Glows in the dark.

# 1 23-08-2005 , 10:05 PM

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Location: Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada

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I noticed that whenever there is an object that has the glow turned up on it and is placed in a scene, it only glows where there is enough light. This meaning, there must be a light in the scene for a glow to glow.
I wanted to create a scene with two glowing eyes looking out from the dark, but I couldn't do it because there needed to be a light in the scene.
What I'd like to know is if I can make a glow and put it in a dark area for the desired effect without having to use a light.

Thanks in advance. user added image

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# 2 23-08-2005 , 10:59 PM

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Location: Waianae, HI

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No, you're correct, glow requires a light. You can link a light to the object with the glow though. When you create the light, ensure that "illuminates by default" is off. Select the light source and the object, in lighting/shading menu (render menu set), select object centric light linking. This will assign the light to the object only. Then you can render the glow without the light brightening up the whole scene. Tip you should probably disable "use default lighting" in the globals.

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# 3 23-08-2005 , 11:35 PM

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Ah, Thanks Mchannon. That saved me a bit of research. user added image

Oh, also, do you know how to make an object emit light?

Nobody felt like avenging your death. Sorry.

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# 4 23-08-2005 , 11:53 PM

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Select the light, in the attribute editor expand the light effects flag and assign a light fog.

AIM: mhcannonDMC

"If you love your job, you'll never work another day in your life."

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# 5 24-08-2005 , 12:48 AM

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I believe you can also make the eyes glow without using a light at all if you increase the Ambient Color of the eye's shader. When you ask about an object emitting light, I think you are talking about a mental ray rendering process called Final Gather where you can actually use an object to light a scene. The process is rather complicated and the render times are extraordinarily long, but the results are beyond beautiful. I've had friends look at scenes I rendered with Final Gather and be shocked to learn that it's a 3D scene and not a photograph. Anyway, if you're interested, there's plenty of information if you google it. Alternatively, there are some great tutorials at learning-maya.com. Hope this helps.

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