[Q2]

STRANGE THAT IS!

[tom]

OK, can you upload this final setup again?

[w i l l]

Ok here's the link again. I've ticked the 'hidden from reflections etc' for all the emitters that shine on the sphere.

The main sphere is the group 'zt2' - there should be 8 objects in that group but only 'light surface-1', 'ball-1', 'Fillet1' and 'Fillet2' should be visible.

'Fillet1' and 'Fillet2' should have the material 'letters2' (which is just a white lambertian - there shouldn't be any emitters glowing on the zt logo).

It would be really good if I could get this feature to work - the sphere/logo image just doesn't look real if i make the zt logo an emitter.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/pmedbm

[tom]

Well, in my examples I didn't have something in the glass sphere (except your first upload and it seems like the letters are emiters there) so it worked without problems. But now I noticed this trick won't work for your scenario because we are missing one point that it also hides it from refraction, not only reflection. Which means the light won't pass through the medium and illuminate the lambertian letters.

But, as another solution, when I look at your last 2 images, I see it would be OK for you if the logo was as bright as the one in 1st image. So, why don't you leave the emitters and reflections alone and just decrease the Nd and reflectivity of coating which would help you get rid of the harsh emitter reflections? Because in second one you don't have any reflections, so you don't need them.

[b-kandor]

What about a disc or sphere segment that is smaller than the glass sphere, turn it into an emitter and use Tom's invisible emitter tip so it doesn't show on camera, it will illuminate your letters from inside.

[tom]

b-kandor, that's a clever idea as well, as long as it has hidden from reflections/refractions "on", too.

[w i l l]

yeah might try that b-kandor... thanks for the input. I was also thinking of putting an emitter inside the logo or making the logo sss.

tom i tried changing the coating and material but didn't get very nice results - i'll try again.

[tom]

Yes, with what I've suggested you'll sacrifice from frontal reflections but b-kandor's method could work.

[w i l l]

Ok with b-kandor's method should i just use an invisible internal lighting plane... if i used a sphere for lighting the logo (something that completely surrounded it) would I be able to make this invisible?

[b-kandor]

I had thought the emitter would be a dome with a radius smaller than your glass sphere. Although it might look cool as a hemisphere or sphere?

[w i l l]

But the dome emitter needs to be completely invisible right - it just emits light.

[b-kandor]

Yes, Tom posted in the tips forum a techniqe for making emitters invisible. Basically you apply a bsdf layer to the emitter with an nd of 1 and trans. of 255,255,255 (from memory so see the thread - it's the 3rd option)

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... hp?t=14872

You would still need to tick the option to hide from reflections/refractions but the idea is that since it's 'inside' the sphere it will directly illuminate the letters.

[w i l l]

Yeah i know about that tutorial - i was just thinking that if it was a sphere instead of a plane it might emit light outwards aswell instead of just inwards but maybe i need to use a surface as a sphere and just flip the normals so it emits inwards.

[simmsimaging]

Hey Will - sort of a classic photo problem you have there. Two suggestions come to mind using more photographic approaches:

1) Make a much smaller and brighter emitter to hit the interior stuff and brighten it up, and then retouch out the hotspot it makes in the glass. Just position the emitter so the hotspot isn't on a key area and it should be pretty easy.

2) You have a number of relatively small (or far away) emitters on the glass globe. Try making one a whole lot bigger, and maybe with a nice graduated fall-off to it, to make the reflection more pleasing to the eye. Then it won't matter if it shows up or not. That's what photographers do.

Might help.

b

[w i l l]

Yeah i tried one small one close up but it bleached out the floor - i trying to angle it up now.

With using the light emitter on the inside the glass ball needs to be shelled - so then you end up with a reflection on the inside face as well which doesnt look too good.

Didnt expect this to be so time consuming.