I saw several of you taling about using a texture only as a light source. Can some PLEASE walk me through this. I have been trying to do this all day and I have not been succesful with it. I do not want to have to use any other lights other than the texture .. Thanks

Go here and read from post #17 (be sure to read it all) This discusses using a HDRI type setup in Bryce for Image-Lighting. TMG

Umm..Go Where TMG? ;)

Maybe we're supposed to wait for post 17 to appear in this thread? :) Lin

*Best to provide a link to the thread, since the numbers aren't constant. I myself tripped over how to use a Global Image (light probe, hdri, whatever) to light the scene in Bryce around five months ago. To use the image and nothing else, no sun no lights. I have used that technique, so far, in these pics; http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=251269&Start=1&Artist=AgentSmith&ByArtist=Yes http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=252112&Start=1&Artist=AgentSmith&ByArtist=Yes http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=252175&Start=1&Artist=AgentSmith&ByArtist=Yes Let me go write down some settings and give you an example of how I go about it. Hold on... AgentSmith

Apply texture to sphere that completely surrounds your scene (including camera), objects in you scene must have some reflection. Setup the sphere texture as in the pic. There are no lights in this scene not even the sun. The flask is "lit" by the flection of the texture of the surrounding sphere. If you want shadows you will have to add lights or if using the sun make the sphere about 1-5% transparent.

Attached Link: newest

JD here is my most recent image using a texture for light, I think it came out nearly perfect if I do say so myself. =P

Alright, here is a 400x300 version of the teddy bear pic from that first link. This version is also NOT post-processed compared to the one in my gallery, which really only consisted of; brightness -5% contrast +5% Saturation +10% Of course, one of the things you MUST have to do this is turn on the True Ambience in the advanced render settings. This and the version in my gallery were rendered at only 16 rays per pixel. I actually preferred the grain in this scene and it is more difficult to see it anyway with using colored textures, reflection and specularity. This small version rendered in about 6 minutes. For those who don't know, take your rays per pixel to 256 to take out as much grain as possible. I'll show below screen shot settings for the textures and for the light probe.

All the settings are stupidly straight forward and simple. This is the light probe. Material options are set to "Normal". The bottom Transparency could have also been set to Channel A, if you are using radial lights outside of the light probe, (and not true ambience) this will allow the light probe to help light your scene.

Here is the teddy bear texture settings. For his diiferent tones I just changed the diffusion color. That's basically it. One other trick - if your texture or light probe is too dark and you still need to lighten the scene up, under "Texture Mapping Mode" you can set your texture to "Decal Colors", this will ramp it way up (usually), and then you can start bringing down the diffusion level to get it where you want it. Note that to do this you will have to have a bead in one of the letter channels to be able to access the Decal Color option. Hope any of that helps. AgentSmith

Thanks for telling it like we're 2 years old!!!!! Finally ...It clicked in. for me anyway, just couldnt grasp the concept, THANKS AGAIN ROCH222 ;>

When you read this, remember that I am very grateful for your help folks :) That being said... ARGHHHHH!! I don't know what Im doing wrong. Either my objects in the scene come out too dark, or everything has to have its reflection and ambiance bumped way up. To me that makes the materials and textures look like crap. The only thing that seems to work for me is to make everything at least 25% reflective, but when I do that I loose the color of the object, so I increase ambaince, then the object looks like a darn washed out mirror. I just don't grasp what I am doing wrong. If anyone could be so kind as to send me a scene with everything set right (The teddybear one looks great btw) maybe I can finally see what is wrong. -Maybe- my HDR jpg Im using isnt a good to use. Its a snow covered one from a web site that was giving one away for free.

"ARGHHHHH!!" Yup, I know that feeling. Perhaps this will be the turning point for me. I never really understood what fake HDRI was all about before, but since there has been so much talk on the subject lately and explanations of how to do it might take the "ARGHHHHH!!" out of the process. Catlin

JDWohlever, What color is the ambience on your object? In AS's post just above yours, I noticed the Teddy's ambience is a dark orange. Lin

Ambience is basically lighting an object without light. This is used so that objects in bryce sun and or single spotlights would not have a perfectly black line around them. So ambience should be whatever color you want the dark sections of the objects to be.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=775196

OK I missed the boat! Sorry for not posting the link here, it is in a different thread on this subject though. But, here it is again for those that missed the other post.

Are you using a sphere just outside the HDR sphere? The outside sphere is the light, the inside sphere, the HDR sphere, is just a pinch transparent to let the 'light' through. TMG (Here is an image I did in Bryce faking HDR.)

"Are you using a sphere just outside the HDR sphere? The outside sphere is the light, the inside sphere, the HDR sphere, is just a pinch transparent to let the 'light' through. " ROFLMAO.. Uh no.. Nobody told me to. Could be thats what Im missing! Back to the drawing board.. lol Thanks TMG ;) Very nice pic btw

Now I'm confused; "sphere outside the hdr sphere"? Do you mean a radial light outside of the hdr sphere? Actually, the task was to create a scene without any lights or the sun, but yeah, this also can work with a slightly transparent hdr sphere and lights outside. Either way. AS

What I did was make another spehere outside the HDR textured sphere, made it pure white. This helps allow the HDR picture shine more. White circle in same place as HDR sphere, but slightly bigger than HDR sphere. Then on HDR sphere give it slight transparency. The "light" from the white textured sphere will shine through the "light" spots on the HDR boosting the HDR image onto your scene.

And it will take on the color values of the HDR image, kinda like stained glass.

I tried the sphere inside a sphere and the results were really quite good.....for a first attempt anyway. All settings are whitest of white with diffusion and ambience set at 100%. Thanks for giving us the tip JD, I'll away now and play some more and post something if I can get it the way I want. Cheers Catlin

Sometimes it pays to read the whole thread :> LOL