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Jeffrey Wennekes avatar image
Jeffrey Wennekes asked ·

Is it possible to use Mesh Light on curves

Hi all,

Going through the Arnold docs and not really finding a direct answer. I can use mesh light on polygonal objects just fine and it does seem to be much cleaner in the specular than using a shader with geometry emission.

But here's the tricky part... I have a scene with lots and lots of splines and I would prefer to use them as mesh lights instead of emission shaders. Is there any way we can achieve this?

theoretically I can sweep it...but I would prefer it to stay dynamic (x-particle trails) :).

c4dtoalightcurvescurve
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Stephen Blair avatar image
Stephen Blair answered ·

No, you have to use a mesh.

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Jeffrey Wennekes avatar image Jeffrey Wennekes ·

I know it's a 'no'. I was hoping that some workaround would exist; I guess it's a feature request then ;).

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xebajac@zdfpost.net xebajac@zdfpost.net avatar image
xebajac@zdfpost.net xebajac@zdfpost.net answered ·

Sweep those curves/splines using an arnold tag then add an arnold mesh light tag...or if you mean for the light to grow as the trail is being created, try adding a tag to the emitter too for light on the top of the trail....let me know if this works.

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Jeffrey Wennekes avatar image
Jeffrey Wennekes answered ·

That's interesting @xebajac@zdfpost.net xebajac@zdfpost.net I will definitely try that out... Thanks for the tips and tricks :).

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