This may be a silly question, but do Area Lights function with Firefly?

I'm specifically wondering about the shadow strength...there seems to be no way to adjust it. I either get a really strong, dark shadow or I can turn it off. Turning the shadow strength down to practically nothing still results in a strong shadow.

Do they even work with Firefily?

Hi Doc000! I just ran a quick test in Poser Pro 11 using 3 area lights. They do work in FireFly.

The sample scene I set up generated soft and moderately dark shadows.

Try setting the intensity of your area light(s) higher and also scale them larger to get soft shadows while maintaining relative brightness. Move it/them further or closer to the objects you want lit to further "tune" the intensity and/or softness of the shadows.

The Shadow dial doesn't do anything that I can tell with respect to area lights. I believe you need to adjust the area light intensity and size of the area light.

It's been a while since I've rendered with Firefly, so you might want to start with a simple scene using my suggestions to see how it works.

I'm sure others with more experience and knowledge will come along with a lot more useful information.

Hope this helps some!

Lee

LeeMoon posted at 7:16PM Sat, 23 May 2020 - #4389959

Hi Doc000! I just ran a quick test in Poser Pro 11 using 3 area lights. They do work in FireFly.

The sample scene I set up generated soft and moderately dark shadows.

Try setting the intensity of your area light(s) higher and also scale them larger to get soft shadows while maintaining relative brightness. Move it/them further or closer to the objects you want lit to further "tune" the intensity and/or softness of the shadows.

The Shadow dial doesn't do anything that I can tell with respect to area lights. I believe you need to adjust the area light intensity and size of the area light.

It's been a while since I've rendered with Firefly, so you might want to start with a simple scene using my suggestions to see how it works.

I'm sure others with more experience and knowledge will come along with a lot more useful information.

Hope this helps some!

Lee!

When you mention scaling the light, were you adjusting the actual scale settings on the light? And since these use ray traced shadows, did you adjust the settings at all or just go with the defaults? (And the image you posted is the look I'm trying to achieve.)

Doc000 posted at 8:10PM Sat, 23 May 2020 - #4389967

When you mention scaling the light, were you adjusting the actual scale settings on the light? And since these use ray traced shadows, did you adjust the settings at all or just go with the defaults? (And the image you posted is the look I'm trying to achieve.)

Yep, just scale the lights with the Scale Dial -or- use the Scale X and/or Scale Y dials if you need a tall or wide light. Seems like I had intensity set at around 250% on at least one of the lights and scaled the lights up to around 200%-300%, but I might be off on those. I don't remember if I adjusted the area light properties much. I'm currently running a render, but will check my test scene when it's done and post settings.

Lee

In my test scene, the primary light points directly at the urn (used Point At) and casts the shadow on the wall.

The relevant dials for it are as follows:

xScale 349%

yScale 582%

scale 211%

intensity 250%

xtran 0.000

ytran 8.000

ztran 21.000

The other 2 area lights in my scene are very low intensity and were just for side key lighting.

Lee

LeeMoon posted at 9:55PM Sat, 23 May 2020 - #4389977

In my test scene, the primary light points directly at the urn (used Point At) and casts the shadow on the wall.

The relevant dials for it are as follows:

xScale 349%

yScale 582%

scale 211%

intensity 250%

xtran 0.000

ytran 8.000

ztran 21.000

The other 2 area lights in my scene are very low intensity and were just for side key lighting.

Lee

Cool...thanks! I'll test it out when I get a chance.

Doc000 posted at 10:36PM Sat, 23 May 2020 - #4389986

Cool...thanks! I'll test it out when I get a chance.

Excellent! I hope it works out for you and you get the renders you're looking for.

Lee

Area Lights not only work in Firefly, they work in poser 10 also