Forum: Poser - OFFICIAL

Subject: Is there a way of turning a light into a projector?

markedmundb opened this issue on Jan 10, 2004 ยท 22 posts

markedmundb posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 7:53 AM

I want to be able to "project" images (e.g. lecture notes from a data projector or OHP) onto a character/furniture/wall/screen. Is there anyway to do this without postwork? I have both Poser 4 & 5 (admittedly, I haven't got my head around 5 properly yet). I have also downloaded the trial of 3ds Max 6, but haven't installed it yet, although it looks a bit complex compared to Poser from the review I saw in a comp mag...

KarenJ posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 8:24 AM

Yes, 3DS Max is to Poser as Photoshop is to MSPaint... :D Don't let that put you off though, I found the tutorials included on my demo of 3DS Max 5 were very informative. Anyway, lights. I managed this in Poser 5 by applying a square texture map with text on it directly to the Colour node of the light in the material room.

"you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love." - Warsan Shire

KarenJ posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 8:26 AM

You will need to play with the Angle_start and Angle_end of the light properties to get the effect you want. The first render has Angle_start at 120 and Angle_end at 120. In this second one, I have changed the angle_start to 0.

"you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love." - Warsan Shire

KarenJ posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 8:33 AM

Increasing the angle start and end to 160 each, and adding a figure to the scene. Increasing the angle gets rid of the rounded effect, and you can see the words distort realistically across the figure.

"you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love." - Warsan Shire

KarenJ posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 8:34 AM

By the way - I have turned off all other lights in the scene for set up, hence those black bits on Vicky. You would need to fiddle with the rest of the lighting very carefully to get a good effect. Hope this helps. Let me know if you want me to post a screenshot of the material settings.

"you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love." - Warsan Shire

Nance posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 8:42 AM

Don't know about P5 but in P4, no, not real images. Poser(4) lights will cast one bit shadows with antialaiased edges -- so its either on or off for each pixel in the shadowmap, with no grey-scale values except the feathering at the shadow edges. Objects with transparency values above 50% will not cast any shadow, those below 50% will. So, with no grey scale nor color info, Poser lights can really only project shapes or patterns, but not images. The only thing that does come to mind, (and its admittedly a stretch) would be to export your entire scene as a single mesh. Then UV map the new mesh using the rotation angle matching the projection source in your scene, and re-import the remapped mesh making it semi-transparent and re-aligning it with the original scene. You could then apply your 'projected' image as a map that would appear to properly wrap around the objects in your scene.

KarenJ posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 8:44 AM

Yes, I should make clear, this is P5 ;-)

"you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love." - Warsan Shire

Nance posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 8:53 AM

Karen, in P5, what happens if you had used a photo instead of B/W text as the texture map applied to the Colour node of the light in the material room? Does it work the same as a transparency map - reducing the image's luminance info to a single bit to determine transparency? Or, is the color & grey scale info from the texture map applied to the cast light?

markedmundb posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 8:55 AM

Thank you Karen, That is precisely what I want to do. I didn't think you could do it in P4, but I have P5, just not confident in using it yet, a bit more complex than 4 (bogstd version). I was trying to do it in Postwork, but it didn't look right... I will give it a try, although your offer of the screenie would probly help me too, if you could post it, I'd be most grateful...

KarenJ posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 9:05 AM

OK here is a shot of the Pose room. Note the settings on the light properties. I have changed the angle_start to 100 to avoid getting the words cast onto the ground prop.

"you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love." - Warsan Shire

KarenJ posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 9:06 AM

And here is the material room.

"you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love." - Warsan Shire

Nance posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 9:12 AM

... and you can still do what Karen described in P4. Just place a square prop, transmapped with your pattern, in front of the light.

KarenJ posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 9:13 AM

Nance, Photos render with colour infomation. I do have an idea about using a b/w image as a kind of trans map, but I have to go shopping now (darn it!) so I will experiment more later... The cut-off shadow is due to the shadow cam, I will have to fiddle with that later as my husband is getting impatient now, heheh

"you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love." - Warsan Shire

Nance posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 9:24 AM

Cool! Thanks for the info K. Never heard that difference tween P4 & P5 mentioned before. One more reason pushing me toward eventually having to actually breakdown and get P5. And I presume that only image files can be applied to the light's node, and AVIs are out of the question. (Slide projectors, but no movie projectors -- eh?)

Gareee posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 10:31 AM

And of course the reverse of this, is to us a light at a wondow, like a stained glass window, to project the light shining in THROUGH the window! Or use it in a submarine, to project a refracted light onto your props and characters in a sub..

Way too many people take way too many things way too seriously.

stewer posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 11:22 AM

Works with movies too.

Lawndart posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 12:21 PM

To add a little more to this. I have used a movie projected from a light and then used volumetric lighting on the same light. It shoots out volumetric rays that break up and move along with the movie. Like a movie projector in a smoke filled room. Pretty sweet, Joe

KarenJ posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 12:34 PM

Ha ha! I thought so. I've used what is basically a trans map and plugged it into the intensity node. Experimented with the size, and moving it on the Z-axis, and the angle_start and end values. LDLD, sounds like a good idea, I have to learn more on volumetric lighting!

"you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love." - Warsan Shire

PandaPride posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 3:50 PM

oh wow this is a sweet effect!

Nance posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 3:57 PM

"I have used a movie projected from a light " So, it does work with AVIs and not just still image files?

stewer posted Sat, 10 January 2004 at 4:15 PM

Yes, see my screenshot above.

Marque posted Sun, 11 January 2004 at 10:24 AM

.