After reading the recent thread on glow effects where littledragon mentioned using the gather node, I decided to see if I could do some traditional lighting. This is what I came up with. -no textures or lights. The innerShade and the outer shade are the main Ambient materials. All other materials in the scene have the same gather node plugged into them. I just perfected one, applied it to all, and deleted it off the two that I didn't want to have it. Besides majic and creatures this could be useful in lighting difficult/select areas of a scene where traditional lighting isn't enough Also a great way to do light fixtures in labs and sci-fi hallways. The noisy nature of it could be great for illuminating outdoor sets and enviornments which get dark spots. Anyone else want to take a try at using the gather node for lighting fixtures? I'd love to see what people come up with. Just another fun way to learn a new node. Anton

Lol, amazing what this "low end" program of ours can do, isn't it.

Very cool but... no shadows. There should be some shadowing from the brackets.

If you look under the waxcatcher it fakes shadows but nothing crisp. I didn't use lights for the experiment, but you could use a very dim light with a high shadow setting. It is something that might be used at a distance. Lights are still better if you can use them of course

You could probably use negative intensity lights in this case to "fake" shadows too.

Thanks for the great ideas and tips Anton, so glad you're experimenting with P6 and lighting. Your light sets are the ones that I use time and again :)

Thank you Anton! So good to see you sharing your innovative insights here.

Very impressive.

Thanks. P6 is alot of fun. I love it. And would recommend it to anyone.

Anton can you do a screengrab of your material setup????? ~m

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ack. I didn't save the scene. It was just for a test. The sample on the gather node was high (175). Other than that all the other materials had a white ambient value set to 2 or 3 with the gather node plugged in. The higher the ambient value the more glow you get. Sorry bout that. I didn't change anything else.

*sigh* I want so much to do this, but there isn't enough information being given for me to understand. I don't get anything like the above images. Can someone explain it better and in more detail?

Try one small and dim light in the front. Make everything ambient.

Hello Acadia With a little help from Little_Dragon I was able to do it. Little_Dragon pointed out these: A. Did you attach a gather node to the ground material's Ambient_Color channel, and set Ambient_Value to 1? B. For the Cylinder's material, did you choose an appropriate colour for Ambient_Color, and set its Ambient_Value to 1? C. Did you remember to enable raytracing in your render options? These were what i had.'t geaned from the Thread. Here is what i ended up with I used a Cylinder and applied a Fire mat to it. I used a mat Room Mat for the ground. A. The Render B. Mat Room Cylinder C. Mat room Ground I was finally able to get the Glow on the ground. Note: I have All Three (3) Poser Lights Turned off. Cheers DR

Mat Room of Cylinder

Mat room of Ground

Wow, cool effect!!!! That looks like a plant's atmosphere :) Thanks so much for the screenshots too. I'll look at it later this evening or on the weekend. I'm trying my hand at texturing this evening. It's slow going as this is my first try :)

Huhh.. I'm not too good in material nodes....could you make a better screenshot, because don't see well all of nodes on ground material settings.
I really can't imagine how know someone (in this case you)...which node need to attach to another to get this or any complex results :)) It is always soooo complicated for me.

Bookmark - niiiice

I don't understand either.
I have done exactly as it is illustrated but the scene is still simply black. (all the lights are closed) 
The scene is just a Hi_Res sphere and.. the ground.
Can someone please give us a more thorough guide for this.. or a nice place to look?

Thanks

Did you enable raytracing?

yup....
ok lets start from scratch I have the scene like this...
Brand new Hi_Res Sphere (no materials attached)
Ground (no materials attached)
All lights off.
Suppose I choose the following materials:
Sphere: Poser 8 -> Real Shaders -> Metals -> Metal Green yGloss
Ground:Poser 8 -> Real Shaders -> Metals -> Galvanized
What other nodes do I have to attach to the sphere and/or the ground to make the sphere glow green?

 

You have Poser 8 so this thread is ancient history. Using the Gather node is so last century. Don't bother.

Any object that produces color with all lights off glows on its own. There are many ways to do this, but the simplest is to set the Ambient_Value > 0 (preferably more than 1 - I often use 5) and put a color or nodes that produce color in Ambient_Color. Just make sure it isn't black, as it will glow black, which is the same as not glowing.

Then to pick up the glow elsewhere, enable IDL.

yup.. works like a charm... :-)
And Veery simple..
Thanks a lot :-)) 

Yay!

I still use Poser 6.  So I'm glad this subject was bumped.