Illuminated Sign

[Anonymous]

Has anyone been able to create a typical business box sign that would be illuminated at night.

[Eduardo Rolon]

Yes.

1. Use Morph for Box.
2. Create a New Material for the Illumination Side and in CR. Look for and turn on the Luminance Channel, select color and strength or assign a bitmap were you have drawn the illuminated areas in white (illumination) and black (not illuminated). You will need to do tests with the setting to see if it shows.
3. Assign this material to the side of the Morph that is going to be illuminated
4. Use 3D Text or morph to create the Logo or text that goes over the illuminated side
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If the text is backlit then use 3D text and assign the new surface to the back of the letters, if necessary convert the 3D Text to Morph to assign it.

[Anonymous]

I think what you are describing is more of a text based sign that has a backlit feature. We can use that but what we really are looking for is the ability to take a .jpg or similar graphic file and create a sign where the lights are actually behind the .jpg so it appears as a lighted sign in a night scene.

[Barry Kelly]

jdanosborn wrote:
I think what you are describing is more of a text based sign that has a backlit feature. We can use that but what we really are looking for is the ability to take a .jpg or similar graphic file and create a sign where the lights are actually behind the .jpg so it appears as a lighted sign in a night scene.

You mean like Karl has done with a leadlight window JPG in this post.

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=46812

Barry.

[Eduardo Rolon]

Steps 1 to 3 are the ones needed to create a "backlit" screen. I normally use them for TV screens

[Karl Ottenstein]

Eduardo's solution (surface with jpeg with luminance) is the best solution here, I think. Will provide the desired type of illumination as well.

Thanks for linking to that stained glass thread, Barry - the problem with that method for here is that the goal there was visible light beams - which are based on a directional light source. It resulted in a really long render time. I assume (Eduardo can say) that the surface luminance method that Eduardo details should give a faster render.

[Barry Kelly]

Karl wrote:
Thanks for linking to that stained glass thread, Barry - the problem with that method for here is that the goal there was visible light beams - which are based on a directional light source. It resulted in a really long render time. I assume (Eduardo can say) that the surface luminance method that Eduardo details should give a faster render.

I'm still learning all this.
There are so many settings when it comes to getting the results you want.
I figured it would be the same but just turn the caustic effects off so you don't get the visible light beams.

I see there is a good movie clip about illuminating a TV screen in the Archicad Youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6SHHNXBRFk&index=14&list=PLnXY6vLUwlWVsI6mb8Txb6MYZ4wdGdvaA

Barry.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for these types and it seems simple enough but I am brand new to Archicad so we have been trying to do this with the an Object in the Library called Picture 18. I am assuming this is likely the wrong path as while I can find the Surface Setting with the Picture 18 highlight the .jpeg we have inside does not appear in the Surface Settings window to add luminescence.

Probably need to back up and ask what is the best what to get the artwork in?

[Anonymous]

Figured out how to create the Morph, struggling with how to get the image and what file type onto the surface

[Eduardo Rolon]

1. Use the Morph tool to create a Plane.
2. Create a New Surface were you add the JPG to the color channel and the Luminance channel. You will need to "play" with the luminance settings until they show in the rendering. Take in consideration that C4D has the ability of going higher than a "100" on the settings.

[Eduardo Rolon]

Here's the trick with 2 different JPGs, one for color and one for illumination

[Eduardo Rolon]

Don't forget to use " Match internal to C4D" and to turn Illuminating Surfaces on and in this case it is set to 200

[Eduardo Rolon]

With the same JPG on both color and Luminance

[Eduardo Rolon]

and painting the white area yellow

[Eduardo Rolon]

For the JPG make sure it has the same proportion as the Morph.

In this case the Morph is 16'-0" by 4'-0" so the JPGs are 8" by 2" at 72 DPI this will ensure that you don't slow down the file by having huge images in the Library.

Karl, render time should be a fraction of using Volumetric lights in this samb=ple it was rendering in 8 secs a 600x800 image.

[Anonymous]

Not sure I am even in the right place in terms of windows for this. I have .jpgs stored in a folder called Logos but that does not appear in the Library window. I have no issues getting the surface selected but I do not seem to be able to find the spot where you map to the .jpg and does that .jpg have to be in the Librart before starting this process.

Including a view of my entire desktop

[Eduardo Rolon]

Open Options-> Element Attributes->Surfaces
and select New

On Color or Luminance Select Image as the type

[Eduardo Rolon]

Click on the "Sub Setting" icon

[Eduardo Rolon]

Click on the ellipsis icon

[Eduardo Rolon]

Click on "Load Other Picture"
Select "From File Dialogue"
then go look for the JPG were you saved it or have it stored.

Repeat for the other channel