I made one of these http://images.thriftyfun.com/images/articles28/08016.jpg
But im having trouble making it light. I Have about 5 of them in the hallway, Would i have to put a light in them or emmit there own light ?
Basically its a oblong box with a small light oblong box inside i made the main box tranluscent to see through
You could use indirect lighting for the material of the light, although that has its own limitations. Another option is place a line of lamps inside the light, give them ray shadows, and crank up the Soft Size value. Or perhaps a combination of both.
Cheers i will try that!
Give the diffuser portion of the light an emit value in biased rendering engines. Another approach is SSS but the calculations are a killer, so I usually stick with an emit value instead.