Light not showing in render when cloned

[Darby Edelen]

[laura plobi] “If I uncheck “render instances” it gets back to normal, but my projects require me to have so many lights that my computer won’t let me render them if I am not using instances.”

There’s your answer.

And from the C4D help files:

Render Instances do however have a few drawbacks:

-Render Instances are exact copies of the original geometry and cannot be deformed using Deformation objects.

-Render Instances can only assume the current state of the original object and not different states of animation of the original object.

-Render Instances should be made up of geometry because only geometry benefits from the corresponding advantages. Light sources, for example, will not work at all.

-Objects that are a Child object of a Subdivision Surface object (i.e. serve as a source object for other objects) cannot be render instanced.

-Sketch and Toon does not support Render Instances.

So what is it exactly that you’re trying to do that requires thousands of lights? 🙂

Darby Edelen

[Laura Plobi]

Hi!

Thanks for your answer, at least I won’t keep trying to do something that’s impossible. It is still a problem though.
Here is why:

– On some projects, I need to have lights that are placed along a curve, or on the edges of an object. In that case, I use a cloner to put them automatically. Is there a way around that then? (I also usually have other objects using that cloner in parallel, like the body of lamps, characters, or whatever else. Using the same cloner than those allows me to be quick and exact in the placement)

– On some projects, I am creating halogens, led strips or lasers. Each of them may contain 10 to 50 light sources along lines/curves depending on their length, and there are several of those.

– Sometimes I combine those :)))

– And I also imagine that if I was doing all this “by hand” (rather than automatically with a cloner, which is like a function in the end), I might end up having the same problem of memory space for the rendering, wouldn’t I?

… I mean, there must be a solution, no? Many people must probably use hundreds of lights in their design?

Cheers!

[Darby Edelen]

Generally I’d use special kinds of lights or luminous surfaces for the majority of what you describe.

[laura plobi] “- On some projects, I need to have lights that are placed along a curve, or on the edges of an object. In that case, I use a cloner to put them automatically. Is there a way around that then?”

I’d say it depends on what you’re after. Do these need to be point lights or are you trying to emulate a long neon or flourescent bulb? If the former, yes I’d use a cloner, if the latter I might create geometry and use a luminous surface with GI if I need detail or use an area light with an Object/Spline area shape (samples might need to be increased).

[laura plobi] “- On some projects, I am creating halogens, led strips or lasers. Each of them may contain 10 to 50 light sources along lines/curves depending on their length, and there are several of those.”

For halogens I’d recommend looking into IES lights for the actual lighting. Then for the visible portion of the light I’d use geometry with a luminous material. No need for GI, the light will illuminate the scene and the geometry is there just to look like a light. For an LED strip I’d use an area light that is roughly the size/shape of the strip and then use geometry with a luminous material. For a laser I’d probably use a parallel spot light with its visibility turned on.

In each of those cases I’d use a single light to achieve the result.

[laura plobi] “- And I also imagine that if I was doing all this “by hand” (rather than automatically with a cloner, which is like a function in the end), I might end up having the same problem of memory space for the rendering, wouldn’t I?”

Yup! Just find ways to avoid using so many lights. I’d also add that since geometry can be instanced you have the option of enabling GI, creating a luminous material, applying it to a sphere (or any ‘light’ shape) and cloning that with render instances enabled. Global Illumination will slow down renders as well but possibly less than using thousands of lights 🙂

Also keep in mind that there are several different components of light. You might get away with creating very few diffuse lights to represent a more complex set of lights and then using luminous geometry to create the desired visibility and reflections.

Darby Edelen