This tutorial will show how to use LightUp Material properties to create Volume light effects.

The model is kept very simple so we can focus on the techniques. The first thing we are going to create is a Component to represent the light volume. We want to create a Cone shape - how you do this is a matter of personal preference, but you want to end up with something like this:

We are going to Paint the inside of the Cone with a Material with some high contrast detail to represent 'dust mites'. I'm going to use a standard SketchUp Material called "Stone_Granite_Midnite" for this:

SketchUp allows you to apply different materials to each side of a Face. We'll apply a totally transparent Material to the outside of the Cone allowing us to see inside our Light Volume.

Next we place the Component Axes at the apex of the cone so later we can rotate around the light source.

Using the LightUp Query tool, we need to prepare the materials for LightUp rendering. We don't want these Faces to cast any shadows from either material, so for both materials we check "Don't cast shadows". (I've just shown the dialog for the outer material here.)

For the inner material - that will be rendering the light volume - we want some special settings. As well as not casting shadows, we want the material to be "self-illuminating and brighten whats on screen behind it. So we check "Always fully lit" and "Additive glow":

Now we can embed a PointLightSource at the apex of our light volume Component in preparation for adding it to our environment. Open up the Component by double-clicking; I'm going to add the PointLightSource at the Origin of component Axes and set a IES light source. Make sure you place the light source on the inside of the cone.

We can use the LightUp Query tool to aim this component just as we can with IES PointLightSource. Choose Query Tool, Shift-Click on the volume light Component and Ctrl-drag on the point you wish to aim the light.

And the light is now rotated automatically to aim this point:

OK, now we're ready to try out and tweak our volume light effect. I've placed a couple in a model (with some sconce lighting on the back wall) to show the effect:

Starting Tourtool, you can see the faces that make the light volume don't cast any shadows and brighten up anything behind them. But the effect is far too strong - Additive effect like these need to be used quite subtly.

However, we can make all the changes we need inside Tourtool by navigating to the inside material and double clicking to open the Material dialog. Click on the Color adjustment, and bring down the Luminance slider as shown:

Lastly, we are going to add some animation to the material so the flecks of brightness in our material seem to float around like dust in a powerful light. We'll use Texture Animation, and choose "Ramp". I've also set the Angle of motion to 80 degrees which on this model is upward. You'll have to experiment with your model to find what direction your texture is laid out.

If you bring the camera in close, you can see the dust mites much more easily. Alternatively, change the scale of the Material you're using. You really need to see this animation in motion to appreciate the effect, so have a go!

Any questions, you can post on the LightUp forum or if you prefer, emailing LightUp directly.

This tutorial will show how to use Material properties to control how LightUp illuminates surfaces and use this with realtime Bloom.

The model is kept very simple so we can focus on the techniques. So we will start with a simple room with 4 LightUp PointLightSource downlighters using ERCO luminaires. We've unchecked "Use Sun" in Preferences as we just want interior lighting. Using the LightUp Query tool we can hover over a light to show its photometric information.

The PointLightSource component in LightUp controls the location, profile and color of the light source - but says nothing of the actual physical housing of the light. So we've added small geometry disc above the light source.

We're going to mark the material used by this disc so that LightUp will always draw it at full brightness - we want to give the effect of the disc being the source of light. We do this by clicking on the Material using the LightUp Query tool and checking the box "Always fully lit".

Starting up Tourtool should give you a result as shown below. You can see the disc geometry showing up nice and brightly because we've marked it as "Always fully lit".

Self Illuminating Signage

Marking materials as "Always fully lit" means regardless of what lighting actually falls on ther surface, LightUp will draw any geometry as if it is brightly lit. Effectively, the material is "self illuminating" because it needs no other light sources to be bright.

Using the SketchUp "3D Text" tool we're going to create a Component that we'll make glow in our model.

Open up the new Component geometry and assign a new Material to every Face. Using the LightUp Query tool we mark this material as before as "Always Fully Lit".

Starting Tourtool again, our new 3D text shows up as if its lit from the inside. But the effect has no other effect - it does color any surrounding surfaces so doesn't look right.

