual, I am perplexed.
Here is the empty scene.. not that that will assist any light dawning. Ah, no, it's not the complete scene. I've since added two primitives and a pile of glowing embers from a Medieval pack. Nothing strange about them though.
Deleted Gen2F and her clothing (Ars-Magica Skirt) and the scene completed render. Only now it appears the scene is beyond repair. :(
Compare the two images, ringed in red are the only differences between the two scenes, plus a 60% point light above the embers.
Shadows are screwed, the pillars are no longer casting shadows and as it is the scene is hopeless.
Has the crash/error corrupted the entire scene?
Not sure what has happened, but there does seem to be an increase in light caused by (parts of) the scenery no longer casting shadows (and hence also blocking light). Please bear in mind I am 'shooting blind' here, not having had this happen to me ...
To start with not sure what the error/warning message from 3Delight means, hopefully others wiser than I can weigh in on that. For the shadows aspect, it may be worth deleting the building out of the scene and re-adding it and see if that fixes it.
Have you by any chance upgraded your Version of DAZ Studio but not Upgraded the Default Lights and Shaders Pack for DAZ Studio? The Error you posted is a Shader Brickyard Temp folder error. That can happen from time to time. It often will clear up on a Close and Open of DAZ Studio as the Close is supposed to clear the Temp folders.
That is all the Info I have to offer at this time without more information.
Thanks Jaderail, it did indeed render correctly when I switched back on the computer, after my obligatory one hour sulk at all things Daz.
Today I am installing Win7Pro 64 bit. Hopefully that will reduce a large portion of problems.
how much RAM have you got?
8Gb matched pair.
Can't download 64 bit version currently, can't work out how to do it. Once I log in it only shows me the files I already have, which are all 32bit. Is there even a 64bit version of Download Manager? In any event I can find no way to choose 64bit Daz3D Pro as an option once I am logged in.
DIM is a 32-bit application. make sure you have selected 64-bit programs in the filters
Ta Simon, everything installing in the background as I type. Am I right in thinking I don't need to install any of the Poser content as I only use Daz atm?
And guess what. Spent a couple of hours transferring files to a portable HDD, textures etc.. but I forgot the scene files!!! I'll have to start the above from scratch, and everything else. I had pre-saved characters and, oh wait, I'm going to break down and cry.
Hahaha...
If you do not use Poser then just have Daz Studio 4.* selected for filter, and that should be good enough (as well as Software, Plugin, etc.!)
your saved stuff should be in the 'my documents' (or mac equivalent), not the programs folder. It may still be there in the 'Content Library'.
Or better yet, dig in to that folder from the OS, and look around for the file-names you used to save the characters and scenes. It may possibly still be there. (Edit; And back them up)
Screen-caps of my, 'My Documents' saved character and scene folder paths. Unless you explicitly deleted that Daz folder on 'My Documents' the stuff may still be there.
P.S.
I tried to do the same thing with the glowing sphere in my Maggie post, I just ran out of ram for a texture on the sphere. I went with a semi-transparent primitive sphere and a colored point light. What you have posted really looks good.