[deflix]

Is there any way of creating a simple self-illuminating material that doesnt act as an emitter. i.e. a background image/landscape on a plane beyond a window?

Thanks

I know - but in cg its essential to have a certain level of fake control. One obvious element is that of a background - and a background that has no effect on the scene. Im bewildered as to why this is simply not possible in Maxwell.

[KurtS]

hmmm.... you might try to duplicate the layer in additive mode. it n\brightens up the material. Or simply add an emiter layer...

[Becco_UK]

Try using the alpha channell and using that alpha iamge to composite a background in as postwork. Or, convert your background image into a mxi or hdr and use that directly as a background image in Maxwell - you can adjust it's brightness without affecting your scene lighting.

[adamwade]

Yes, exactly, why not just paste it in in photoshop ? I guess if you need reflections of that image into your objects, then that is a bit too much work?

[JorisMX]

Or, convert your background image into a mxi or hdr and use that directly as a background image in Maxwell - you can adjust it's brightness without affecting your scene lighting.

This is what I've been doing for the last few days. Works like a charm!
However I've been using my background emitter with MXI for the lighting in the scene and not just self-illuminating.

Whats the Trick to make it illuminate but not light the scene? Just disable GI, Reflections/Refractions in the Display tab?

One thing I've really been loving is using the background emitter with Multilight.
I just write 3 Diifferent MXIs and then copose them into some kind of fake tonemapping image in Photoshop.

Joris