Hey guys, I have a question for you all. I'm working on a scene that is going to require Michael to look like he's casting some kind of magic. I've got Anton's wonderful Majik Effects, but therein lies my problem. I want the effects to also cast light, to add a sense of realism to it. Am I making any sense? If not, take a look at my quick render. See how the effects in his hands don't seem to be casting any light? It kind of makes everything else look flat. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!!

Can you just drop a couple of omni lights into the scene, one in the palm of each hand?

well, I've tried that...and everytime I create a light, it comes up as a spot and then when I go to it's properties and change it to an omni light, I loose it in the scene...heh..and even if I DO find it, it doesn't seem to cast any light, even with the intensity turned ALL the way up.. :(

Hmm. I can't get to my Poser machine right now, but later this afternoon I'll play around and see what comes out. Of course, by then someone better-versed than I will already have given you the keys. LOL! Cheers! Mark

Try this,

• Place a sphere prop in each hand.
• Set the transparency to almost 100%
• Set the material and highlight colours to near white

Hope that helps :)

If you have photoshop you can do some post production work and add a light effect.

Phil, thanks for the tip, but I want the magical 'effects' to actually cast light and shadow...I'm trying to achieve a realistic effect in poser alone...no post work...

Well, the omni light is really the only way I can think of, and if you're losing them I don't know what to tell you.. You might want to look into the tutorial on lighting lens flares posted a bit further down. SHould be in the tutorials database as well. =)

That is a very impressive image. And it can only get better once you figure this out!

That's a great image. Dynamic lighting from the magical effects will only improve it. BTW, is that the inferno goblin bartender from Sol A??? ;) -G

hehehe...I've had those lights disappear on me too! I gave up...but maybe someone will have the trick! You can "fake" it all in photoshop or bring the enrie thing into Bryce or view or something and do the lighting in there. In Poser...maybe if the spot light is fooled around with you can get something...or 2 or 3 spotlights with very soft edges or mixed soft and hard?

I had this problem trying to make a torch look right and had to settle for a whole family of over-lapping spots... worked out for the best when it came to animating the flickering light. Kill the shadows on any you can to speed rendering. I didn't know pulling a omni light was a possibilty? I've been under the impression that they were fixed to a virtual spere outside the studio... like being able to move the sun and moon around, but not being able to take them out of the sky. I gotta look into that.

LOL!!! you might be right! and that's why we can make them work :)

heyas; omni lights? what omni lights? poser only has infinite and spotlights, last i heard. and no, you can't move those around! you really need to do a 'ball' of spotlights. you can parent spotlights to each other (or to a prop) so once you build the ball, you can move them all as a unit. you can save the ball of lights to a light set (although im pretty sure you can't save them in a prop... i think i tried hacking them into a prop file, they didn't take.) just don't resize the lights. when you re-open your pz3 or load the light set, they'll be back at full size again. (dumb things.)

I was under the impression that Pro Pack had omnis.. am I wrong? I don't have Pro Pack, so I don't know. =)

No; Pro Pack doesn't have omni lights. I rather wish it did. It has to be faked with spotlights, as bloodsong suggests. You don't need a complete ball, though; just enough spots to cover wherever the light would fall within the scene.

Hey Bloodsong, I am very interested in the process that you described to make a ball of spotlights, but I didn't quite understand it from you post. Should I point several spotlights at an object, parent them to it, and then make the object invisible? Please let me know. Thanks! Jay

I've never heard of an omni light, and was assuming it was slang for infinite lights.... oh well, I think what bloodsong meant was; take a ball, parent spotlights to it - with the lights touching or overlapping the ball, pointing away from the center. Use as many lights as you think you need, ... as bloodsong pointed out, you could just parent the lights to each other, but the ball will give you an easy handle for when you want to move the whole group around.

Thanks, Gort, I'll have to try it when I get off work! Jay