I inserted a pyramid into my scene and I want it to emit light, like a flourescent light as if the shape itself was light and slightly glowing. How do I do that?

Set Ambient_Color to whatever color you want it to glow at and set Ambient_Value to 1

Thanks. I have Poser 9 and if you're meaning the Map Strength % value in the Material Room for the Ambient Value, I can't adjust it. The dial in unmovable at 0%

Note that you won't get any "halo" effect this way. The object will glow and light up surrounding areas, but it won't get any fuzzy halo to "show" that it's glowing.

IF the glowing halo is what you're after together with the actual lights, I'd suround the pyramid with a slightly bigger duplicate made almost transparent and also with ambient on

Oh, I see it in the ambient value in advanced

Oh yes. ALWAYS switch the Material Room to Advanced. The simple version is practically useless..

Apply an edge blend node to alt spec then apply an edge blend node to the input of the first. Do a topic search because this has been solved by someone whose name I do not recall, for that reason I'm not putting the image of the nodes here, the credit belongs to someoneelse.

Quote - Apply an edge blend node to alt spec then apply an edge blend node to the input of the first. Do a topic search because this has been solved by someone whose name I do not recall, for that reason I'm not putting the image of the nodes here, the credit belongs to someoneelse.

seachnasaigh is the one who has the aura effect down to a science.

Where can I find BB's "Soft Light Studio"?

And, while I did a search for seachnasaigh and found his 'aura' producing posts I have yet to see any node settings. Could someone point me to it?

Michaelab, is this a four-sided pyramid, or other?  Smooth-sided or stepped ziggurat style?  I can whip that up with IDL emitter and aura pretty quickly.  But I need to know what version of Poser you are using.  What color is it to glow?

Quote - Oh yes. ALWAYS switch the Material Room to Advanced. The simple version is practically useless..

Depends on what you want to do. I like to use the Simple version to apply texture maps, or make things transparent or sheer. Maybe to cut down on the highlights a bit. but for everything else, then yeah, the advanced version is definitely better.

Poser 9, glow color white. I have four of them on this object and they are flattened very elongated pyramids, more the shape of a triangle but essentially so flattened as to be a 2d triangle. Think of their shape more link a long needle and more 2d with pointed end and a flat end. (see attached - the white objects are the flattened pyramids)

I used a pyramid instead of a triangle because when rotated I couldn't see the other side of the triangle but could with a pyramid.

I'll have another set of four where the glow color needs to be blue-white. Blue close to the flattened pyramids and transitioning to white further out if that's possible.

I'm looking for the glow to extend less so on one side (If that's possible) because that side of the pyramids are butted against another object, but if not possible or practical, it can glow on all sides. Glow amount? I guess something like a glow stick, more or less.

Your help much appreciated seachnasaigh.

     Ah, not a simple pyramid.

     Is this geometry something which you made?  That would require custom fitting an envelope to the shape.

     That would be distributable then.  It is probably best if you post or send me the prop so that I can tailor an IDL emitter and an aura to it.

     I'll be leaving soon and won't be back until this evening - and then I'll be busy cleaning weapons.  But tomorrow I should be able to work on this.

Ok. How and where do you want me to send it?

PM sent. 

Michael, your assemblage of primitives is 128,490 polys. :blink:   That's gonna take a disproportionate amount of memory to render.  I could form that shape using probably less than 2,000 polys with no diminution in shape quality, and even give it a pommel and finger-grooved grip.  Do you want to use your model, or would you like to go with a low poly model?  I don't know how much RAM you have.  I can make an emitter and aura either way.

Well, as you can see, the curved sections I cut out of two other pyramid shapes. I used PhilC's scissors. But to get anywhere near to the cut I wanted I had to use his application to increase the poly count.

Would love a pommel and finger groove grip as an optional grip. Let's try your low poly model and see what comes out of it. Thanks!

BTW seachnasaigh, I'm trying to get a metallic gold texture on this (except for the edges, of course). Maybe it's the lighting but I just can't seem to get it to sparkle or shimmer like gold would do in the light.

I would like a gold like this:

http://images.wikia.com/olympians/images/9/98/Sword_of_imperial_gold_by_corellastudios-d37zl6s.png

or:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/dfcc7d56bc77f1cdb200eb3556b4d95b/tumblr_mksrrwFiQ91qbs1x4o1_500.jpg

I'm using Colm's IDL 2 light set but it's still not getting me the results I want. Any suggestions with making gold 'pop'?

     OK, I'm form a low-poly version and post a screenshot when it's built.  You can then choose which model you want to use.

     I'll search/review BB's advice on gold shaders.  What are the edges supposed to be?  Silver?  White?  Or did you intend the bulk to be metallic gold and the edges glowing white?

The edges, which is the part that need a glow to them, need to be white and glowing white. And it would be great - if possible - to have another version where the edges are blue and a glowing blue.

The rest of it is to be a metallic gold in both versions.

Thank you, seachnasaigh!

What's the best way to control brightness, ambient value or the Intensity setting in D3D's firefly renderer?

     Here's a raw mesh screenshot, Michael.  Does this look OK?  Changes you want, if any?  Re-scale grip versus blade size?  I want to have the sword shape finalized before I start fitting an IDL emitter mesh and aura to it.  P.S., under 700 polys! :woot:

Hi seachnasaigh,

Looking pretty good but the handle is about 2x too thick. Can it be reduced in diameter?

Thank you. Really!

much better. I'm going to make the handle gold as well. can the pommel be made flatter or smaller? If I can do it in Poser that's fine.

Good to go! Thanks.

OK, shape being established, she goes into the Numenorean workshop to be fitted with IDL emitters and a glow aura.

Wow! Sounds like a real process. Can't wait to see it.

I've been doing auras and blooms in Virtualdub and have been pretty happy with the results.  My method only works if the glowing object is the brightest element in the scene, but otherwise it takes no time to add and little time to adjust.  It's just a filter chain using the filter blender and can be saved as processing settings.

The top of the image is with the glow effect applied, the bottom is as it was rendered in Poser.  I'm using threshold and box blur, so it shouldn't be too hard to reduce the spread and/or softness of the effect.

     Here is the test render of the quatrefoil sword, in an "off" (no glow) state:

     One infinite light at 8%, a spotlight 2 at 67%, spotlight 3 at 50%

     I haven't made a blue/white texture yet, but that shouldn't be difficult.  Visibility of the aura can easily be dialed up or down.

     This was done on my older (32bit) laptop;  you'll want to use more IDL quality and irradiance caching, and maybe more raytrace bounces to reduce the splotchiness on the walls/ceiling.

     I need to do some steel work outside this morning;  when I get back to the computer I'll work up the blue/white texture, and then I'll need to pack this up in a runtime zip.

Love what I see, seachnasaigh. Is it too late to make the handle a bit longer, say by 20%? If it's too late, don't bother. Thanks.

Quote -   ...make the handle a bit longer, say by 20%?

     I can do that.

     E-mail with zip pack attached has been sent.

Perfect!