Asset: Streetlamps
Added 2021-05-30 23:01:02 +0000 UTC
Hello to all the new folks! So glad to have you here! :D I haven't made many assets lately since I've been pretty deep in the wrapping-up-the-episode side of things, but I'm trying to get back into a regular schedule!
Right Click, Save Link As:
Blend File
FBX Version (as always, not as optimized, with simpler textures)
Also, whenever we get into light bulbs and stuff we're in Firefly territory, so feel free to check out this old post about optimizing your renders for cycles (mostly by reducing fireflies):
Optimizing Your Cycles Renders
Additionally,
A Quick Talk about Shadows:
TYPICALLY you don't want to try to light your scene using a bunch of small objects with emissive materials (light bulbs); cycles isn't optimized for it, you'll have a bazillion fireflies, and it'll take forever to get a clean render. It works a ton better if you have an actual lamp object in there.
Unfortunately if you stick a lamp object right inside the bulb, the bulb will block the lamp object's light from escaping.
In Eevee, there are two equally easy ways around this.
1.) change the clipping of the lamp, so it doesn't cast shadows within a near radius:
Or 2.) go to the lightbulb material and change shadows to "None":
Now you can stick the lamp object immediately inside of the lightbulb.
In cycles, it's more difficult. I wanted to release the lamps as single objects, so they could be imported and immediately work with arrays and such, and while cycles lets you turn off an object's shadow, it doesn't let you do it on a per-material basis like eevee.
Since I usually want my lampposts to cast some sort of shadow, I usually bypass the whole problem by just offsetting the location of the lamp object so it's not in the bulb, and 90% of the time that works fine. But it's not totally accurate, and (as seen in the demo image above) can result in hot spots if you have volumetrics going on (ALTHOUGH someone was saying there can be ways around that).
SO if you want to turn off the shadows for a bulb (say, in the round spherical lamp model), you have to make it its own object. Jump into edit mode, select the bulb mesh (select one vertex and hit "Ctrl+L" to select linked), and hit "P", "Separate by Selection"- that'll make it its own object.
Once it's its own object, it's easy enough to go into the object properties and turn off shadows in the Visibility Tab.
I wish cycles had a shadow-clipping option like Eevee (if anyone knows any ways to do it, I'd love to hear it), but otherwise I usually just have to do something like this.
Comments
Lights! Beautiful lights...thank you!
Genevieve P. Budgen
2023-04-26 18:19:03 +0000 UTCThat is one neat trick right there. Thanks!
Daniel defdac Larsson
2021-06-03 06:22:31 +0000 UTCsweet! thanks for the lighting tip too.
YakovlevArt
2021-06-01 15:53:05 +0000 UTCYeah, it's an Eevee setting. I generally light my scenes with emissive textures in Cycles (I use clamping to get rid of the fireflies Ian spoke of), but when I set them up so they can be rendered with either Cycles or Eevee, I add point lights inside the objects and use a driver to automatically set the point lights' strength to 0 when rendering in Cycles, so the scene's not getting lighting from both the textures and the point lights at the same time. I haven't noticed "Backface Culling" turning the bulb inside out, but it's something I literally just stumbled upon yesterday.
2021-06-01 03:39:11 +0000 UTCHaving a look at the clean topology and the textures, I'd bet all my money on them being hand modelled :)
Mornarion
2021-05-31 23:09:31 +0000 UTCThese babies look stunning!
Mornarion
2021-05-31 23:08:26 +0000 UTCRight! I did the test with just a solid color, but I know the effect you're talking about. I bet an eyeball texture would seem to follow you as the camera moved!
Eric Elliott
2021-05-31 18:25:13 +0000 UTCThese lamps look so real! Did you use photogrammetry to scan them? Or hand model them yourself! They look amazing
bluefire
2021-05-31 14:17:15 +0000 UTCnice. funny how you answer questions i have while building my scene before I ask them.
