Gobo Projection onto a wall

[dbrumbach]

I am a TD not an LD, but am very proficient with VW and I am becoming better at lighting a scene and rendering a decent looking image. I have been using VW for many years but have just really started to dive into the rendering capabilities. Currently using VW08 w/Renderworks, MacbookPro 2.5g dual core pentium, 4gig ram, 512 gfx card, etc.

While rendering a simple staging event, I wanted to project a custom gobo onto a set wall. I cant seem to get the instrument to focus on the vertical wall surface, it wants to focus on the ground plane, even if I set the focus point at +8'. I have searched through the manuals & help pages but cant seem to find the answer. Any help would be much appreciated.

note: The instrument is out of the field of view in the rendering, it does not have to be positioned correctly as I am more concerned with achieving a certain look for the presentation, the LD can work out the geometry later.

Thanks....

Dave Brumbach

Technical Producer

Three Phase Media, Inc.

[klinzey]

The focus point is just a 3D point in space, the orientation does not matter. If you set the instrument at 8' and place the focus point in front of the wall at 8' it should work. (In 2008 the "Draw Beam" feature may not show the beam here.)

Render in Final Quality Renderworks and you should see the gobo projection.

[dbrumbach]

I have tried that, the beam rests on a horizontal plane instead of a vertical plane?

[michaelk]

Sounds like you are drawing the beam, not turning on the light.

Draw Beam is in the lighting instrument's OIP.

The easiest way to get the instrument to turn on is through the Visualization Palette, Light Tab. If you have more than one instrument in the drawing, make sure the instrument w/ the gobo has something in the Channel field and/or Purpose field. That will make it easier to find in the list of instruments.

From the Vis Palette, turn on the light and then render the drawing in Final Quality Renderworks (or Custom Renderworks w/ shadows turned on.)

Make sure Draw Beam is off. (The nurbs curves of the edges of the field and beam angles actually block the light.)

hth

michaelk

[dbrumbach]

That did the trick, had the instrument off.

Thanks.....