* Subject: SPOTLIGHT BEAM * Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 02:09:10 -0700 (PDT) [51] * From: "Randy R. Wall" <rrw@ecst.csuchico.edu>-Persice 2.9/3.0 version
Heres ONE way to do it, make a cone with an open bottom and size, and shape it to how you would like your spotlight to appear in the sceene, then move the axis of the cone to the very top point of the cone making sure that the axis center matches up axactly with the top point of the cone. Use shift M and shift Z and move the mouse to do this.
Then make the cone the color of the light you are planning to use and then make it BRIGHT, now go and set the Filters to 180,180,180 or 240,240,240 depending on how translusent you want the beam. This will make it so that when you render it you can see threw it. Now select the object if its not already and use the Transformation requester to move it to Position Z 100 and leave the rest of the positions at 0. Now we can save this object.
Now you nead to make a test project to set the light up in so we can get the proper setting for our light. Once you have done this load the cone into the STAGE, now add a light and use the Transformation requester to move the light to position Z 100 and leave the other positions at 0 as we did with the cone in the Detail Editor. Save this and goto the Action Editor, find the light and set it to Conical, Cast Shadows (2.9) or Point Sourse, Round Shape, Cast Shadows (3.0) and set the color to whatever you set the cone to. Save this and go back to the Stage Editor.
Once your back in the Stage Editor Go up to the Display Menu and select Light Lines then use FIND to select the light.
Now use the Transformation Requester and Align X to -90, Y to 0, and Z to 0. Now the light should be lined up with the cone pointing down. So hit the S key to size it, and size it till the center light line in the Right View reaches the bottom of the cone. While still in size mode go to the Front View and Zoom in on the bottom of the cone as much as you can while still being able to see the outer edges of the cone. Now hit Shift X and then just the L key. This will put you in local size mode of X, now size the light lines till they match up perfictally with the outer edges of the cone. Now do the same thing with the Z size using the Right View and Shift Z then L keys. You need to do them seperately as they will not match up otherwise. Whew! almost done, This may sound hard but its really quite easy. You could actually use this as is in the stage, but just make sure that if you move or rotate either of them you select them both together. Sence it is only a simple matter to make them into a group I will continue.....
OK, I hope someone gets some use out of this? if so let me know...
Now that we have this all set up go to the Transformation Requester and select size, write down the sizes of X, Y, and Z exactly as they are and hit OK and after all this work why not save it..
Now go to the detail editor and load in the cone object. Now add an axis and select it, use the Transformation requester and select Alignment and set X to -90, Y to 0, Z to 0, then select Size and type in the numbers you wrote down, and then select Position and type in X 0, Y 0, Z 100. and select OK. Now set the Attributes of the axis to a Light and set the light to Conical, Cast Shadows (2.9) or Point Sourse, Round Shape, Cast Shadows (3.0) and set the color to whatever you set the cone to . Now group the axis and cone together and save it. You can now move this object freely around in the Stage and Action Editors as one object.
If you want the light to have transparency of the cone linearly over it's length ( basically Fade Out at the end ) you will need to size the cone maybe twice as large while leaving the Axis Light the same size and then use the Linear Texture on the cone and rotate the Textures Z axis so that it is pointing down and drag the Texture axis down to slightly above the Axis Lights Y axis line. If you made the cone twice the size this would be halfway down the cones lenghth. Then set the color of the texture to that of the light and the Transition Z Width to whatever looks good for your particular light, I like 100 or 150, for a 500 unit tall cone, then set the Filters for the Texture to 255, 255, 255. You would also have to set your Axis Light's Attribute to Diminish Intensity 2.9 or Controled Falloff for 3.0 to pull off the full effect. You may need to play with this to get it just right though.
-Fairley Persice 2.0 and 2.9/3.0 version.
Make a cone with an open bottom and size, and shape it to how you would like your spotlight to appear in the sceene, then move the axis of the cone to the very top point of the cone making sure that the axis center matches up axactly with the top point of the cone. Then make the cone the color of the light you are planning to use and then make it BRIGHT, now go and set the Filters to 210,210,210 so that when you render it we can see threw it. Now COPY the cone and align the X axis to -90 locally in the Transformation requester by using Tranform Axis Only and Alignment. Now resize the Y axis locally till the axis line not letter reaches the bottom of the cones Bounding Box, then resize X axis locally till the axis line reaches the very end of the Bounding Box, and then do the same with the Z axis. Now change the Attributes, turn off Bright, set Filters back to 0,0,0 and set the object to a light and set it to Conical, Cast Shadows (2.9) or Point Sourse, Round Shape, Cast Shadows (3.0) and set the color to whatever you set the cone to. Now go into Edit Points mode and delete all the points in this object. You can now PASTE the old copy and group the two objects and save them out as a Spotlight This method is easier than the other one and produces good results as well, I just feel the other method is more presice if you plan to zoom up on something like a logo and have the spotlight moving acrossed it.
If you want the light to have transparency of the cone linearly over it's length ( basically Fade Out at the bottom ) you can use the same method as I mentioned above with the Persice Spotlight.
Whew! Now theres a SpotLight!
While even this is not a perfect SpotLight it is a very good one, the only problem with it is that if you shine it threw something the Bright Cone object will still show through the other side, you maybe able to limit this by making the cone more transparant with the Filters, but I think 220's or 240's work pretty good..Or buy making it a fading SpotLight. It also doesn't have edge transparency but I haven't tried to figure out how to do that yet. I imagine you could use multiple cones at different Filter rates and sizes to get something close to it, in 2.0/2.9 or use the global HAZE effect and the SOFTEDGE texture in 3.0.
Once you set up the basic object in Imagine you could just use it and make changes to it as needed.
I do think if you try this SpotLight you will like it as it works great for RayTracing when you want an object in the middle of the SpotLight and yet have other lights coming from other directions, the Spotlight will still light up the object and leave its beam and shadow and works fine in Global Fog unlike a Cone set to FOG as I have seen others suggest.
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