Location: Nodes > Texture > More > mental images
Shader Type: Texture
Output: Color (RGB) value
The Light Surface (mia_Light_Surface) shader is primarily intended to help you create physically plausible renders of the “visible” portion of a light source. For example, the actual tube in a fluorescent tube or the actual bulb in a light bulb, while still using a traditional CG “light” to create the illumination of the scene.
The Light Surface shader also allows you to achieve the following:
• Create a surface as a “stand in” for an existing light, that looks bright, without emitting additional light into the scene.
• Control the amount of reflection and light actually introduced into the scene.
• Drive the appearance of the surface from an existing light source.
• Create more physically correct “highlights” by replacing them with glossy reflections of actual high-intensity objects.
The Light Surface shader can either provide a color for itself, or derive the color from an existing (set of) light(s) in the scene. The shader only returns a color and does not do any other actual shading.
As a suggestion, you can use it plugged into the additional_color input port of the Architectural Material shader.
Color
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Color |
The overall color of the light which applies both to built-in light or light derived from light sources. |
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Intensity |
The intensity of the “built-in” light. For example, the surface will appear to the camera to have an intensity of Color multiplied by Intensity (assuming Get Intensity From Light List is disabled). |
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FG Contribution |
The amount of light that is visible to final gathering rays. |
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Reflection Contribution |
The amount of light that is visible to reflection rays. |
Lights (Optional)
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Get Intensity From Light List |
Enables or disables the light list where you can select from actual lights in the scene. When enabled, the lights in the Lights list are polled and their intensity is added to the output dictated by the intensity parameter. For example, if L is the output of all lights in the lights list, the final output color of the shader is: color x (L x lights_multiplier + intensity) |
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Lights |
The lights list. Pick Item: Lets you pick a light in your scene that will be used to compute the effect. 1. Click the Pick Item button. 2. In the pop-up explorer, select the lights you want to use. 3. Right-click outside the explorer to end the picking session. Remove Selected: Removes a selected light from the lights list. Once removed, the light will no longer influence the effect created by the shader. |
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Lights’ Intensity |
This is an intensity multiplier whose value can be driven by a shader connected to the lights_multiplier input port. |
Autodesk Softimage v.7.5