Mind-Blowing Mesh Light Tip For Iray! by SickleYield, journal
Mind-Blowing Mesh Light Tip For Iray!
THIS DOESN'T WORK IN 2022. THE PROGRAM HAS BEEN ALTERED SO THAT EMISSIVES CAN'T BE COMPLETELY TRANSPARENT WITHOUT OTHER STEPS.
Dimension Theory is an expert on all things light and HDRI-related, and I use his products regularly. The other day he said something extremely useful on the forum:
You can actually use mesh lights without them being visible in your scene. Set the cutout opacity to .001, then set the mesh light settings as normal. They will not appear in the scene or in reflections.
This is life-changing info for me, because I use mesh lights a lot; they really look the best on human skin in most circumstances so I consider them
This was updated on 9/23/20.
Every so often someone asks if this is possible, how hard this is, and how to do it. I'm writing this journal entry so I can just link them back to it instead of typing the same post or forum PM repeatedly.
I'm putting these down in the order they are usually asked, not in the order I think they should be asked.
Q: How much money can I make?
A: I make a good living for the Western USA selling in the Daz market. I have a lightly used car that's paid off and I own my own three-bedroom home in a high-income part of the country. I also sell at Renderosity and on deviantart, but I would describe that as a "hobby