IES Lighting and easy editing for Carrara

Sci Fi Funk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRhKNAQXmQE

How to use IES Lighting in your 3D app and how to edit IES lights. (Use them for volumetric lighting).

IES lighting (Illuminating Engineering Society file type to describe lighting volume, fall off and shape) can be used to add realism to your renders.

After describing what IES is and where you might use it, I show some site which give free IES lights and (more importantly) how to edit them (plus create your own IES lights).

Ultimately you'll probably have to create and edit your own (to match your work up against a source photo) and I show 2 programs which show you how to do this.

Please note, the pictures look better at http://www.facebook.com/scififunk (the colours haven't been compressed as you see them on youtube).

Design Acrobat

Excellent introduction into IES lighting.

I too like using IES lights as they are easily manipulated and give many options for effects from industrial lighting to an antique street lamp.

Sci Fi Funk

Design Acrobat said:

Excellent introduction into IES lighting.

I too like using IES lights as they are easily manipulated and give many options for effects from industrial lighting to an antique street lamp.

Thanks. If you are used to using them can you tell me what you think of the night scene (at 1:01). It's to be used in animation, so always a compromise, but how does the light look? Would you change anything?

Design Acrobat

Sci Fi Funk said:

Design Acrobat said:

Excellent introduction into IES lighting.

I too like using IES lights as they are easily manipulated and give many options for effects from industrial lighting to an antique street lamp.

Thanks. If you are used to using them can you tell me what you think of the night scene (at 1:01). It's to be used in animation, so always a compromise, but how does the light look? Would you change anything?

It is pretty much spot on, although I prefer a bit of yellowish tint in my lights if there is smog, fog or smoke involved. But, I think that is a preference thing (artistic license) rather than accuracy.

The lamps you have displayed remind me of what one sees in a fog where the closer the light it is, the brighter areas are starburst-like with high intensity. The cone effect is accurate as I recall and I used the cones of light in real life to determine how rapid the rain is falling before venturing outside- heh.

Sci Fi Funk

Ok Thanks Design Acrobat.

I think it's close, but I'm trying to do summer, not a fog as such (I think fogs are easier as you just up the IES density), and I'll look into startbursts - (Do they only occur on lights which point directly at the camera?).

I had the lights more yellow to start with (I'm an ex-Londoner - It gets very yellow at night), but the thing started to look like a gas leak.

I totally relate to going out an observing the real world. Nothing like getting the "feel" of the atmosphere eh?

I also thought tonight a little uplighting behind the furthest building could give it a "city glow" to merge in with the night sky.

Headwax

thanks sci fi funk, looking forward to watching it

Sci Fi Funk

head wax said:

thanks sci fi funk, looking forward to watching it

Pleasure. Just sharing the journey. :-)