Hide Light Source but keep the lighting

[Greg Gesch]

Hi Vasco. At the top of your page View>Show Layer Controls.

Shortcut Ctrl+Shift+H

[Vasco Martins]

Hi, thank you for the reply but I am referring to the light source itself, I want it to be hidden when it passes behind and object.

[Greg Gesch]

Hi. Sorry, I don’t understand what you mean. The ‘light source’ is the physical light that is casting the light. Perhaps if you explain your problem in detail someone might be able to help more. The only thing that I can think of is that you want a layer in front of the lit object not to be affected by the light – in which case make sure the layer is 3D, twirl open its Properties, go to Material Options and set Accepts Lights to off.

[Vasco Martins]

Hi, thank you for helping, I will try to be more clear, maybe the picture helps.
When the light is passing behind a 3D object it should not be seen from the front.
The illumination of the scene is correct, is just the “light emitter” that is not hidden and that is not correct.

[Greg Gesch]

Ah, I see. From memory (I haven’t done this in a long time) you can turn off the eye icon on the Light layer and the light will disappear but still act as an emitter.

[Vasco Martins]

Hi, I should have started with showing the picture…. in anycase, I tried turning off the eye (first icon for the layer) and that turn off the light as well !
really don’t know how to manage this ! strange how such a powerful tool like AE makes this simple needed feature so difficult to find !

[Greg Gesch]

Again I’m a bit confused by exactly what you are doing. The only thing I can think to suggest is to duplicate your light, turn off the visibility of the original that is being used as the emitter then split the duplicate where/when it goes behind your 3D object and move the second (split) layer to below the 3D object layer.

[Vasco Martins]

if I turn off the light when is passing behind the object then I don’t have the luminosity that come from it ! I need to turn off the light spot emitter, not the luminosity !

[Filip Vandueren]

Hi Vasco,

maybe you should start with saying what plug-ins you are using.

After Effects lights are always invisible, they don’t cast any visible rays, so you are probably using something like lux ? Or a lightfactory preset or other lens flare that is linked to the light’s position using expressions ?

If we’re even guessing what you are using, then we can’t offer a solution.

[Vasco Martins]

Hi, I really appreciate the help and after much research I found it.
I used a template and it came with a set up I was not aware.. So the issue was the optical flares, this effect is the one that creates the flare on the lights, I was not aware of this.

thank you all for the help and sorry for any trouble.