Too many questions??? HAH! Doc Geep just luuuuuzzzze questions. Ask all ya want ... can't guarantee a rational answer though. (just kidding ... I'll do my best.) ************************** Catlin, The answer to your question is coming up shortly. In the meantime, look at and study Page 1. The large model has Poser's GROUND (the flat square shown semi-transparent) and the light controls (upper right corner) show the corresponding Light Controls with the same camera angle used for both. I hope that does not just generate more questions ... ... um, nevermind, strike that. I hope that causes you to have more questions ... because that keeps the ole Doc employed ... and the pay is so good that I may never want to leave. cheers, dr geep ;=]

Riddokun, I will try to cover all the questions that you asked on the upcoming pages. They are good questions. When I get done, let's see if I have covered them all. Ok? cheers, dr geep ;=]

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On looking at the image again I think I've got it. The centre of the globe will be directly above the ground, yes? 8) Catlin

The center of the globe (e.g., the Light Controls "Sphere") in in the center of the Poser Studio. Ok? ;=]

I'm not catlin, but yes, it is appreciated. That answers a couple of mine. :) Thanks Doc!

Yup, thanks Doc that's exactly the medicine I needed. 8)

just the part I needed too...Thanks!

And thank you for dancing on the ceiling for me, I do admire a man of courage. 8) BTW, I've just realized something else, every time you change the camera view it changes the perspective of where the light is. Now I really feel silly, that was something else I couldn't get a grip on......DOH! 8) Catlin

No need to "feel silly." We've probably all been "there" at one time or another. Some folk just won't admit it. ;=]

I THINK it may have made a little bulb go off over my head too now. That was one of the things I simply couldn't grasp about Poser's lights. I THINK I got it now :o) Thanks!

Thanks Doc for the info. You are most informative :-) ~Lady~

Hi bip,

Sure, ........ it's called ....... postwork. ;=]

Seriously, I don't know of any (simple, at least) way to avoid this since there is only one place ...
(on the ball <--- Ooo, that's "catchy," I'll haver to try doing that ..... sometime, being on-the-ball, that is)
... that you can specify the highlight and that's for the ball.

If it was specified with the light, you could control it.

Maybe in Poser5, I don't know ........... yet.

Does anyone else out there in the "Sity" have an answer to bip's question.

It's a big Sity out there and maybe, just maybe, some one will know.

Sorry I can't help you on this one. ;=[

cheers, (anyway)
dr geep
;=]

Postwork... hmmm... I was afraid you would say that... Thanks and - yes, cheers!!!

Hey Riddokun, "About intensity: what is the point / when it can be useful to raise it above 100%" Does Page 8 answer your question about light intensity? cheers, dr geep ;=]

Ah yes, spots, the bane of my existance in portrait artwork! Welcome back Dr Geep! Sorry I'm so late, I'll go sit in the corner now!! Pendy

If you Control-click [Macintosh] or Alt-click [PC - although this is a guess because I don't have a PC] the light color dot (see Dr. Geeps Page 4 post) you get a dialog box allowing you to enter the light color numerically. It's pretty handy if you want a specific color - for example to match the colors of two lights. I believe you can also create dark grey or even black colored lights if you want to darken part of the image. Sometimes you might do this with a spotlight to help control your lighting.

Okay, I'm a little slow Doc in learning. Is it better to move the camera or the light? I've printed out all the tuts here, am still working on them, but I'm back on page 5! I'm still trying to get that shadow like you have it. :(

I know I'm doing something wrong, but 'lightbulb' (bad pun) hasn't clicked on for me yet. Not giving up though!! Too hard to try and compensate for it in postwork.

I will go through some specific examples after I get done with the basics. We will get that 'lightbulb' to come on, I promise. (and that was a GOOD pun ... you shouldn't be PUNished for it) cheers, dr geep ;=]

In the meantime, try this ... Put your favorite figure in the center of the studio. Use a single Infinite Light. Position your camera where you want it. Now, use the Light Controls and put the single light right in the middle of the Light Control's "Sphere". Now, change the light type to Spotlight and your spotlight will be pointing directly at your figure. Play with the parameters for the spotlight one-at-a-time and see what effect it has on your figure. What happens when you increase "Angle Start"? What happens when you increase "Angle End"? Do not try and do lighting for a real complex scene to start. Use one figure and no props. Find out how to control the light so it does what you want. Keep it as simple as possible to start. Ok? I'll be back. (gosh, now I'm startin ta sound like the terminator.) ;=]

Ok, ok, shadownet, drop the other shoe, will ya? May I have the envelope, please ... (drum roll heard in the background) ... And, the winner is ... ????????????????????????/ ;=?

