One of my favorite rendering techniques on an old Mach 5 model I built years ago.
everything shiny black, very very low skylight setting
one panel light and a tube with an emission material
play with positions and intensities of the panel and the tube to get lotsa shiny highlights.
set up here-
Btw in Rhino 8 I would actually put in a cylinder geometry, then assign emission material. Don’t use the linear light.
yep- that is what the pipe is… it’s just a pipe with an emission material on it…
only lights in the scene are a panel light and a pipe with an emission material for the brighter highlights. .
I’ve been playing around using only emissive materials for lighting, and I gotta say it looks very nice, somehow feels easier to create a more natural feel than “proper” lights.
They seem to reflect a bit differently in shiny materials, I use a combo of the two depending on what I am going for.
thunder stealer… 
That sounds too good to be true. Can we use emission materials instead of lights now?
what kinda sorcery is this 
does this mean there needs to be a thread where ppl share “actual 3D rendering studio models” technique files 
@Rhino_Bulgaria
I’m still tryna interpret the name for this sorcery 
so cool!
To understand virtual studio lighting it is key to dig into how lighting is done in real life studio photography.
Keep in mind that most of the studio photos spend a lot of time in post processing to get the perfect result, and they are often not just shot, downloaded from camera and then published as is. (Point of that obvious statement is: “Don’t expect to get a perfect render without some post adjustments, without understanding what goes on in a real studio”)
Looking at “behind the scenes” videos on Youtube can be a great inspiration. Here’s one to get you started: https://youtu.be/25_LSLHJOT4?si=tPcVP7jyMl0EjnYp
heard many times from someone trying to get a super-white interior shot, like you see on airbnb or such: “if I raise the exposure to see the lamp in my room, then the street outside the window gets blown out, but if I lower the exposure to be able to see the street, then it is super dark inside my room – what’s wrong?”
“you are just unaware of how amazing your eyes are, and how much fakery goes into images you see”
Ha! I was literally watching that one yesterday! There’s some nice setups and post processing ideas in that video.
For anyone wondering the title of the post refers to a song called Mach 5 by Presidents of the United States.
happened to be listening to an ancient playlist and that popped up, which inspired the piece.
Happy modeling.
For those who pm’d me and asked if I was ok… thanks- sorry for the cryptic title,I’m 100% all good!
Sounds like exaggeration, I suggest McNeels buys us some plane tickets so we can come over and have some beers with you just to make sure you are OK, you know, just in case… Count me in! 
I mean… just to be safe…that’s probably a good idea…
This looks great, almost like a half-hidden product launch photo. I almost expected a logo and date above the car, like “Full Reveal - March 12”.
you can add little pops of color too simply by replacing the “everything shiny black” material with the color of your choice.
Probably also nice to add another tube geometry with a differently colored emission material, and maybe even just at most 1 intensity.
