Traveler just gave us a third set of draped props and there are sets in DAZ's club as well. Folks are almost certainly going to be showing off their pricesless collection of shrunken heads, tiffany vases, or that absolutely unique (and totally unidentified artifact) from the fourth robotic expedition to Titan. I've noticed querulent discussions about aiming spotlights so that the shadows look right and the object in question is the one illuminated... so perhaps a more focussed tutorial on lighting an object would be useful to the group? What about colored lights on colored objects? If I shine a red light on a red apple, will it look properly white? What about blacklight effects? A spotlight through water or fog or a smoky room will be more diffuse... how to achieve that? If I put a bare tree in front of a spotlight, how can I manipulate it so the shadows look like long menacing twitchy fingers? Without lighting, we'd all be looking at black renders, so learning more about it would help. :) Carolly

P4 or P5?

"Folks are almost certainly going to be showing off their pricesless collection of shrunken heads, tiffany vases, or that absolutely unique (and totally unidentified artifact) from the fourth robotic expedition to Titan." Damn, there go my ideas for a successful render... LOL But I second that wish. P4 + PP please?

Tips and tricks on lights would be great, p4 pp, or p5.

P4 & P5 because you can still use P4 renderer in P5 but I believe P5 has a few tricks up its sleeves if you know how to use the settings ... which I don't!!! :-) It may be a good idea to have a chat with stewer first as he seems to have a scary amount of knowledge about the firefly renderer ... but you definitely have the bestest tutorials :-)

I'm all for this as well....I can't for the life of me get shadows to appear when I point a spotlight on something....siiiiiiiggggghhhh....I spend more time "attempting" lighting than actually doing the render itself :(. I've read some tut's, but I'm math challenged. LOL

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?&Form.ShowMessage=951206

What an excellent tut, Dr geep. A piece of the jigsaw just popped into place .. I'd never worked out that each new light loaded, when zeroed, is on the floor and pointing to the back. So obvious now you've said it .. but it's the obvious stuff that can be so hard to fathom out on your own. So many hours spent pushing and pulling the lights at random on the little globe doo-dab .. I learned a lot as a result, but effective lighting set-ups were often the result of luck rather than judgement. Now I can approach the lights more systematically. Thank you! One question, though .. sometimes when I render, the lights seem to move during the render itself. Imagination or am I doing something wrong? Moochie

It's just a "figment." Ignore it. cheers, dr geep ;=]