area lights rendering black?

[archdaly]

Hi everyone,

I was hoping someone might be able to help me out. I've only just come across the convert to area light feature in VW2011. I've drawn 2 circles, (which I intend to appear as simple pot lights) and have converted them to area lights.

However, when I render the scene the circular surfaces render as black. They do appear to have a slight glow around the edges though (as if they light was emitting from the wrong side of the geometry towards the ceiling instead of down at the ground)

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[bcd]

Modify>Rotate 3d

Object center

180? about the x axis

[archdaly]

Hi,

Thanks for your suggestion but unfortunately I've tried that an it still seems to be rendering black...

I'm completely stumped.

[Tamsin Slatter]

Area lights in Vectorworks 2011 emit light from both surfaces, so it should not need rotating.

How about increasing the Lumens value? I find that the default lumens value (1000) is not sufficient to see the light. Change it to 10000 Lumens and render with Final Quality Renderworks?

Does that make any difference? If so, then you can start refining the light levels as desired.

[archdaly]

Thanks Tamsin.

I would have never expected that 1000 Lumens wouldn't be sufficient but I have read that they've changed some setting because of the new C4D engine.

I'll give it a try!