Anderson Atlas
2021-05-31 14:09:16 +0000 UTCThere is another pretty dirty trick to make globes work through a glass mesh that I've used. Use a Light Path "Is Camera Ray" node output to feed a factor to switch between a lovely glass texture and a transparent BSDF. So that only the Camera will see the glass, it's ignored for everything else. A screenshot https://pendulum.photography/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-05-31_22-32.png
2021-05-31 12:31:27 +0000 UTCI think it's because you're seeing the inside face of the bulb object, illuminated by the light right next to it. So if you had a texture on the bulb, you'd potentially see it sliding the wrong way as you move past the light... although, that could maybe be a cool, "looking into the distorted-glass interior of the light assembly" kind of effect if you try to play it off that way?
Carter Burr-Kirven
2021-05-31 08:57:12 +0000 UTCHmmm, I'm not getting the same result. Isn't Backface Culling an Eevee setting? Plus, using Backfacing does let the lamp shine out, but also seems to turn the lightbulb inside out, which isn't ideal (well, it doesn't technically, but setting it up the "correct" way, so a 1 coming out of the Backfacing node gives the transparent shader, gives you an opaque bulb, so we instinctively switch the inputs). I think the problem is that the shader hit we need to affect is actually coming from the outside, since rays cast from the camera... even if the lamp "sees" a backfaced, transparent shader, that doesn't help us much on the outside trying to shoot rays into it and find the lamp. Gotta fiddle around some more, I guess
Carter Burr-Kirven
2021-05-31 08:53:14 +0000 UTCthanks man , such a vibe!
2021-05-31 07:58:51 +0000 UTCAre you doing anything special, because these are super easy for my laptop to handle.
2021-05-31 06:54:45 +0000 UTCActually, I was just playing around with it now and discovered you don't even have to bother with the mix and geometry nodes if you just check the "Backface Culling" box in the material settings. A point light within the "lampshade" just shines right on through it.
2021-05-31 03:00:06 +0000 UTCThanks Ian :D also love that little lake scene, such a vibe!
MultidimensionalMustard
2021-05-31 02:28:03 +0000 UTCAmazing! These look like they'll be very handy
Kai Christensen
2021-05-31 02:02:21 +0000 UTCTried them both, and it looks like they'd both be useful in different circumstances. The neat thing about using Backfacing for a mixing factor is that you don't seem to have to make the bulb an emissive texture!
Eric Elliott
2021-05-31 01:44:36 +0000 UTCBrilliant! I always forget to think about Backfacing, there are so many useful things you can do with it
Carter Burr-Kirven
2021-05-31 00:36:35 +0000 UTCOooo!!! That’s a great idea! That’s perfect!!
Ian Hubert
2021-05-31 00:32:17 +0000 UTCI do something similar to Carter's suggestion; I use a Mix node controlled by Backfacing to determine whether the "lampshade" material should be transparent or not. So it doesn't block any light inside the lampshade, but the lampshade still does cast a shadow from external lights.
2021-05-31 00:01:24 +0000 UTCAHHHH!!! I gotta run out the door right now, but I'll try that out ASAP! That would be fantastic. I've never really dove into the whole "Shadow Ray" stuff, and I think I really should. Thanks so much!
Ian Hubert
2021-05-30 23:16:23 +0000 UTCWhat if you used the Light Path node to make the bulb transparent to shadow rays (mix shader between the bulb shader and Transparent with "Is Shadow Ray" as the mix factor)? Then lights pass straight through it, but the camera and glossy/diffuse/volume/etc still see it as a glowing bulb
Carter Burr-Kirven
2021-05-30 23:12:24 +0000 UTCAhaha that's exactly where I'm at. Any time I'm like, "man I'm tired of modeling these over and over", I'm trying to remember to just set aside a day to actually put some time into them that I can use from then on :P At some point I gotta do a railing pack. Friggin' railings.
Ian Hubert
2021-05-30 23:07:11 +0000 UTCMan I am so tired of making crappy little lamp posts just good enough for the scene they are in so thanks these are perfect!
Robert Gyurko
2021-05-30 23:04:03 +0000 UTC
