Simple Question Regarding A Smooth Lighting Effect.

[arctickcin]

I have been stumped for a while on how to acheive this effect.


http://www.fusioncartoonz.com/art/untitled.PNG

If you notice on the grey parts or all of the parts it has a nice smooth shade to it. I need help on making the same type of shading/lighting on my models. I dont know if people use materials and set material properties or if its in the lighting or not. Please someone help me. If you dont know what I mean, then to be more specific. See how its like one colour as brightness and like a very same colour similar as the darkest point, well i dont know how to acheive that effect, all my renders gives me a black shadow around my objects like a sphere, i want that smooth one colour with a hint of that colour as a shade just like that picture.

I assume your using Max.
If so....delete any lights already in your scene.
Go to create-lights...and shoose skylight.
Go to rendering-advanced lighting and enable light tracer.
Then render as normal.Your render times will now be greater but the shadow results will be much better.
Btw....this type of lighting is referred to as GI....[Global Illumination]

[arctickcin]

What in the world lol.. That didn't work at all! Im sorry but this is what I got. Help please? Do i need to make a material and put certain settings on it or what??

Rendered:
http://www.fusioncartoonz.com/art/the.PNG

The Scene:
http://www.fusioncartoonz.com/art/the2.PNG

ok...
you have 2 problems.....a sphere can`t cast shadows on itself...and 2 you have no groundplane to recieve the shadows.
Create a groundplane and place the sphere`s on it then render again....
Or better place the teapot on a groundplane then render....it has more surfaces to cast shadows....

when your done you should have this.....

[arctickcin]

aha! it worked! thank you very much, many hours today wasted trying to figure this out.

welcome to the club.... ........

[arctickcin]

hmm i dont think mine turned out exactly like ur picture haha hold on ill show you. Do you have msn or aol messenger so we could chat over it?

[arctickcin]

Here we go... on ur tea pot there is black in this spot, and mine is not help? is there settings i need to change on skylight or light tracer? Care to take a screenshot of your light tracer settings, your skylight settings, and the material you used?

http://www.fusioncartoonz.com/art/teafor2.PNG

and i tried it with a spring but didnt add plane yet but look.

http://www.fusioncartoonz.com/art/spring.PNG

now look at this


http://www.fusioncartoonz.com/art/spring2.PNG

I want where i painted it in paint to have shading too cus top looks bland is there any possible way to do it?

Thanks sorry if im really bothering you but im a beginner at lighting.

for question 1....in the render roll out.....click [force 2 sided]

for question 2....yes a spring will cause shadows without a groundplane because it is an irregular shape....a sphere is smooth so it can`t cast shadows on itself.It has no inward shape to recieve shadowing.

for question 3....the top of the spring is flat so it looks bland as you say......
just remember anything flat will look flat.....untill you change it`s shape to something other than flat....
if you want change the spring to editable mesh[right click and choose it as that]...go to the modify panel and choose edge tool.....then holding down the ctrl.....click all the top edges.....
go to the chamfer tool and chamfer those edges......or convert the spring to editable poly......click one top edge and click loop.....then chamfer from there

[arctickcin]

great!! i love you lol... but if your a guy then your a cool guy. Thank you so much.

not a problem.....glad to help

[daniel1982]

i find this "skylight" very helpful, but how do you get that realism with interiors? since its a closed space it just looks dark inside. is there any kind of lighting that gives a great realism and doesn´t take as long as radiosity?
thank you

[olympus]

For interiors, you can still use light tracer without a skylight. Just place an omni light (or something similar) next to any light sources, and turn light tracer on. Set it to have 1 or 2 bounces. This should give you a pretty realistic effect.