problem with masking

[Noisefever]

Hi!

I have a problem with masking. I want to do lightning in a scene. What I do is basically this:

I make a totaly black layer above all other layers for the darkness and mask it. Then I subtract all lights from it. So only the lighted spots are visible and the rest is black. To this point there is no problem. The problem are the lightsources itself. They consist of multiple layers organised in a group. That allows me to move them as a unit. To visualize that:

Code: Select all

- Mask group
     - black layer
     - Lightsorce group (lamp)
         - lamp body
         - light
- rest of the scene

I now need to substract the light layer from the black layer but the lamp body have to rendered normally. Is this possible?

Or are there other ways to achieve this?

Thank you!

[slowtiger]

Put everything in a bone layer. Bind light sources and lights to the same bone. Move bones around.

[Noisefever]

Interesting idea! I will try that.

Thank you very much!

[kitzeldikatz]

I wonder if you need masking in the fist place:

Code: Select all

Lightsource Group
+ Lamp
+ Light
+ Shadow with a hole
Rest of the scene

To generate the shadow with a hole:
Make sure autofill is off
Draw a rectangle and a circle inside the rectangle
Select everything with Ctrl+A
Create Shape

[slowtiger]

Oh yes, I forgot about this one. You don't need masking at all, just create the black layer with a hole in it. Set it to Multiply and adjust opacity to your like.

You can even create a light with soft edges on one part and hard edges at another by combining two layers with different blur settings, put them into a group layer and control blend mode and opacity there.

[Noisefever]

No, a black layer with a hole don't allow me to move (multiple) and dynamic lights. Or do I miss something?

[slowtiger]

Well, it works for 2 lights, but possibly not more.

[synthsin75]

No, a black layer with a hole don't allow me to move (multiple) and dynamic lights. Or do I miss something?

Just bind the points of the hole(s) to a bone.

[Noisefever]

Binding the points of multiple holes to bones will fail wenn the holes intersect (I think, I have not tried it).
For now I used layer blending modes: overlay for the lights and multiply for the darkness. Works ok.
For the future I will use masking with light layers and bones I think. In this scene this would have meant to remake too much animation.

Thank you all very much for your help!