Hi Eric,
Only a quick answer, unfortunately.
I'm not up for selecting every light (~200 of them) and turning each of them on at about the start of dusk in the animation, but I can't seem to find a way to turn them all off at once.
--> instance you're lights as much as possible
OR copy/instance your settings from one spot to another in trackview
Also, how do I coordinate the background color with the real-world color of the sky in relation to the time of day? Is there a setting that changes the background color in relation to the sunlight position/time of day?
--> check out Arete's Digital Nature Tools (on
www.digimation.com): this plugin changes atmosphere (backgroundcolor, haze etc.) automatically when you animate a sunmove
--> max 2.5 users had a lovely plugin called 4E (Four Elements) which was really marvellous for animated skies. Unfortunately Corel bought the software and does not plan to launch it again (as it might be a concurrent to it's bryce...)
I've set the animation to render using radiosity, and to calculate radiosity when required, with automatic exposure control
--> check the manual on automatic exposure control. (I remember somehow that it's not recommended for animations...)
rgds
nisus