flickering lights

# 1 20-01-2013 , 08:13 AM

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Join Date: Aug 2005

Location: Austin, TX

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so im trying to emulate a firelight flicker using MEL but i have no real scripting experience. I looked up a few codes but they kept giving me errors. are there any MEL guru's that can help me out with a script of some kind that i can apply to multiple lights and will perpetuate throughout my animation? please and thank you user added image

never mind me and a buddy figured it out user added image

Last edited by MamoruK; 20-01-2013 at 09:10 AM.

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# 2 20-01-2013 , 08:38 PM

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Can you post it ?
Thx.

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# 3 20-01-2013 , 11:39 PM

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$time = `currentTime -q`;

pointLightShape1.intensity = rand(#,#)* $time/$time;

go to the light intensity> right click > create new expression> paste into bottom field> click create.

when using this obviously you need to change the light type, and replace # with whatever you intensity values are going to be.

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# 4 03-02-2013 , 04:57 PM

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Just for the sake of posting something here in years I though I'd present another way of doing this. This gives you a little bit of control over the flickering. The $fFreq controls the speed of the flickering. $fMinIntensity is the threshold value the noise function has to exceed in order to turn the light on at all. $fMaxIntenxity does what it says on the tin. Another plus side is that you'll get always the same results.

Code:

float $fFreq = 15.0;
float $fMinIntensity = 0.5;
float $fMaxIntenxity = 1.0;

float $fIntensity = $fMaxIntenxity * .5 * (1 + noise(time * $fFreq));
if($fIntensity > $fMinIntensity)
	pointLightShape1.intensity = $fIntensity;
else
	pointLightShape1.intensity = 0.0;

Kari
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# 5 03-02-2013 , 05:03 PM

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$time = `currentTime -q`;

pointLightShape1.intensity = rand(#,#)* $time/$time;

go to the light intensity> right click > create new expression> paste into bottom field> click create.

when using this obviously you need to change the light type, and replace # with whatever you intensity values are going to be.

Originally Posted by MamoruK

The problem is that rand is evaluated per-frame, so it will of course create a flickering effect. As Kari has shown above, using the noise function will create a much smoother transition in-between frames.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 6 03-02-2013 , 07:28 PM

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Location: The Netherlands

Posts: 88

super mans are always available on simply maya.....

thx guys......
was looking for something like this......

lets see if this with some tinkering suits my needs aswell......

thank you......

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