Hi, I started a new scene, completely blank about from the moon night atmosphere. I create a sphere and applied the fire material to it, but when I render the scene the flames are complete black? It is really frustrating, does anybody know how to get the flames to show at night? Thanks Jon www.jonsmedia.com

You need a source of light. In Vue, Materials cannot emit light by themselves. Just add a point light behind your flames, make the light invidible by disabling the Lens Flare effect. If you have Vue Infinite or the Light module with Vue 5 or Vue 5 Studio, you can even apply that light only to your flames .

Hi, Ah right, thanks, I am actually using Vue 4 D'esprit ok will try what you said. Thanks Jon www.jonsmedia.com

Hi, That didn't work for me, you can see what I keep getting here :- http://www.jonsmedia.com/stuff/test.jpg Thanks Jon

Edit Material. Tab Effects. Change luminous (0 to 100%, or almost 100%).

Hi, Yes, that seemed to work, thanks! Is that the normal way to get the materials to show at night? I tried the point light thing but that didn't work. Thanks Jon www.jonsmedia.com

Yes, i just put the luminous up and add a little of glow, but i am not sure if it has glow in vue 4. It is also possible using a light if you get the settings right as Agiel said.

Hi, Yes, Vue 4 does have glow, I am not actually at my computer with Vue installed at the moment, basically the fire will be in a clearing within some trees. Will the luminous and glow shine light onto the trees like real fire would do, if not do you know the best way to get a fire lighting trees effect? Sorry if the questions appear a little basic, I normally use a modelling program like C4D and I trying to get used to the Vue material system etc. Thanks Jon www.jonsmedia.com

In order for the fire to cast light on the trees you'll need to use a light source too. The luminous and glow effects don't cast light. For a simple representation use a single point light. Disable the lights lens flare and change its colour so its yellow. If you want a slightly better representation of the fire (but that will take longer to render) use multiple light sources distributed around the area where the spheres with the fire texture are. Give each light a slightly different shade of yellow, red or orange. If the fire is hot place a light that is more white towards the middle of the fire. Set their power to be lower than if you were using only one light source but don't make them all the same power. Turn off lens flare on all the lights. This will give the fire's light a fuller feel casting more varied and interesting shadows.

Cool, thanks for the advice, I tried something earlier and failed miserably. I had a scene with some trees arranged in a circle if you can imagine. And I wanted to look from a distance and see the glow of the fire on the trees. Problem was nothing showed at all, even with the power turned right up, if I moved the light in front of the trees it showed fine but if I put the light behind the trees nothing. Was just wondering if this an easy effect to create? Thanks Jon www.jonsmedia.com

A few other thoughts... If the light source was directly behind a tree trunk and if your camera angle was narrow you may not have been able to see its effect on other trees to the side and the ones behind may have been screened by the front tree's foliage. Can't remember if foliage in Vue 4 came with the backlight effect turned on or off (see the materials effects tab for the leaf material in the material editor). If its off you wont see light shining through the leaves only on surfaces that face you and receive light. Sometimes I find in Vue that several less powerful light sources give a stronger overal effect than one very powerful light. The sunlight source in the moon night atmosphere can be quite overpowering and may have been masking the effect of your other light source. Hope these help.

Hi, Thanks for the tips, will checkout the current settings, though for reference, I have no foliage where the trees are. It could be the moon, it is more like a white hot sun. Thanks Jon www.jonsmedia.com