Placing Spotlights

This begins with a grounded James in Poser 6, with a huge sphere in which James and the lights exist. There are three lights: a Key light, a Fill light, and a Back light. To keep things simple until I know what I'm doing, I'm going to work with one light at a time, keeping the others constant. Assuming that I eventually learn what I'm doing, I will work with the interactions later.

All existing lights in the new scene were deleted. The three lights were added manually and named. All transformed were set to zero, so I had a known starting place. All lights were set to white (255/255/255).

I began working with the Key light. It took some time to get anything to show at all. Finally, I got some success. The values shown in magenta are those which were changed for the trial. During this series, there will be failures. Rather than force you to download a series of black squares, I'll give the parameters shown in red.

The Key Light

Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans		Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	Going in the wrong direction. Try the other direction
0	6.25	-2		-1	6.25	-2
X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot		X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot
0	-90	0		0	-90	0
Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans		Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans
1	6.25	-2		2	6.25	-2
X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot		X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot
0	-63	0		0	-45	0
Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans		Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans
3	6.25	-2		2.5	6.25	-2
X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot		X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot
0	-56	0		0	-51	0
Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans		Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans
2.25	6.25	-2		2.75	6.25	-2
X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot		X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot
0	-47	0		0	-54	0
Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans
2.85	6.25	-2
X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot
0	-55	0

At this point, I have decided that, for this light, the best of this series is 2.75, 6.25, -2, 0, -54, 0. That's this one:

So now, it's time to turn on the second light: the Fill Light.

The Fill Light

Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans		Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans
3	6.25	0		3	6.25	1
X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot		X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot
0	0	0		0	18	0
Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans		Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans
3	6.25	2		3	6.25	3
X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot		X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot
0	34	0		0	45	0
Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans
3	6.25	-2
X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot
0	53	0

Now, I think I'm close enough to turn on the Key spot and see the changes with both lights on.

Parameters	Fill Light On	Key and Fill Light On
Z Trans Y Trans X Trans 3 6.25 5 X Rot Y Rot Z Rot 0 59 0
Z Trans Y Trans X Trans 3 5.25 5 X Rot Y Rot Z Rot 0 59 0
Z Trans Y Trans X Trans 3 5.25 5 X Rot Y Rot Z Rot 18 59 0
Z Trans Y Trans X Trans 3 4.25 5 X Rot Y Rot Z Rot 33 59 0

The experiments with the Back light will be rendered with the Key and Fill lights on.

The Back Light

Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot	Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot	Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot
0.5	7.87	2.655	257	41	296	0.5	7.87	2.655	257	131	296	0.5	7.87	2.655	257	221	296
Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot	Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot	Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot
0.5	7.87	2.655	257	311	296	0.5	7.87	2.655	347	311	296	0.5	7.87	2.655	77	311	296
Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot	Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot	Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot
0.5	7.87	2.655	167	311	296	0.5	7.87	2.655	77	311	26	0.5	7.87	2.655	77	311	116
Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot	Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot	Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot
0.5	7.87	2.655	77	311	206	1.5	7.87	2.655	77	311	206	-0.5	7.87	2.655	77	311	206
Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot	Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot	Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot
-0.5	8.87	2.655	77	311	206	-0.5	6.87	2.655	77	311	206	-0.5	6.87	3.655	77	311	206
Z Trans	Y Trans	X Trans	X Rot	Y Rot	Z Rot
-0.5	6.87	1.655	77	311	206