How to do a Flashlight effect

wildbillnash

I was wondering how to make a flashlight effect. Do I need to purchase something extra? Or is there a way to use the spotlight, or whatever, in DAZ 4.15 to create the effect?

ebergerly

Not sure what you mean by "flashlight effect", and I'm sure I'll guess wrong, but if you're just looking for a directional beam of light then the simple way is to use a spotlight, and adjust its angle, etc.

However, the included lights in D|S give perfect and uniform light patterns, but in reality no light in the history of the universe does that. Flashlights have reflectors that aren't perfectly spherical, nor do the bulbs emit light perfectly in all directions, and as a result you get a non-uniform varying beam coming out of a flashlight. So what I do is use what are called "IES profiles", which is basically a standard file used by the lighting industry (and zillions are freely available on the internet) which define the actual pattern of light emitted by the lights they manufacture. And D|S allows you to just download those .ies files and use them directly in some D|S lights, such as the Point light. Just add a Pont light to the scene, and under the Lights tab at the bottom you'll see "Light Profile (IES)", and all you have to do is browse to the downloaded .ies file and you're done. 

Attached is an image using a point light and one of many .ies files I've downloaded, and as you can see it looks far more realistic.

IceCrMn

Here is the set I use.

https://www.daz3d.com/flashlights-set

It includes the ies light profiles for each light type.

Here is a fast render of a scene with just the  "tactical flashlight 2" as the only light source and the "04 - Light Hightly Amplified" materials preset.

The pose presets are for G3F, but you can load them into any scene and place them in any characters hand with a little fiddling.

wildbillnash

Thanks for the info IceCrMn (is that short for icecream man?) and ebergerly. EB, I didn't know about that witht he lighting. Never noticed it before. I think I'll play with my flashlight tonight to see it myself.

IceCrMn, I saw that page and put it into my wishlist. I also saw another flashlight page with a basic 'torch', as the English call it. What I was wondering if I could created the visible beam effect from a cylinder I could create from my primitives. But I guess it would be easier to get the product instead.

Thanks again, you two, for the info.

IceCrMn

Yes it is :)

My friends gave me the nickname many years ago because I worked in an icecream factory at the time.I went on to work there for 15 years.

I've moved on from the factory a few years ago and drive a semi truck now, but the nick name stuck.All my friends still calls me that.

Recreating that effect with primitives might be possible, but it will be difficult at best. 

marble

IceCrMn said:

Here is the set I use.

https://www.daz3d.com/flashlights-set

It includes the ies light profiles for each light type.

Here is a fast render of a scene with just the  "tactical flashlight 2" as the only light source and the "04 - Light Hightly Amplified" materials preset.

The pose presets are for G3F, but you can load them into any scene and place them in any characters hand with a little fiddling.

 

Just wishlisted that - thanks. I have needed a set just like that in the past and will do again at some time so I'll grab it next time it is on sale. 

marble

ebergerly said:

Not sure what you mean by "flashlight effect", and I'm sure I'll guess wrong, but if you're just looking for a directional beam of light then the simple way is to use a spotlight, and adjust its angle, etc.

However, the included lights in D|S give perfect and uniform light patterns, but in reality no light in the history of the universe does that. Flashlights have reflectors that aren't perfectly spherical, nor do the bulbs emit light perfectly in all directions, and as a result you get a non-uniform varying beam coming out of a flashlight. So what I do is use what are called "IES profiles", which is basically a standard file used by the lighting industry (and zillions are freely available on the internet) which define the actual pattern of light emitted by the lights they manufacture. And D|S allows you to just download those .ies files and use them directly in some D|S lights, such as the Point light. Just add a Pont light to the scene, and under the Lights tab at the bottom you'll see "Light Profile (IES)", and all you have to do is browse to the downloaded .ies file and you're done. 

Attached is an image using a point light and one of many .ies files I've downloaded, and as you can see it looks far more realistic.

This prompted me to look further ... found another discussion on the same subject here:

Flashlights Set & ies profiles - Daz 3D Forums 

prixat

The volumetric part of it is just a transparent primitive cube enclosing your scene with some subsurface scattering...

(You can follow the link in my signature to download this sample scene and see the settings I used for the volume.)