Lightbevel.

Artwork Works in Progress
1

An interesting effect can be achieved by putting the “bias” setting on a lamp to the lowest possible setting. The lamp “bevels” the edges of the model to create a rounded effect.

Standard rendering:
http://gcd.kirkwarez.com/LightBevel/01.jpg
LightBevel Lamp setup:
http://gcd.kirkwarez.com/LightBevel/02.jpg

The only problem arises when the soft setting of the lightbevel lamp is set too high, or the samples and shadowbuffer to low:

High soft:
http://gcd.kirkwarez.com/LightBevel/03.jpg
Low Buffer/Samples:
http://gcd.kirkwarez.com/LightBevel/artifacts.jpg

And, for the tinkerers, here is the blend file:
http://gcd.kirkwarez.com/LightBevel/LightBev.blend

This works better on high-detail models with sharp edges(no smooth shading is active, the lamp automatically smooths the barrel out):
http://gcd.kirkwarez.com/Entrion/Dev%20Pics/Weapons/vulcan.jpg

Another example(again, no smooth shading):
http://gcd.kirkwarez.com/Entrion/Dev%20Pics/Pose/mech.jpg

Any comments, and can anyone explain, develop this idea more?

2

I never get tired of seeing that Mech. Niiiiiiiiiiiice.

Great tip :slight_smile:

3

Interesting, thanks for sharing

  1. pofo
4

nice tip

5

Very nice tip their.
Good bye to high vertice models to make bevels :frowning:

6

I thought that was known by lots of person… :-?

anyway it’s good that everybody know it now :smiley:

7

This usually gives unwanted results when one uses a subdiv-mesh… The tesselation usually come visible, which is not very amusing.

8

yay, finally someone noticed that :stuck_out_tongue:
it’s looking not so positive with SubSurf tho, you might get awful bias artefacts…
and like it’s seen in this image above with the cube, there’s also a shadow/ bias artefact in it…
might not be the best, but it works for some models. it’s still better to make real bevels.

//edit hehe… JamesK pressed submit faster :wink:

.andy