Poser 4 Tutorial
Spotlight Control
(The Easy Way)
Many users have problems using Posers spotlights, usually
because you normally can't see
the lights and it therefor is difficult to place and turn the lights so they
shine on the correct
object in the correct angel. This tutorial shows how to use the spotlights
in
an easy and efficient way.
1. Load the standard Poser4 female model.
Or any other model of your choice.
2. To avoid confusion in this tutorial delete
all but one light.
Click on a light to select it (one of the small circles orbiting the large
'globe')
then click on the dustbin to delete it (it's the icon in the lower right corner
between
the light bulb and the 'sun', the text that say 'Light Properties' should
say
' Delete Light' when you move the mouse over it,
click OK when asked if you want to delete current object),
3. Turn the last light into a Spotlight
Select the last remaining light, click on 'Light Properties' (the light bulb
icon)
and select spotlight in the menu that pops up, then click OK. The 'Light Properties'
icon should now have changed to a Spotlight.
4. Point the light at a model part.
Select 'Point at' in the Object drop down menu
In the 'Choose Actor' menu that pops up, scroll down and click
on the text that says 'Chest',
the 'Chest' text should turn white, if so click on OK.
The Spotlight will now always point towards the chest of the female model.
(You can't move lights using the 'globe' in the image for point 2 anymore)
5. Placing the light.
Make sure you see the light dials, click on the light if they
don't show (see point 2),
The lower dials controls the placement of the light.
The order of the dials is different on some lights, Point At is here
a bit down in the dial list as the light was 'pointed at' while it was
a infinite light, light 4 and upwards lack shadow controls.
xTran is the horizontal placement of the light, 0 is I the middle of
the 'area',
above 0 moves the light to the right and below 0 moves the light to the left.
yTran is the vertical placement of the light, 0 is
on the ground,
above 0 moves the light up and below 0 moves the light down.
zTran is the depth placement of the light, 0 is in
the middle of the 'area',
above 0 moves the light ahead of the figure and below 0 moves the light behind
the figure.
If you set all 3 dials to 0 (and the figure is placed in its
default spot) then the light will be
placed on the ground underneath the female model, sins the light point at
the chest it will shine upwards and
light the model from below.
If you loose track of where the front and sides are switch
to one of
Posers locked camera views and find your bearings.
If you want the light to shine on the model from the left
upper front side then set:
xTran to -300
yTran to 600
zTran to 600
(used in all images below)
Play around with these 3 dials till you know how they work
6. Size and edge sharpness
When you move the light around you might have noticed that
the area
hit by the light changes with the distance from the light to the object, if
the
light is close to the object it lights a small area but if the distance is
great then
it lights a large area.
The spotlight send out a cone of light that grows as the distance from the
light increases,
but there's also two dials that control the size and edge sharpness of the
cone.
The two top dials controls the edge sharpness and the cone spread angel.
Angel Start is the Edge Softness dial it runs from
0 to 160. 0 is super soft,
the light gradually fades away towards the edge of the cone. 160 is super
sharp,
the light abruptly ends at the edge of the cone, the edge pixel has 100% light
strength while
the next pixel outside the edge has 0% light.
Angel Start 0
Angel Start 160,00
Angel End is the cone spread angel, or how fast the
cone grows as the distance to
objects increases. It also runs from 0 to 160, 0 is a 'laser' thin beam while
160 is a
wide angel spread that rapidly lights the entire screen.
(Angel Start 0)
Angel End 0
(Angel Start 0)
Angel End 160,00
The other dials
Dist Start and Dist End I never use them, so
they are of no importance ;)
Point At controls how much the light 'points at' its
designated object,
instead of using the Rotate settings, mostly for animations where the light
moves to or from the object 'pointed at' and the rotate settings.
Shadow and Map Size, Shadow is the strength
of the shadow, I use 0,5 to 0,7 set it
to 0 to turn shadow off. Map Size is the size of the shadow map, set it to
1024 if you use shadows,
1024 is WAY to small, to increase it double click on the dial to open the
setting screen.
There you can increase the max setting to a higher number. Be careful as large
maps use
tons of memory, 2000 to 4000 should cover most needs.
You can further fine-tune the shadow by selecting the lights Shadow Camera
in the Camera
folder located in one of the menus at the lower edge of the render screen.
The camera
shows the area the shadow map is spread over, move and
zoom in on the area your want to shadow.
(Cast Shadows in Render> Render Options must be on to see shadows)
BTW I usually use no shadows or only 1 shadow casting light.
xRotate, yRotate and zRotate, sets the pointing angel
of the spot light,
not used when Point At is set to 1,000. Use Point At when you can, when there
isn't
anything in the middle of where you want the light to shine then add a simple
prop,
Point to it, put it where you want the light to shine and make it invisible
(double click on the prop and turn off the Visible setting in the 'Prop Properties'
menu that pops up) so you don't see it in the final render.
If you have problems selecting and moving invisible props
then use the 'Current Element' menu,
found under the image screen, props are found in the props sub menu (some
logic at last!).
Select your prop, then go to the 'Object' drop down menu and select 'properties'
(or simply press: Ctrl + I) and make it visible again.
Scale, sets the size of the spotlight 'ghost presence'
in the preview mode,
of no importance unless you set it to 0 as it turns the 'Point At' off.
(No, I don't see the logic in that either)
Red, Green and Blue sets the color of
the light. It's usually faster to use
Light Color (lowest icon in image for point 2).
Intensity sets the strength of the light, the preview
mode only shows
the effect of values up to 100%, settings above that will only show when you
render.
If you feel like you need some more training using spotlights,
clear the screen,
add a prop like a box and turn on the ground plane. Add 3 or more spotlights
and
lock them to the box using 'Point At', zoom the view out till you see the
spotlights.
Move the box around and play with the light placement and settings.
Can you spot the spotlights light spots?
Spotlight Control (The Easy Way) Radio Edit!
When you want to add a spotlight to your image, change one
of the old lights or add a new one
(click on the 'Create Light' icon, the 'sun' icon seen in image for point
2),
new lights are usually spotlights.
Use 'Point At' to point it to a object part in the middle of where you want the light to shine.
Use xTran, yTran and zTran dials to place the light so that it shines from the desired angle.
Use the Angle Start and Angle End dials to fine-tune the area covered by light.
Use the Light Color icon or the Red, Green and Blue dials
to fine-tune the light color, and use
the Intensity dial or the Light Intensity icon (the curve in the lower left
corner in the image for point 2)
to fine-tune the sharpness of the light.
That's it, rather easy when you know how to do it.
-: THE END :-