lighting query

HelenAA · September 2015

Hi, I've got a question - is there a way to change the colour of the wall shadows apart from using the Point Directional settings? Despite all the help I've had from Monsen I find that it's incredibly difficult to set up in a Modern floorplan. It's not essential as my floorplans are only for my own reference when working my way through a novel I'm writing.

Helen

jslayton · September 2015

The lighting system uses lights to add colors to the shadow color. Thus, there is only one shadow color and it is indeed set via the "Wall Shadow, Directional" or "Wall Shadow, Point Light Finalize" effects settings.

HelenAA · September 2015

Thanks for confirming my hunch

jslayton · September 2015

What is it that you would like to do that would require more than one shadow color?

Zedee · September 2015

You could draw in your own shadows on a separate sheet. Just draw them as the color you would like, then play around with inner edge fade to get colored shadows

HelenAA · September 2015

How would I do that? I just cannot get the lighting to work despite following the intructions I've been given I end up with the entire map bathed in one colour and I have to reload the file to be able to see what is where.

Here's the ground floor with me using Wall Shadow for the lights.

Zedee · September 2015

Have to create a Light sheet and set towards bottom of sheets (below the walls) on the list, so lights will be drawn on top. Then set effects to light sheet is finalized and transparency set to what you like ( I usually play around 70-80 range). Then go back and get rid of wall directional shadows and add light setpoint to objects that you want to cast shadows.

For adding colored shadows....create a sheet and pick solid fill and color you want. Then use the smooth poly tool. I always make shadow slightly larger than I want for edge fading.

jslayton · September 2015

The point light system is an odd beast. To get an idea of how odd, consider how you might make a shadowed system: start with a flat table, then add layers of small foam blocks until you build up things like walls of varying height, then add in bare lightbulbs where the lights go. The walls will block the light from the bulbs, but the tabletop up to the walls will be brightly lit. If you don't leave open spaces between the walls or if you stick a bulb into a wall, then there will just be shadow everywhere.

In CC3's light model, the entities on a sheet are the outline of the foam blocks with each "Wall Shadow, Point Light Setup" effect setting the height for the blocks for that sheet. Each point light setup accumulates the blocks for that sheet onto the table and the "Wall Shadow, Point Light Finalize" effect uses the lights created by the ADDLIGHT command to determine what parts are visible and (if applicable) how bright the shadows are at each point.

In computer terms, each point light setup effect accumulates the current sheet state into a heightfield that has the lighting solution computed via raycasting in the point light finalize effect.

Generally, the point light setup effect should be on the sheet to ensure the cleanest possible light blockers. Putting it later on the list can result in oversized light blockers because effects can cause the opacity channel of the image to spread. If the light ends up inside a non-transparent area due to spreading of an earlier effect on the sheet, then the light will likely have no effect (that is, what should be lighted will just be the shadow color).

The Wall Shadow effect uses the image data for a sheet to compute a shadow at exactly 45 degrees (it shares a heritage with the Bevel effect in terms of how it computes its angles; both get some odd folding effects for general drawings). The Wall Shadow, Directional effect, in contrast, uses the image data to compute a shadow in the direction specified and it doesn't have any of the artifacts or special angles associated with the basic Wall Shadow filter (again, similar to the difference between the Bevel and Bevel, Lighted effects).

As Zedee suggests, some folks use semi-transparent dark polygons to get shadows. Others go for a basic ambient lighting effect by using the Glow effect (or the Outer Glow effect) with a dark color to get the sort of ambient occlusion that would be visible if you sliced the top off of a building and looked straight down.

HelenAA · September 2015

Very, very many thanks, Zedee and jslayton, you've given me some workarounds. I never thought of using the Outer Glow to put lights in. I'm going to make a copy of the map and try out the suggestions you've given me.

This forum is packed full of helpful people.

)

Zedee · September 2015

Be sure to share what you come up with. Would love to see!

HelenAA · September 2015

I will, Zedee.

As an aside, the command line things to add directional light are a bit inconsistent aren't they? I mean you've got LIGHTSHOW, LIGHTHIDE but it's ADDLIGHT !

jslayton · September 2015

Posted By: HelenAAAs an aside, the command line things to add directional light are a bit inconsistent aren't they? I mean you've got LIGHTSHOW, LIGHTHIDE but it's ADDLIGHT !

Darn those programmer-types, wanting to use something like objectAction for their names to make the list sort by kind! It should clearly be actionObject to make all of the actions sort together! Seriously, though, I think those two groups of commands might have been added by different people or at different times.

HelenAA · September 2015

Posted By: jslaytonDarn those programmer-types, wanting to use something like objectAction for their names to make the list sort by kind! It should clearly be actionObject to make all of the actions sort together! Seriously, though, I think those two groups of commands might have been added by different people or at different times.

Probably!

HelenAA · September 2015

Here's the upstairs.....

Not sure about the shadows on the furniture though.

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lighting query

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