when I was working in P6 I had made a light set that I used allll the time. it was great.

it consisted of two lights. One a spot light the other a light set up just for spec.

the spot light had a slightly greenish hue to it,ray trace shadows(shadow blur radius was 2.5 shadow Min bias was 0.222) I would adjust distance etc per image as needed. the other was a spec light no shadows. I LOVED this light set.

I have tried repeatedly to use it in pp2012 and it doesnt seem to work right! the image always come out "blown out".

I have lowered the light values etc...and it doesnt give me the same look as it did in p6.

I am about to love my fragil little mind.

how can I get it to show the same results in pp2012 as it did in p6?

If you want P6 results with the light set, turn off GC.

Bill

Yeah, GC is the culprit ;).

Laurie

o.o just that simple? I am going to go try it now! thank you both!

just tried it and it still comes out "blown out":S......

Are you using IDL?  For some reason IDL in Pro 2012 tends to be too strong and you have to adjust it.

Quote - Are you using IDL?  For some reason IDL in Pro 2012 tends to be too strong and you have to adjust it.

nope I turned it off, turned off GC, I even turned off irradiance caching in hope that would help. they are very simple lights but in p6 gave me great results. I loved the tone it gave my work. But for the life of me I cant get them to work in pp2012. Its driving me nuts as they are so simple.

Could you provide exact specs for each light so we may duplicate the scenarios?  Also provide the color chip in RGB for the main light.  I am interested in what is going on with the set up.

Quote - Could you provide exact specs for each light so we may duplicate the scenarios?  Also provide the color chip in RGB for the main light.  I am interested in what is going on with the set up.

http://sta.sh/026xuq8zq05z is the main light   and

http://sta.sh/01m90e9t09ab is the spec light

as you can see very simple lights.  I have used them for a while in my older works and can not for the life of me get the same results in pp2012

That's not "slightly" green - it's seriously green. What is it you expect it to look like and what do you actually get?

For me in PP2012 it looks exactly like I'd expect, given what color you have in there.

Quote - That's not "slightly" green - it's seriously green. What is it you expect it to look like and what do you actually get?

For me in PP2012 it looks exactly like I'd expect, given what color you have in there.

I used the light set in most of my work from 2010 to 2013. including http://art-of-darkelegance.deviantart.com/art/Maidens-Embrace-203198627 and http://art-of-darkelegance.deviantart.com/art/Fledgling-202895094 and http://art-of-darkelegance.deviantart.com/art/Offering-198361850 and a few others. they only needed a few tweeks (moving them around etc) and they always gave me the result I wanted. But I cant get them to do that in pp2012 :S

I am sure it is going to be something simple and obvious but for the life of me I cant get them to work the same way they use too in p6

The way the lighting calculates was improved in P9/PP2012 over previous versions to improve accuracy, so what worked well in P6 will look different now. If your lights are too bright, try reducing the intensity - it's at 100% now, so try 65% to start with. I'd also suggest just using the main light to start with, and getting bagginsbill's free Light Meter prop (https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/file-cabinet) which is the best and easiest way to judge light intensities properly.

Another way to stop a render blowing-out too quickly is to switch on HSV Tone Mapping in the render options - in practical terms this is a rough highlight control. 

Also if you do go with the specular light setup as posted you may get unexpected results with shadows disabled. I'm not sure if you'll need it unless it's for specific effect.

If you want to add a colour tint to a render I'd also suggest trying an IDL Sphere with an appropriately coloured material on it and keep the lights white, and compare the results to using coloured lights, see which suits better.

Those pics are rather heavily tinted IMO. It looks good given the subject of the images, so I can see why you'd want it back. But I must agree with BB, it's a very green colour you've got there.

not that it helps much in recreating it. I wish I could help more :(

Light calculations have improved, but not if you put everything back the way it was.

If you render with:

IDL off

GC off

Shaders same as you used to use

Then the results are the same, just faster. The lighting equation for diffuse reflection (the green part) is not any different than it used to be.

DarkElegance - I don't doubt that you used this green spotlight in those images - in fact I can see they have a slight green tint. What I'm getting at is:

1. Are you doing all the lighting the same - for example, did you have an IBL in the old images? If so, then that IBL would contribute a lot and change the hue and saturation of the overall lighting. When I use that green spotlight by itself then it is the only source of diffuse lighting, and under that circumstance the result is green.

2. Are you doing all the same shaders? For example, if you had a pink tint to the old image shaders, then that was offsetting the green, creating a balanced skin tone.

I am using white props. The backdrop is matte (no specular) and the pawn has specular and reflection, too.

This is exactly what I'd expect from the green spotlight alone, and I am willing to bet a lot of money that P6 would have produced this exact same image. I am not using GC or IDL here.

Notice how dark it is? Your images are much brighter (in the diffuse reflections - don't get confused about my not using your specular-only light - that would only change the speculars.)

Because this is so dark, I strongly believe you had other diffuse lighting, such as IBL.

The light meter has two zones. The middle zone is a diffuse light measurer. It is showing us that from most angles the scene is underlit. Only pointing right at the spotlight are we getting a good amount of light.

The ring around the outside measures specular light. It is telling us we are way underlit for specular. This is a good reason to add a specular-only light, which you were doing! Smart!

But I think the IBL is not only necessary, but we need MORE!

Notice now how little green there is - it's now "slightly" green.