Allow Transparency - Artificial Light Shining Through a Material

[WhiteOwl77]

IDX Renditioner is a good tool.
But, I got a bit frustrated on my latest Project trying to get light to Shine Through a material.
I wish they would add this IMPORTANT feature.

Image Shown Modeled in SketchUp 7.1, Rendered with IDX Renditioner.
No After Effects.
Exported 900x400 (aprox) - with Room Settings/Exterior, Artificial/natural 50/50, clear sky (fairly default settings)
Flourescent Fixtures on the back Wall, and Glow Effect material Attribute on the LIGHT BOX in the Front.


Andrew Telker, ECO-Designer, LEED AP.
(www.telkerdesign.com)

[wmanning]

Hmmm. 

Artificial light does go through transparent surfaces.  A surface set to "glow" does not have transparency however... unless...

If you create a light fixture, like we have with the IDX Renditioner Lights that come with the product, you'll notice we have nested components. The sub-component acts like the bulb.  The item that is that bulb sub-component is set to glow in the color of the light being emitted, and it does not stop the light.  That would be the only way of making something glow and be transparent.

Sorry you struggled with this.  Is there a component from the model that you'd like to be that light box that maybe you could post?  I might be able to show you how to set it up in one or two ways that coiuld work for you!

-- William

[WhiteOwl77]

 
William, & The IDX-Design Forums Team,
 
Light Box Effects:
I am having difficulities trying to get the Light Fixtures to Shine Through the Transparent materials. (It is supposed to look like a light behind several layers of Plexiglass -of those: one is Clear/Gray, and the inner layer is white, however all plexiglass is supposed to be translucent, but not quite transparent - allowing a nice lighting effect.)

Can you take a look at this Model (I am sending the light Box Only)
 
Any Advice would be helpful,
I appreciate you looking at this.
Thanks,
Andrew Telker, ECO-Designer, LEED AP

[wmanning]

So far I haven't found time to do anything with this other than open it up and take a quick look. 

A couple of things from what I've seen and what you've said above.

Translucent vs. Transparent.  True, we don't do translucent, we do transparent.  If you have multiple layers of transparency the light will be reduced with each item it has to pass through.  So if the first layer is set to 60% Opaque, only 40% of the original light will get through, and if the next layer is 50% opaque, then only 20% of the original light will get through. 

Back lighting.  If a material is transparent we will make the light pass through it, but it will not be made to illuminate the side opposite the direction of the light.  The way the ray-trace algorythm is written it calculates what surfaces the light lands on and it doesn't see the back side of a transparent surface in that way.

When the ray-tracer is taking the light from, let's say, the center of the light box it looks at the inside surface and determines if it is capable of passing light through it.  In your case the inside surface appears to be a translucent glass with a material finish set to Polish with the reflection increased.  That means the light is not likely to get through because the material finish is also set to reflect the light back in.  I think you would be better having the tranparent material be default Matte.

Glowing material finishes.  They cannot be made transparent.

So where does this leave us?  Well, in the case of a light box, we have to find a way to fake the effect.  For example, set up point lights outside the light box, and make the light box surfaces glow.  This sort of thing.  Faking effects is used in almost all CG even by the best guys with the best software.  When using a limited solution like Renditioner, there are often more short-cuts that need to be made for re-creating specific effects.