Hi there,
I'm doing a simple render of a lighthouse for a friend, just a lighthouse and a beam of light against a plain black background. The hardest part is getting a decent looking beam of light. I'm playing around with a cone prop and various transparency settings and shaders, but I'm not really satisfied yet. Any cluse as to how I can make just a simple beam of light?

Thanks,

Guy

If you have a background you can use a spotlight set as a volumetric light and set the atmosphere to show the cone of light.

Set the atmosphere material in the material room to 'volume on'  and set atmosphere dial on light to 1, light intensity try 300%.

Then change your settings to get the right effect.

You must have an object in the background for the light effect to show. 

Yep, That's how I would do it.

You can also adjust the beam angle and start and stop points to get a realistic effect!

That's excellent! I hadn't thought of an actual spotlight. I'll try this right away. Thanks!

Guy

I've placed the spotlight at the top of the lighthouse, and have got the beam visible now, but it starts out weak and gets brighter as gets farther away from the lighthouse. Of course, it should be stronger nearer the lighthouse and weaker as it gets farther away; what should I change to get this effect?

Thanks again

Guy

Quote - I've placed the spotlight at the top of the lighthouse, and have got the beam visible now, but it starts out weak and gets brighter as gets farther away from the lighthouse. Of course, it should be stronger nearer the lighthouse and weaker as it gets farther away; what should I change to get this effect?

Thanks again

Guy

In your spot light parameters:

Dist Start = distance from the light at which it begins getting weaker

Dist End = distance from the light which the light is no longer visable. if set to 0 it will never end.