Lighting

Discuss ideas for new features with other users. To submit feature requests to Smith Micro, please visit support.smithmicro.com

Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger

Post Reply
User avatar
MarkBorok
Posts: 184
Joined: Sat Aug 14, 2004 8:45 pm
Location: Providence, RI
Contact:

Lighting

Post by MarkBorok »

Being able to light your scene with spotlights might be a useful feature. Nothing too complex. Doesn't Moho use OpenGL and doesn't OpenGL have lights built in?

And in conjunction with this maybe some kind of bump mapping for texture (which interacts with the lighting of course). Painter and Photoshop both have ways to apply "bump map"-like textures to an area and those work pretty fast.
User avatar
Lost Marble
Site Admin
Posts: 2354
Joined: Tue Aug 03, 2004 6:02 pm
Location: Scotts Valley, California, USA
Contact:

Post by Lost Marble »

We really don't want to take Moho too far into the realm of 3D. It seems better to concentrate on Moho's strengths as a 2D animation program, rather than trying to turn it into a do-everything behemoth. So, no, I wouldn't expect lighting, reflections, or other effects that you might expect in a 3D program.

However, it is possible to use 3D lighting in Moho using a separate program. There's a program called gile[s] that is used to calculate lighting for 3D games. It can produce sophisticated lighting effects that are then exported as a texture map. This is often referred to as "baking in" the lighting into the texture. You can use gile[s] together with Moho to get lighting effetcs on 3D models. Here's where you can find gile[s]:

http://www.frecle.net/giles/
User avatar
MarkBorok
Posts: 184
Joined: Sat Aug 14, 2004 8:45 pm
Location: Providence, RI
Contact:

Post by MarkBorok »

I also don't want Moho to become a 3D program. However, ligthing is something you'll find in 2D programs like Photoshop, Painter and AfterEffects.

Bump maps could be used to simulate paper texture.
User avatar
Lost Marble
Site Admin
Posts: 2354
Joined: Tue Aug 03, 2004 6:02 pm
Location: Scotts Valley, California, USA
Contact:

Post by Lost Marble »

Sorry, I see now you mentioned Photoshop and Painter. I first saw "OpenGL", so I assumed you were talking about lighting on 3D layers in Moho.

There is a way to achieve some effects like bump mapping. Let's start with this scene in Moho:

Image

Then, add this texture image as an image layer on top of everything else in the scene:

Image

Set the new image layer's blend mode to multiply, and you get this:

Image

Or, move the image layer down so that it is above the background, but below the head and you get this (with a layer shadow added to the head layer):

Image

The texture image was created in Photoshop. Using this technique, you can create all kinds of "lighting effects" by just adding light and dark areas to the texture image.
User avatar
bupaje
Posts: 1175
Joined: Fri Nov 12, 2004 5:44 pm
Location: California
Contact:

Post by bupaje »

You may also want to check out LostMarble's reply to a question I posted some time back.

http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=553

You may be able to create one or more layers to paint light/shadow on this way and get some nice effects.
Post Reply