Geometry that emits light/shadow?
 

In my scene, I have set up a row of 'floor light' shapes. However, these lights are part of the geometry of the scene. I submit to thee:

Is there a way to cause selected geometry to illuminate the rest of the scene, including cast shadows?

I took a look at Light Links, but either I did not completely understand what it does, or it simply is not what I need.

Thanks in advance
Kurokawa

there is a way to make geometry glow, with materials, but it won't actually cast light on to other surfaces. You'd simply need to create a light and place it where the "light" object is and adjust it's attributes to behave the way you want it to.

Light linking allows you to control what lights affect what objects.

Ok, i know how to glow objects, my question is now this:

Is there a way to get the light to shine through the object, and cast the properties of the material on the object itself?

I have worked with both transparency and translucence before, but neither have worked. Perhaps I did something wrong?

Below is a picture of what I am attempting to do....

if you want to do that you will have to turn on raytracing to get it to pass the image through onto the objects.

:ninja:
A

...And from my understanding, raytracing is turned on in the whole scene, instead of just the objects I want to be affected...

no you can tell an object not to be in reflections etc or turn off raytracing on it completel;y using the attribute editor

:ninja:

A

kurokawa, can you post a sketch or a refference pic that better describes what you are trying to achieve? The pic you have attached is kinda confusing in my opinion.

Are you trying to get your light to do this?

is that polygon emitting light, or ... what?
yeah, that's what im attempting to do, but using the polygons that are glowing red. can they cast shadows by chance? thanks

kurokawa

Yes, the pic I attached is a polygon emmiting light ( I used the color white ). The effect I used can be with any color, and yes there will be shadows. The only way you will be able to do it is with Mental Ray, or an equivalent to it. Using the default Maya renderer will not give you the same results.

I thought the glow effect on objects didnt work in Mental Ray?

It works, do a google search and you will find alot of topics on object lighting with Mental Ray. Alot of the Hollywood FX studios use Mental Ray in their workstations.