3D Studio Max - Sub Surface Lighting

MitchSaad · Sep 2012

Hey guys,

I'm working on a project for a client, the body of the product is made of plastic and they have requested LED indicators that are underneath the plastic (E.G. http://imgur.com/VaHwi). I'm not quite sure how to accomplish this...

I'm using 3DS Max 2012 and Mental Ray. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

- Mitch

respawnrt · Sep 2012

Can't you fake it with a self illum texture ?

MitchSaad · Sep 2012

respawnrt wrote: »

Can't you fake it with a self illum texture ?

Possibly .... But i don't think i could get it to have that fall off effect, not that it's not doable - I'm just not that good lol

Ruz · Sep 2012

just stick a blue omni light next to it.

MitchSaad · Oct 2012

Ruz wrote: »

just stick a blue omni light next to it.

Thanks Ruz,

That seams to have done the trick - although no matter what i do, i can't seem to get the light to be focused in the middle with noticeable fall off - it's just always a circle of light that is the same intensity from the middle to the edge.

Any Suggestions?

Thanks again,

- MitchSaad

Sage · Oct 2012

use a spot light and play with the fall off

MitchSaad · Oct 2012

Sage wrote: »

use a spot light and play with the fall off

That's what i have at the moment, but no matter how much i change the falloff, the effect doesn't change.

Adam L. Gray · Oct 2012

Not sure how this works with V-ray, but this is how I set up soft lights:

MitchSaad · Oct 2012

Wow, that's much better - thank you Adam. Also another mistake i made was using a photo-metric spotlight as apposed to a standard spotlight

3D Studio Max - Sub Surface Lighting

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