Christian,I've played with Chaoscope for a month or so now, and here's what little I've seen with Solid rendering:
Background is fairly obvious, but remember that it can have effects on semi-transparent (thin) solids.
Ambient seems to have the strongest effect on overall color. This makes sense, as ambient lights in 3D generally are the lights that give an overall color. They are usually somewhat vague (not like a spotlight), so they tint everything.
Diffuse lights are similar, but in Chaoscope, the Diffuse value seems to have a softer effect than Ambient.
As you've noted, these two (Ambient and Diffuse) will be the main color tuners. I usually leave Ambient fairly dark since its effect is stronger, and tune with Diffuse.
Secondary is a light that appears to enter from the right side, and behaves more like a spotlight, with strong directional effects. That's where the shadows are generated from, too, so far as I can tell. As such, the shadow color is affected by the Secondary light color, but it's a relatively subtle effect compared to Ambient and Diffuse. Also, it tends to have a slight golden color shift from whatever value you give it. I'm not sure of a good way to compensate for that, so plan accordingly.
Specular doesn't seem to have much effect because it's very very subtle. It really just tints the highlights slightly (the specular part of the lighting), so it may not even be visible in some renders. Most of the time, though, it's just a tint in the highlights. I see it most in some Unravel renders where there's a strong set of planar surfaces (looking like some sort of spongy stone). Also, a nice simple Chaotic Flow loop will let you see the subtle tinting.
You could also turn the other colors to black to see what any one light does. That's especially true for Specular; you can see how little it does... but it does do something. It also makes for some interesting shapes.
So, I hope that helps! I could have been a little less wordy, but I hope it makes sense nevertheless. Also, if you hear any other tips, would you please forward them to me? I'd like to hear what others (including you) have come across when rendering solids.
Thanks, Taylor
From: Christian Weiß <cweiss@xxxxxxxxxx> Reply-To: chaoscope@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To: Chaoscope Mailing List <chaoscope@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [chaoscope] Solid Render and colors Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2007 16:42:57 +0100 Hi Chaoscope Users,is there somebody out there who can give me a short description on how the 5 color values within a solid render will work together?Is it right that for example Ambient and Diffuse will result in a mixery of both values?F. e. Ambient = red, Diffuse = blue -> result = pink? What is with Secondary?What is with Specular? I never see that something changes, when I change this value.Any tips are appreciately welcome. Best regards Christian ====================================================== The Chaoscope mailing-list Archives : //www.freelists.org/archives/chaoscope Admin contact : chaoscope@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Web site : http://www.chaoscope.org ======================================================
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