However we can go a long way to fixing this problem just with "Post processing effects" that are built right in to LightUp. While in Tourtool, we can open the Color Adjust dialog and adjust the "Bloom" and "Bloom Start" controls to make our 3D sign glow.

Tweaking Post processing controls can often quickly give you the effect you're after - (TIP Use the dropdown Schemes to save up to 5 different settings so you can see which you like best). However, if you want the sign to actually illuminate the surrounding geometry in your model, you need to mark the Material as an "Emitter". This will make LightUp treat all surfaces using this Material as light sources and correctly illuminate the surroundings.

Opening up the sign Component again and using the LightUp Query tool, we mark it as an "Emitter". All Emitters are always drawn Fully lit, so we can uncheck the "Always Fully lit" checkbox.

Starting Tourtool again with our new Material settings causes a relighting with the results like shown below. You can see the sign is illuminating the brickwork around the sign and the ceiling and floor too. The amount of light emitted by a Material emitter is a function of how large the emitter is. A tiny surface emits a small amount of light; a large surface much more light. We can adjust the power of Emitter Material using the Query tool.

Turning down the power of the emitter material to 200lx (lumen per square meter) and also adding in the Bloom effect we used before gives us our final image of light emitting surfaces.

Any questions, you can post on the LightUp forum or if you prefer, emailing LightUp directly.

This tutorial will show how to place lightmeter reading markers on the work plane inside your model.
It will show you how to use LightUp's Dynamic Components to quickly lay out arrays of lightmeter reading points.

The model is kept very simple so we can focus on the techniques for rigging lights and reading grids.

We will start with a simple L-shaped room of 10m x 8m.

Lighting Grids

First step is to lay out our lighting array. We can do this by dragging a PointLightSource Component to each light location or alternatively using the QueryTool to Alt+Click each light location - but for large spaces, LightUp has some custom Dynamic Components that can really accelerate this process.

Open the Component browser and choose the PointLightGrid Dynamic Component to drag into your model.

Place the PointLightGrid at the light plane height in 1 corner of the room

Choose the Dynamic Component Options Tool and you'll get a dialog allowing you to edit the light grid spacing from the default of 5m.

We're going to choose a 3m spacing for our light grid, which we type in and press "Apply".

SketchUp will automatically recalculate how many light sources you need to fill the grid. Now we can use the SketchUp ScaleTool, to resize our grid to fill the area we need.
SketchUp will recalculate how many lights are needed.

NB You may find the Grid jumps in size - just tweak it until it fits the room. And you use MoveTool to move away from the walls.

Lastly, we'll set the luminaire we wish to use. Double-click on the LightGrid Component to open it and Select All the PointLightSources:

We can edit all selected light sources at once now by selecting the QueryTool and choosing an IES file

Here we are using ERCO 14W LED downlighters as you can see from the thumbnail provided by the built-in LightUp IES browser.

Check that the IES profile has been assigned to each light and then close the LightGrid component.

Open LightUp Preferences and set "Lux contour" lighting mode, turn off "Use Sun" as well as enable showing the Lux scale on screen.

Starting Tourtool should result in something like shown below. The IES profiles you choose to use obviously effects the lighting distribution you'll see.

Lighting Meter Samples

Being able to interactively take lightmeter readings is useful for iterating light rigging as well as validating results. However, its also useful to show readings over the whole work plane, and this is where another custom LIghtUp Dynamic Component comes in.

Using a similar workflow as before, we're going to add a LightMeterGrid component to the work plane of our model.
What this component does is allow you to quickly place markers in your model where LightUp will calculate and display light values along side the Lux contours.

Here we've set the LightMeterGrid spacing to 1.5m and used the ScaleTool and MoveTool to size and place at the work plane.

Finally we have our Lux contour display, with a scale on the leftside and at each LightMeterGrid location, the precise lux values.

Optionally, in LightUp Preferences, you can choose to show the PointLightSource IES profiles too by checking "Show Photometrics".

Any questions, you can post on the LightUp forum or if you prefer, emailing LightUp directly.