Lamp Question

Support Lighting and Rendering
#1

Due to Nurbspath or origin point issues, I’m not sure, I need to align every arrayed element by hand. Which otherwise wouldn’t be an issue, except I need to place lamps behind every modeled “lamp” in the subway tunnel. I was hoping I could email the file I’ve been working with to someone who might be able to correct where I had gone wrong. I’m to sure what the issue is that I’m having really

This is the tutorial I’m working with.

http://www.blenderguru.com/videos/cr...ne-part-1-of-2

If you could help I would be most appreciative

Nick

#2

Could you please explain, or perhaps with a low-res screen shot show us what you are looking at now? I’m afraid that I, at least, do not understand your question (yet).

Try your explanation, please, again … and focus exclusively on “what, not (what you imagine is) why.” After you have first carefully articulated “what,” then of course you may proceed to explain what you imagine to be “why.”

(Go ahead, be loquacious. “Use both sides of paper if necessary…” :wink: )

#3

@Nnueland: IF you are really talking about Blender Lamp objects then there is no shortcut. You have to move them all by hand because you can not use an array modifier on the Lamp object. But if you plan on rendering with Cycles, you can use a mesh with an emission material as your lamps. Then you can use the array modifier to spread out multiple copies. Once you have a rough alignment, apply the modifier and you will have one mesh. Put that mesh in edit mode, select all points and press the P-Key. Choose separate by loose parts. Now you will have multiple mesh based lights close the final location. At this point you will need to do the final alignment by hand for each lamp/mesh emitter. What makes a good scene, compared to an average scene is the attention to detail. There is no shortcut or AddOn for making a great scene. Just take your time an enjoy it.

@sundialsvc4: Ooh, a new word, loquacious.

#4

It’ll take a (very) few minutes to arrange all those lights, actually, and here’s a relatively simple trick.

Add a plane, positioned inside your tunnel at the level you want for the lamps. Now, subdivide the plane as many times as you need lamps. Then, discard all the vertices in the middle. The ones that remain are where your lamps are going to be.

Now… add a lamp. Edit the mesh, select one of the vertices, and snap your 3D cursor to that vertex. Now, select a lamp and snap that lamp to the cursor position. Repeat until all of the lamps have been (very precisely) placed, then delete the plane as it is no longer needed.

There are other ways to do it … a Python script or what have you … but this is a simple and practical way I’ve found to accurately place repeated objects in just a few minutes’ work.

Of course, if you’ve already got modeled lamp-posts in your scene, you can use the center-point of each post as a snap-to point. Then, select all the Blender lamps, and drag them all upward, constraining the move to the Z-axis. (Or move one, note the Z-coordinate value, then manually edit the Z-coordinate value for all the others.)

Again, a few minutes’ repetitive work. Just relax and enjoy it.

#5

Thank you guys I’m going to give it a try by hand. Seemed like a lot of work. I’m very new to this and still getting a hang on the interface. The tutorial had suggested selecting the lamp, along with the PATH, and hitting command P, and following the path. Doing the same for the modeled “lamps”. And later micro adjusting for accurate results. The shortcut just doesn’t seem to be working. Something wacky in the Duplication : Frames TAB.

Thank you all very much for your help. Jumping into this tutorial, I feel like I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.

Thanks again.

#6

Thank you guys I’m going to give it a try by hand. Seemed like a lot of work. I’m very new to this and still getting a hang on the interface. The tutorial had suggested selecting the lamp, along with the PATH, and hitting command P, and following the path. Doing the same for the modeled “lamps”. And later micro adjusting for accurate results. The shortcut just doesn’t seem to be working. Something wacky in the Duplication : Frames TAB.

Thank you all very much for your help. Jumping into this tutorial, I feel like I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.

Thanks again.

#7

(ignore this post)