I would like to see your render with a color other than black for the ball and with a texture applied to the ball. Can we do that? ;=]

Ah! Hangs head and shame, gives sigh of defeat and returns to seat.

Kan't win 'em all, ya know. Nice try though, you had me guessing ... for a minute or so. ;=] Thanks for the input. cheers, dr geep ;=]

Yeah, well maybe next time. Helps when you understand the question. That's always been my problem thought. I can get the answers right, its the questions I miss. :O)

about the too many specular highlights on the globe surface: (bip77) I thought (may i am be wrong) that, aside from removing the guidelins of spot/lights from main display windows, unchecking the "visible" option box of alight would prevent it's highlight/specular to render on a surface. BTW it you are rendering eyes, the better thing to do is to REMOVE the highlights at all first for your render, then make a second render with only one spotlighty of the same direction than your previous main light and avtivate again the highlights on the eye, and cut/past the eyes on your old picture or something like that. Better way is to make instead a reflection map with only a small highlight part, and not using material highlight color at all. most eyes props feature a second outer sphere bigger than the one holding irises/pupils/eyewhites materials that you can set in material room to have reflexions and highlights of your choice. of course you could also texture this outer sphere with a bogus fake highlight texture with all non white parts transparents, shown above regular iris... hope it helps you, bip77 If you foreplann well you may not need postwork at all. merely a cutpasting of previous eyes. You can also turn all your document/scene to silouhette texture, with same color for items and background, and set eyeprops element style to textured r flat, with highlights ! and layer this on top of your picture. I don't call it postwork. anyway highlights and reflections are not very easy to handle and often gives out a poo result if you want to stick to raw render and postworkless pictures (some sites requires it as a challenge to post pictures); in this case, the thing i recommended (bogus drawn fake highlight texure, transparent, on second outter sphere of eye prop) should work) for other things than eyes, though i guess doc is right, it will be difficult (unless the "visible" checkbox really works the way i think)

Hi shadownet, thanks for your answer. In theory your idea could work if you put the second light exact the opposite (behind) the ball - so then the second highlight would never be visible and the ball would be lit from both sides without shadows. But the poser 'infinite' lights are not really infinite. I've made a test and it doesn't work. :-( Thanks anyway!

btw also, when you "need" to illuminate dark areas or figures without putting much light, thing about "ambiant color", it works well (but on a odd way depending on what you use it for), maybe with additionnal material set up with groupingtool ?

Hi Riddokun, thanks for your tips! Much appreciated! Will try them out. (Must first understand it all ;-) ) I've also tested the visibility checkbox - unfortunately it didn't make a difference. (What it this checkbox good for?)

Bip77, well I gave it another shot using four extra lights, instead of just the one from the front, with the color set to grey and intensity cranked down to 15. I lined them up so that the highlights on the ball was sort of dispersed across the face of the ball, and then rendered. The hightlight is there but so faint it may get by. You still get specular highlights but so faintly that it is hard to tell. Maybe with a few more lights added this way you could raise the illumination to the point desired without increasing the highlighting on the ball.

hmm sorry bip, englihs is not my main langage, and i have hard time practicing it on such technical matters and i am not very at east with poser technical words yet :)

Shadownet, it really depends on the scene... Maybe I need 10 or 20 or more lights. As these lights do all cast no shadows, it shouldn't raise the rendertime. Certainly a good advice! Thanks again. :) (But the Doc's 'Two-Light-System' sounded sooo good...! - And in general it IS!)

Riddokun, your words were fine - but english also isn't my native english, so.... :) (Hope, the teacher doesn't get angry about so much chat in class! )

[EDIT] should read: 'my native language'

Yeah, we are sort of getting off topic. But then the good Dr. needed a coffee break just so his students could show him why they need him so badly.

hmm and if you parent the spot AFTER morphing/scaling the box, does it still works same way ?

That is what we did on Page 9 ... and it caused the problem. Ok? ;=]

The reason is ... The child is scaled to be the same scale as the parent. It does not matter if you scale the box before or after parenting the Spotlight. The problem will still exist. If you change the scale of the parent, the child's scale will change, also. When we "parent" the Spotlight to the box, i.e., the New Prop ... The Spotlight becomes the child of the box. - and - The box becomes the parent of the Spotlight. ********************* Now, are you thoroughly confused? I know I am. cheers, dr geep ;=]

hmm. you say the child suffers from size changes of the parent, so i guess ou cannot change manually the size of the child back to something you like. Would a parent be affected by the size of its child ? or the dials would remain blocked or effectless (such as "BODY" dials of a conformed figure) ?

Hi Folks, This tutorial is continued HERE. It is called: "+++ DG#060 +++ Fine Tuning Spotlights" Hope to see you there. cheers, dr geep ;=]