I am not really sure about "diffusing" the light, but maybe if you applied a different texture to the lamp shade and played around with the 'reflective'color setting you may get the results you want? This is for P4, I Know nothing about P5, (:

I reckon I could do it in P5. Not in P4. Translucency would be the place to start.

Ooooh (Shivers in horror) That's
what I was afraid of. Actually,
I tried the P5 translucency; it's a
bit better but not enough to justify
building the whole scene in that
awful pit of molasses.

I'll just make the shade opaque
and give it a bright ambient, which
will look right even if
it's not quite "honest".

Message edited on: 01/03/2005 14:46

perhaps a light bump map would help as well. regards,E

Good idea, echo! I'll try that.

You could try making the bulb partially transparent.

Light shades are seldom flat and textureless. Try a faint marbleized effect or a hint of pleating via a bump or displacement map. Parchment is skin, and animal skin isn't perfect (not many cows are getting their hides rubbed with tiny pots of wrinkle-remover and skin revitalizer, although sheep do make their own lanolin!).

Try photoshop. Play around with Noise and Dust&Scratches filters, then use the image as a transmap. What makes a realistic translucency isn't the numeric transparency setting so much as the composition of the material itself. Paper has bits of thread materials, miniscule grains of wood pulp etc. The wrinkles in an animal's skin, minor scarring, and simple genetic pigment variations will make parchment a much varied transparency. Unless you want to duplicate celuloid or some other synthetic, you will need an image transmap or a good python script to get a quality render of a translucent material.

Thanks. I'm really not looking for that much detail; just wanted the shade to look like it's illuminated from inside without showing the bulb and socket. The bright ambient gives that effect.