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Volumetric flashlight

Steel RatSteel Rat Posts: 398
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

Hello All,

I'm triyng to add some volumetric effects to a tactical flashlight attached to a weapon. I've done some googling and searching in the forums, but nothing is really standing out.

I did purchase the Cinematic Light FX plus Atmosphere product, hoping to use a cinematic light as the light from the flashlight, but cannot position the light anywhere close to correct. I'm guessing I'm using it not for what it was intended.

Can anyone point me to either a product or a tutorial that will hopefully get me where I need to go?

Thanks!

Comments

  • NorthOf45NorthOf45 Posts: 5,483

    All you really need is some atmosphere and a spotlight. The product you mention does basically the same, but adds a lot of extra features. Atmosphere is just an enclosed volume (like a sphere or cube) with some SSS dialed in. There are several products that have some pre-packaged setups for that (like AtmoCam, AtmoCam2) and a few products that include some basic Volumetric props and setups (think Jack Tomalin's promo scenes for his Iray updates to his older sets).

    Actually, I just remembered this discussion from a little while back. The referenced tutorial is about godrays, but it is mostly about how to tune the atmosphere and set up a light to get the right effect. For your application, just parent the spotlight to the flashlight prop on the weapon, and adjust the beam angle and intensity. With the atmosphere, you should get a nice light cone.

  • nemesis10nemesis10 Posts: 3,417

    I'm thinking https://www.daz3d.com/iray-ghost-light-kit-3  I would use the IGLK3 Cylinder Volume Light, increase light intensity and particle density.  It is the one on the far left 

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,119

    I used primitives for these, cones and spheres I think, and made them volumetric, I also used Bloom in the second one for the bright glow.

     

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    cat-in-window--004.jpg
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  • Steel RatSteel Rat Posts: 398

    Thanks for the replies!

    I ended up buying the Ghost Light 3 set. Works pretty well. I've attached a couple sample renders.

     

     

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    GhostLights2.png
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  • Steel RatSteel Rat Posts: 398

    Thanks for the replies!

    I ended up buying the Ghost Light 3 set. Works pretty well. I've attached a couple sample renders. 

    The one on the left (Rendered to 95% convergence) I had turned the intensity down, since it looked initially like it was going to be too washed out. The one on the right (Rendered to 40% convergence) has higher intensity for both ghost lights, and I added a non-volumetric ghost light just above and behind the figure.

    I woouldn't say it's a perfect result, but very goo with initial fiddling. There are lots of paramaters to adjust the shape of the cone and particle intensity and such. It's a good set. Thanks very much Nemesis10 for the suggestion.

     

  • Steel RatSteel Rat Posts: 398

    Hi Fishtales.

    Can you describe the process to make the primitives volumetric?

    Thanks!

  • Steel RatSteel Rat Posts: 398

    Never mind Fishtales. I found what I needed, I think, in the link to a link that NorthOf45 posted above. Don't know what Bloom is, though.

  • NorthOf45NorthOf45 Posts: 5,483

    I was going to say to use the same procedure in that tutorial I referenced. You are doing the same thing on a much smaller volume.

    Bloom is a Render Setting -> Filtering. Makes bright things glow with a halo effect.

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,119

     

    Steel Rat said:

    Never mind Fishtales. I found what I needed, I think, in the link to a link that NorthOf45 posted above. Don't know what Bloom is, though.

    Sorry I got sidetracked by something else. I'm glad you got sorted everything out though.

  • nemesis10nemesis10 Posts: 3,417
    Fishtales said:

     

    Steel Rat said:

    Never mind Fishtales. I found what I needed, I think, in the link to a link that NorthOf45 posted above. Don't know what Bloom is, though.

    Sorry I got sidetracked by something else. I'm glad you got sorted everything out though.

    Bloomis the glare around a light source; the bloom that everyone has seen is the classic Star Wars lightsaber which has a diffuse glow rather than hard edges.

  • Griffin AvidGriffin Avid Posts: 3,763

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/256271/how-can-i-make-a-bloom-effect

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,119

    Bloom settings.

    http://docs.daz3d.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/new_features/4_8/bloomsettings2.png

  • Steel RatSteel Rat Posts: 398

    I played with using a cone primitive and spotlight, along with emission from the flashlight lens itself. Took 20 hours to render, and was at about 87% conversion when I cancelled it. Not too bad. Playing around with bloom now.

     

    OldBuildingVolume1.png
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  • NorthOf45NorthOf45 Posts: 5,483

    Note that you can adjust bloom settings without restarting the render from scratch. There is a properties panel on the render window with a few parameters that can be adjusted live. Look for the panel visibility control button in the middle of the left edge of the render window. Sometimes the render will restart, but sometimes it simply adjusts the image, like with the bloom filter. If the render has finished, the Resume button will become available if you change any settings on this panel so that you can, well, resume.

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