"glow maps"?
 

Can you have "glow maps", like a bump map?

yes

Ok thanks

:beer:

Good thing you're being so helpful, I almost didn't understand how you can do those :p ... Oo wait, I didn't :(
How do you make a glow map then?
Sorry for the sarcasm...
Benny

I assume its like a transparency or bump map

Oo, OK, sorry for the stupid question... I had something else in mind when thinking about the glow attribute...
I gust tried it in Maya BTW, and it doesn't seem to work right :(
Maybe it's just me...
edit: it does when using alpha gain as value
Benny

what's a glow map?

It's a texture map you can paint and apply to your model so that certain parts will glow. It's applied to the incandescence slot of your materials attributes. It works best when used with final gather. Here is an old test render I did years ago using such a map.

You assign it to the incandescence slot? not the glow slot?

i assumed it was putting something into the incandescence slot because i never heard of "glow slot"

thanks for explaining THX1138

There is a glow slider on Maya materials, under special effects I think, though you can map stuff to it I don't know how much control you'll get with that since there is a node that influences all the glows in the scene anyways (that default shader glow that you see in hypershade). Its worth a try.

oh that glow slot

since that's a post production effect i never thought of it....

Do not map it to the special effects slot. You will not get the same effect I demonstrated with the example pic. Plug your glow map into the incandescence slot. Thats what that attribute is for.

Ok, but whats the glow one for then?

There is nothing labeled glow slot. It's labeled special effects and the effect just gives you a flaring gradient effect. Like the flaring gradient from a light sabre. The biggest problem with it it is that the flaring effect gets worse ( it gets huge ) the further you move your object away from the camera.