How to simulate LEDs

[Brian Townsend]

Hi everyone.  I had a question come into support regarding simulating LED lighting.  It is a common question so I wanted to put something together that shows one technique for creating this.  It is a combination of using the 'Advanced' and the 'Emissive' materials. 

To create the effect, place a sphere inside of another piece of geometry that is the shape of an LED bulb (See attached 'LED_setup.jpg' for reference).  Then apply an emissive to the interior sphere.

Next, ensure that 'show advanced material settings' is enabled in preferences and then make the outer piece of geometry an 'advanced material'.  Increase the specular transmission color just slightly to add a bit of transparency. Then increase your roughness transmission (internal roughness) to add 'cloudiness' to the material, which will soften the interior light source. You will want to set the diffuse color to a dark version of the color light you are simulating. To get more of an effect of the internal light source scattering across your outer geometry increase 'diffuse transmission' slightly (this can help increase the amount of glow when 'bloom' is enabled under effects).

Adjust your emissive 'intensity' to increase or decrease the overall amount of light that is emitted.  You can always type in higher values of the slider range is not enough.

Last, enable 'Effects' under the 'realtime' tab to add glow to your LED.  Try keeping the intensity low and set the radius higher for a subtle but effective look.  Higher values than the slider range can be set on the radius.

I have included the sample file 'LED_Scene.zip'.  Please feel free to download for your reference and if anyone has questions, please feel free to ask!

Brian

[keisuh]

This is cool !
Thanks for the files

[richardyan]

pretty good
thx for ur scene fiel

[rfollett]

Would all of the above still be best way in version 4.3?

[Josh3D]

Yes, this would apply. Or, you could use physical lights for the sphere.