Casting Light from objects?
 

Hi Everyone,
I'm a fairly new Maya user. I've read most of the online documentation for Maya PLE and I haven't been able to figure out how to make objects cast light on other objects in the scene.

I would like to make a fire in a fireplace and have the light dancing off the walls in the room. Is there a way to do this in Maya?

Or maybe something simpler like shooting a glowing ball down a dark hallway and lighting the hallway as the ball moves through it? I made a simple animation something like this, but no light emits from the ball, which happens to be on fire.

http://home.pacbell.net/bowens1/anim...ctileChase.mov

Thanks,

Brian

Create a light in the fire's position and use that light to simulate the light created by the fire. Animate the lights intensity to change also as the fire grows and dies, you know that effect right.

OK, I thought about that but was hoping there was a "volumetric lighting" setting or something like that.

So it looks like I have to fake it with a seperate light source. My first thought would be to make an expression that ties the light's intensity property with the flame particle's (blank). Or maybe the tie the light intensity to the average value of the (blank) property of the particles, since there are many particles at play in a fireplace.

I really don't know how to tie the light intensity to the particles. Any suggestions?

Another idea I was playing with was Mental Rays global illumination/final gather. Would I get the right effect if I threw enough photons on the flame particles with a really high intensity setting?

Thanks,

Brian