Objective:

• To understand the challenge of representing light as a changing phenomenon
• To understand aspects of radiosity rendering

I. Review of Student Work

II. Assignment 3

III. Working with Lightscape

IV. Lightscape Process Notes

Review of Process:  

• Preparation stage (Modeling, Set Materials, Blocks & Lighting, Orient Surfaces)
• Solution stage (Process Radiosity, Refine, Output)

Modeling for Rendering

• Model efficiently: use fewer polygons for curved surfaces, allow smooth shading to simulate more facets, turn on smooth shading in Prep stage
• Split overlapping polygons into modular faces.
• Cap polylines

Meshing factors: Process Parameters

• Rendering process subdivides polygons to show more fine grained lighting effects.  As polygons reach the maximum contrast, they are subdivided.
• Goal is to have as few polygons as possible as well distributed as possible.  Set Minimum mesh : Maximum mesh : largest model dimension 1:30:100
• Set Subdivision Contrast Threshold high to increase subdivision of large polygons. Proper subdivision will solve problems of floating objects & shadow leaks

Texture Mapping

• Texture orientation can be orthographic, cylindrical, spherical or UV mapping (linked to meshing size).  Set with key points

IV. References

Primi Prayoga’s Guide to using FormZ with Lightscape

Discreet’s support site

Lightscape.com

Manuals are located on the Lab Network Drive