How to Make a Beam from a Lighthouse?
Fauvist
Posts: 2,052
in The Commons
I have Parkside Point lighthouse that has the huge glass lamp at the top. I need to produce a focused shaft of iRay light shining out of it which travels a long distance. https://www.daz3d.com/point-pleasant-for-parkside-point
Thanks!
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Light doen't do anything unles it has somethig to interact with, wave or particle theory aside, read this.
https://www.daz3d.com/epic-props-godrays-volumetric-light-for-iray
https://www.daz3d.com/iray-ghost-light-kit-3
https://www.daz3d.com/horror-and-action-lights-for-figures-and-vehicles
render it in Carrara and use a spotlight with a lightcone
How to beam from a lighthouse:
1) Go to a lighthouse.
2) Call your nearest Federation Starship; Request a ride.
Do it in photoshop. Copy it, make one layer bright. New layer. Cover brighter image with the second regular image. Using a brush in the shape you want erase the dark image exposing the lighter one beneath. This will make an easy beam.
Well the iRay Matte Fog option probably doesn't do it because I think it is just noise suiperimposed on the 'top' of the render but if it actually does work in volume then the lighthouse beam will be visible. You can try it and see. Lighthouse beams are not visible in nearly clear atmospheres in the real world either.
If not, there are products like these:
https://www.daz3d.com/atmocam-for-iray
https://www.daz3d.com/render-studio-20--volumetric-plus
https://www.daz3d.com/ig-iray-dawn-to-dusk-2-atmospheric-lighting
Yesterday evening I tried to get some nice images of a local lighthouse, but despite lots of sea mist and lots of photos from right at the base to a few blocks away, the only one that had any beam-like quality was one from about 3/4 of a mile away.
Unless it's really misty/foggy/humid you really don't see much of a beam effect, it's really more of a lens flare flash as the beam passes by.
But, it does happen, so unless you really need for the effect to be rendered with the rest of the image, I'd just do it as post work in photoshop or whatever image editor you may use.
If you own Filter Forge, there are some lens flare, spotlight and light beam filters that are out there that you could use to put together a decent effect.
If you have photoshop, this tutorial is pretty much how I'd do it, but there are other tutorials out there covering other methods...
https://planetphotoshop.com/dramatic-light-beam-from-scratch.html
Looking right at the beam and it's just a dot of light... Megh.
Of course from farther away with people in the way...
Both of the above images were taken in much darker conditions.
I tried all the particle effects that I have with spotlights and emissive surfaces inside DS and none worked in my quick and dirty attempts
I just finished a video about this.
Thank you everyone for your help. I will try the suggestions until I get the effect I want.
WOW Griffin Avid! EXACTLY the tutorial I need at exactly the right time. You're even using exactly the same lighthouse model I'm using!
No problem.
Hope it helps.
This is so cool!!! Thank you for all of the suggestions and the great tutorial!!
I rented a lighthouse/lighthouse keepers house on an island in the middle the St. Lawrence River for a week. The appearance of the beam depends on the weather. The lamps in lighthouses are mostly all controlled by computer from some central lighthouse control center and the beams may be controllable according to the conditions - I don't know. I could live in the lighthouse, and go up into the dome with the lamp, but of course not at night when the hatch would lock before the light was turned on. If the caretaker saw me up there too late he'd run in and yell at me in French until I came down. The video was incredibly informative and I'm going to try some of the products you used. Thanks again!
Okay, you outdid me... lived in a French lighthouse, eh?... okay... I'm gonna try that too... the fire island lighthouse is only 6 miles from my house if swam in a straight line from the end of my street... I'll have sneak in after the tourists are all gone... probably have to sleep in the rafters and if anyone notices me I'll have to pretend I'm the ghost of some old sea captain... that part is fun, I love scaring tourists... It won't be no cheese and wine French lighthouse caper, but unless I lose interest in it shortly after write this, I'm up for this...
Need a back story for the sea captain... and a name... Dunley "Dead Eyes" Drunsfeld?... Horton "Crusty Beard" Crowley?... Sully "The Swindler" Sykes?... Those sound too piratey... maybe he was a pirate...
I'll work on it.
I envy you being on Fire Island (or Long Island) I'm in lockdown in the suburbs in Canada for the last 5 months. I have Filter Forge so I'm going to check out your suggestion. Look up THE GHOST AND MRS MUIR.
Look up "volumetric light"
This might help...
https://www.daz3d.com/iray-ghost-light-kit-3 ;
Of course, if you're willing to do a bit of post work in PhotoShop or GIMP...
- Load render and make a duplicate layer of your render.
- Change mode of duplicate layer from normal to screen
- Use a layer mask to paint where the light beam(s) are to be.
- Apply gaussian blur to layer mask to soften the edges of the beam.
- Adjust layer opacity to get the intensity of beam required
...anyways, just a thought.
---edit--- Just watched Griffin's video and he already covered it, LOL... good stuff