dear dwight and other lightworkers (?!)

[Anonymous]

can I get a 'negativ' type of photorealistic image which only shows the shadows cast in my model, and not the furniture etc.
How do I get the shadow edges to be 'soft'?
ps. looking forward to my book, then perhaps I won't need to ask such basic stuff...
many thanks
yours
jonathan

[Anonymous]

Have you tried sketch rendering instead? It's pretty cool too.

[Dwight]

You would like to extract the shadows - not a light works trick. Easily done in Photoshop - all ArchiCAD illustrators need Photoshop.

Soft shadows are made, in part, by greatly increasing the divergence of numerous overlapping light sources contained in the Sun Object (LightWorks in ArchiCAD - pages 30 and 41). Sort of like in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) where Dr. Lizardo, attempting to cross into the 8th Dimension improperly focuses the rays of his oscillation overthruster, crashes, and ends up in a mental hospital.

Don't let this happen to you.

[Anonymous]

well I might go mad too, or blind, or both, the spaces have white cabinetry, white ceilings, white porcelan, white tiles and white walls!
so all I need is some white light and I'm roaring away...
have ps, but only for the final fix
have created a variety of slightly different whites (via properties, not colours) mind you.
promise to look up the pages as soooon as my copy of L&A arrives
yours
jonathan

[Dwight]

There's no such thing as white.

[Anonymous]

ok, digital grey then
but I'm still looking forward to my big book
jonathan

[Dwight]

Not grey, either.
Warm, creamy colors are best.
Add roughness for interaction with light.

And you will see from the book that light is a combination of blue and yellow unless in California where it is brown and mauve.

(LightWorks in ArchiCAD -- pages 1-208)

[Anonymous]

I wonder why these people are called lightworkers?
As a ArtLantis fan, it seems to me that heavyworkers would be more apt...

[Anonymous]

Hi Krippahl,

You wrote "these ppl" so I felt it might be also me.

I am far far away from starting here another "which renderer is the best" topic. I think the best is the one which meet your expectations and do the job in the end. As long as you are architect it is your engineering and taste that client should admire more than brilliant picture, that is why I prefer LW. It's not easy, that's true, but has one great advatage - it comes with the package, so you can spend more time on your modeling than setting up shaders.
I'm happy that you find Art R useful because it is excelent piece of software, especially for those who doesn't like to "dig deeper". From the other hand if you would only get used to AC's LW philosofy than you might find it amazing (like me).

All the best.

[Dwight]

Thank goodness there's a book on LightWorks, too!

It gets you started in all aspects of superior rendering techniques with LightWorks and makes it much easier to make quick images.

It is true that the new rendering engine is challenging at first, but get the book and have one day of training with me and you will be well on the way.

Order now and get delivery well before Christmas.