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I'm having problems setting up my lighting the way I want it to look like with reflections in XSI.



The goal I'm trying to achieve is having a bright light shine through the back of the multicolored prism to show all its facets and also to brightly project the colors of each shard. At the same time, I want it to look like a crystal, hence the reflection grid you see above (Also a reflection box in front.) The reflection box though is hidden for now cause it reflects too much light (I want it to glisten enough to show it is crystaline, not a mirror. Basically like a gemstone.) This is the first time I've ever rendered in XSI other than the default infinate light setup, so what info you need (render tree setup, setting, etc.), just tell me and I'll post it so I don't post info overload.

Just for reference, I'm trying to make this scene as realistic as possible.

I don't really see any transparency... A crystal should be able to be seen through

Another important thing you forget, is that you must decide to either use Raytrace or DMaps Shadows. if you're using Depth maps Shadows, it'll simply make a 'cache' or a 'cookie' so after the 1st render it won't have to render from scratch again - where raytracing on the other han is rendering from scratch every time.
The important here is that the DMaps Shadows don't work with shining through transparenties, only Raytracing does. I personally haven't had a reason to look into lighting in XSI, but I will soon now you bring it on topic

So here's the deal: make sure the crystals is somewhat transparent and ensure you're using raytracing with the light.

P.S. infoverload is always useable

Trust me, it's transparent. It uses a blinn material and transparency is set to 6.0 across the board. I'll work on some screens for the render tree and such tonight.

Well, you haven't told me what kind of light you've used

I've tried point. It's supposed to give that light-bulb effect, but it barely is bright enough to make that glow.

Glow is not a part of the lights

Point is good because the light decays per default depending on the size of it.

tried some of the other lights?

I'm thinking about trying spots the next time. I'm just waiting to get a new keyboard for my laptop so I can get back at it (waiting for wife to leave car ). When I get it, I'll post the rendertree info and other stuff.

At a minimum, I'm trying to achieve this real-life lighting.



This is a crystal I have at home, so it's a real pic (fingerprints and all ), not a model (although I have modeled that particular shape of crystal). I would like the model to at least have this effect at a minimum, but what I'm looking for is this plus some illuminence outside, like a dull glow (like on the base, but all around).

What about applying some glow to some of the faces?

I know it's possible in Maya, because you simply 'assign material to selection' and add the texture or whatever and that one's options too.

otherwise, a small ambient or 4 would be able to give it the shape - I think.

what about adding some boolean inside it so we can have that "inner reflection" too?

Explain the boolean part to me in a little bit more detail. Sounds interesting.

well, basicly I was thinking of recreating the illusion of cracks inside it

If you used Boolean to make a hole INSIDE the mesh, it would be double-reflecting the lights.

This way it will give a more crystal-like render Try it out.

So basically dupe the crystal, shrink it, and boolean it out the center?

dupe? O.o

Ahh - duplicate?

Well - I doubt you want an identical pattern inside it

So using a small cube would probaly be better also because it's a less complex model