different heliodon times for different viewports?

[hollister design Studio]

Is there a way to set Heliodon date/time per viewport?

 

When illustrating a design, shadows need to be 'just so' - but often different for each view.

Having to reset the time for each re-render isn't optimal.

 

Am I missing something?

[Jeff Prince]

Easy way….

Use multiple heliodons

place them on different design layers

turn off design layers in Viewports as appropriate to create desired result.

[hollister design Studio]

@jeff prince excellent!

 

...and I already make multiples when I do sun studies!

Edited August 3, 2022 by hollister design Studio

[Tom W.]

The way I do it is to have 13 or so Heliodons set to 1.5 hour intervals throughout the day all on a single 'sun' layer then control which one I want to be on in each VP via the 'Visualization' palette. I have this layer as a standard so can import it into any file along with the heliodons

[hollister design Studio]

@Tom W. I just opened the 'Visualization' palette for the first time...

...great, now more to learn about!

[Tom W.]

2 minutes ago, hollister design Studio said:

...great, now more to learn about!

 

It is literally never-ending isn't it? Are other programmes like this?!

[hollister design Studio]

A nice trick I had when working in MAYA is that any object can be set to 'cast' or 'receive' shadows.

Really handy for fine tuning a render!

[Pat Stanford]

In VW this ability is available through textures instead of objects.  And since it is via textures that means it is also available via materials.

 

[E|FA]

3 hours ago, jeff prince said:

place them on different design layers

... or Classes, though Data Visualization (which I haven't taken the time to figure oiut) may save you the trouble of managing more Classes.

[Luis M Ruiz]

Here is my personal suggestion. Go ahead and create multiple Heliodon objects, each with different times. Put them in a class for better organization.
Create multiple viewports of your scene. While selecting a viewport, check out your visualization palette. You'll find multiple heliodon objects and from there, just turn off the ones you don't need.  I am attaching an image for clarification. Let us know if this works for you.

[Kevin Allen]

14 minutes ago, Luis M Ruiz said:

While selecting a viewport, check out your visualization palette

 

would you do this via the Visualization Palette, or by selecting what class is visible in the Viewport using the OIP with the Viewport selected? I would think the latter.

[Tom W.]

7 minutes ago, Kevin Allen said:

 

would you do this via the Visualization Palette, or by selecting what class is visible in the Viewport using the OIP with the Viewport selected? I would think the latter.

 

I find the Visualization Palette quicker + easier than doing it by class. I leave all my Heliodons in None as I could see no benefit to assigning them elsewhere but I have them on their own dedicated design layer so I can disable them easily. In fact I tend to have that layer invisible all the time except for in VPs.

[Kevin Allen]

16 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

but I have them on their own dedicated design layer so I can disable them easily.

 

I was also going to suggest one per deign layer, but that could be unwieldy.

[Jonathan Pickup]

I suggest the same method as Tom W. once you learn to control the lights in the visualisation palette, you will find that you can use it on all viewports, making some lights turn on, some lights turn off, change the colour of lights, change the intensity of lights... oh... so much fun!