Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 10:37:19 -0500 From: Gregory Denby Subject: [IML] IFW: (and AMI) New tutes. Hi all, Some of you have read my tutorial on lighting in Imagine which I wrote a couple of years ago. I have updated it a tiny bit. I have also added a second part, which shows some of the principles mentioned in the first part being used towards a definite end. There is also a small companion page showing further details about the project in part 2. The URLs are: http://www.nd.edu/~gdenby/lyte.html (the revised older work) http://www.nd.edu/~gdenby/practice.html (the new addition) http://www.nd.edu/~gdenby/sho/galleryproj.html (the companion) Each one has a fair number of images, probabley a couple megs if you dload all the clickable images. I hope you find the work "enlightening" . Comments and crits welcome. ---------------------------------- Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 13:02:24 -1000 From: Martin Swope Wow, what a great tutorial! Thanks, Greg! Best, Martin Swope ---------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 12:02:38 +0400 From: Charles Blaquiere Greg, I'm glad to see new material; your lighting tutorial has always been one of the most essential, in-depth references available. I'll post any and all problems I see, even the most trivial ones; don't mistake my thoroughness for anything but a desire to help. As for the tutorial, it seems you're living up to your usual standard of excellence! It is absolutely fascinating to see the progression from dark room to photorealistic gallery. Your advanced techniques, such as using two soft-edge lights of varying angle for each spotlight object, are eye-opening. Perhaps the only thing I would add is a description of the final render: how long did it take, on which machine, at which render settings. Being attracted to animation more than stills, I've always being leery of scenes with complex lighting. I'd like to know just how much rendering time was needed for that scene. ---------------------------------- Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 07:37:09 -0500 From: Gregory Denby Charles Blaquiere wrote: >Perhaps the only thing I would add is >a description of the final render: how long did it take, on which >machine, at which render settings... The machine was a p166 MMX, w. 64 M. As with any render using nearly 100 shadow casting lights, it wasn't exactly quick, and I ran most of the 640 x 480 renders while I slept. The smaller 480 x 320 renders took about 1/2 hour, so you can extrapolate from that. The render settings were otherwise default. On a few occassions I tried new AA, with high quality settings and they took hours. I undertook this project because I didn't have time to learn to model and texture in Strata Studio Pro, which I have access to, and which offers radiosity. In the few radiosity renders I tried, with a much less comples environment, and far fewer lights, a medium quality render took 5 hours. The quality was very nice, and my Imagine method only goes part way to imitating it. However, for a few stills, it has been faster in all cases (the Strata renders were done on a 603 120 PPC btw.) and does allow for a re-positioning of lights without having to go through the whole 5 hour radiosity initial render. For my purposes ( repositioning lights, changing intensities), the method is more expedient than radiosity. Nevertheless, if Imagine had radiosity, once set up, I would let the machine render for days to get that ultra-subtle radiosity effect. Thanks again for the pointers, ----------------------------------