Corona Light Selects

[CASA_MT]

Hi @ all,

there has already been a topic regarding this, but it has been dead for a long time, so I figured I might start a new one with a little more in-depth-discussion.

I am talking about the LightSelect-renderelements, which a lot of you might know from Vray.
For evereyone who does not know: It is a renderelement, which contains the direct illumination of a light-source (and just the light-source, not all of the lights combined).
It is useful for adding more light in Post-production, without altering the image as a whole.

I realised 3 projects in Corona so far and due to the very nice Interactive Rendering, we managed to set the intensity of the lights already in 3ds max, so that an adding of more illuminance was almost never a real issue.

Still, we will face some projects soon, in which the feature of having light-selects might again come in handy again.

Are there any plannings to implement this feature into Corona in the near future?
I would also like to know how you other guys handle this or if there is a work-around.

[nauticus25]

+1

A light select render element would be great for dialing in the best light levels.  Even with IES files for the selected light fixtures, often times tweaking is needed in post to get the look just right.

My workaround is to do it manually.  Turn off all the lights except one group, render, rinse, repeat for each group of lights.  Save as 32bit EXR and combine the passes in Photoshop using Linear Dodge (Add) blending mode.  Works fine, but is time consuming.

[CASA_MT]

This was also my apporach and I can live with it, as I often do not need all the lights in the scene, just one or two groups of which I know in advance, that I want to brighten them in Photoshop.

Still, it would be a lot more convenient to have the render-element, so that everything can ne calculated and saved during one renderjob.

I don't suppose that anyone is good enough at scripting to implement this?
There is an automated light select-script for Vray and I looked into its code, hoping to find how to modify it to get it working with Corona. Unfortenately the script just generates automated Vray Light Selects, there is no fancy "get all Lights"-algorythm or something similar.

[romullus]

I don't think that it's something that could be scripted.

[Juraj]

This is one of those things I never even knew I had in Vray, but I loved to see it being used on Maxwell presentation. (using their 'player' tool).

Very spiffy...would love to see this implemented in some form. I really liked than in Maxwell it didn't require compositing and I could see it in framebuffer already tone-mapped.

[Ondra]

I think we are getting to the point of this being implemented in corona...

[rambambulli]

Great!!

[Siahpoosh]

I think we are getting to the point of this being implemented in corona...

it would be great if you make a slider control for each light in VFB too. not only render element

[CASA_MT]

it would be great if you make a slider control for each light in VFB too. not only render element

ok, THAT is genious.
But anyways, really cool, that it will be implemented, thanks Ondra :)

[seiq]

I think we are getting to the point of this being implemented in corona...

this is soo good :))

[genius3]

+1 good idea

[Christa Noel]

Never thought about this...  Very nice feature
+1 vote!!

[vkiuru]

it would be great if you make a slider control for each light in VFB too. not only render element

ok, THAT is genious.
But anyways, really cool, that it will be implemented, thanks Ondra :)

Actually it's nothing new, it was introduced in either Fryrender or in Maxwell render way back in 2007 or close to that. Nevertheless it's something I would gladly see integrated in to Corona, as it was such a great tool!