[shawny0123]

I've been reading forums and searching the internet but can't seem to figure out how to properly apply light emitters to my renderings. I am using the sketchup plugin only. Does anyone know of a step by step video or simple instructions to go off? All I get when I make a material type "Emitter" under the character of the material and than apply it to a plane in sketchup is a solid black shape when I render it in Fire. What am I missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated as this has been driving me crazy all week long.

Thanks

[JDHill]

The main things to keep in mind are a) that modeling at a realistic scale is necessary, and b) that emitters emit light in the normal direction (the front) of a face. The basic steps for setting up an emitter plane, and discussion of these two factors, can be found here. Please let me know if this helps to get you going in the right direction.

[shawny0123]

Thanks for the help, I finally got it working...I think the problem was I had created rather large planes that I was trying to paint the emitter material on and so the light source was rather weak. Do you know what the best way to simulate night from the inside of a window is for an exterior night time shot? I created planes the size of the windows and put them inside the structure but it seems like it doesn't get out the glass of the windows, is there a setting I need to change on the material I am using for the glass to let the light shine through. Currently the interior light source kind of highlights the frame and mullions but no light is going through the glass material itself.

[crcgrp]

Glass is a whole other subject
Are you using a single plane to represent the window pane or are you modeling it with a realistic window pane thickness?

If using single plane, use the AGS preset.

I believe using an actual glass material requires the window pane to be modeled with a thickness.

I've also read that the best emitter is a single plane, no thickness or edges.

Is this correct, JD?

[shawny0123]

glass in windows is a single plane painted with a modified sketchup translucent material set as an AGS...I made the emitters single plane as well inside the windows, I'm assuming its a setting with the window glass material that is causing the issues?

[crcgrp]

I'm not sure what you mean when you say you made the emitters inside the windows?

[shawny0123]

I meant I created an emitter plane and than put them inside the structure so that they point out the windows from the inside. I kinda got it to work by letting the emitter planes be visible to the camera rather than just the light they emit. I think I would need to actually draw the interior walls to get the light bounce from the emitters I am truely looking for but the way I did it worked good enough at this point.