Learn how to use the Light Path node for Cycles
Blender’s light path node is incredibly useful for all sorts of tasks, but it’s also a bit difficult to grasp at times and so many of us are left with no understanding of how to use it. This tutorial gives you an introduction to the light path node, showing you what can be done with it in Cycles. However, it’s easier to understand how to use this tool when we know how render engines work, so we will give you a basic introduction to raytracing. You’ll also learn why it works, and what you need to know in order to use it effectively.
We will be taking a look at how to control the influence of created materials on other objects in our scene. This includes changing the color of an object inside a reflection, in the shadow, through refraction, or any number of other ways. It also covers how to hide objects from specific light paths, such that it appears invisible in reflections, doesn’t cast shadows, etc.
Lets be first for one time
Looking forward to the day this trend dies.
unfortunately, you may wait for ever. Actually, when I’m in my normal mood I don’t like this either, but now I’m sort of exhausted and in fun mood, soo..
I suspect you may be right. Anyway, just giving you a hard time so pay no attention to me. LOL.
Nice one, enough information to start designing your own raytracer
Brilliant breakdown as always Bartek!
Even after having used the node in various ways I found this tutorial to not only be inspirational, but left me feeling like I had gained some higher understanding of how it all comes together.
Thank you for taking the time.
excellent bartek,do you plan on exploring any other cycles nodes in the future?
Wow, that was fantastic! I only knew about 50% of the raytracing stuff. You can see how it gets very computationally intensive very fast.
What I really love about your tutorials are the technical explanations and the amount of detail you go into. I wish you would have decided to cover the ray length node in more detail as it can be incredibly useful for faking volumetrics.
this also what I love about his tutorials!
Fantastic as usual, Bartek!
Much appreciated!
Bartek, I love your technical tutorials, even though I get a bit lost sometimes.
Bartek is the best has happen to blendercookie in a long time. It goes so deep in his explanations that this video could be easily used in a Computer Graphics subject class. Congratulations!
As a programmer, I’ve found these conditional nodes to be some of the coolest features in Blender, but have had trouble understanding what they do. Thanks for helping us out!!
Thanks, really cleared up some things.
Excellent video! So much happens when you press F12 it can be easy to forget. I am so glad you went through the effort of explaining it all. I cant wait to be a Citizen member again and catch up on what I missed. You’re brilliant.
Woah at first I tought you are my collegue for studies:D Really good and useful tutorial, thanks for explaining usage of that node:)
Really nice tutorial Bartek! Thanks
Thank you so much for this! Very well explained.
yes, this is what i really wanted…finally, thanks Bartek
Bartek, once again a great tutorial to really help us understand why we do things instead of just the how. The technical aspect of it gives us a better knowledge of why things work the way they do in Blender and other 3D programs. Great work!
Next, I hope you give a good class on how SSS works in the real world, and how to mimic that in cycles for the best results!
Blender Guru brought me here.
https://www.facebook.com/blenderguru
Bartek, fantastic as always! One question… did you record this in the bathroom? :>)
Great tutorial. Your explanation about this topic is really great
The explanation is great (as always), but I would have liked a more practical approach with some real world examples.
Thanks, useful info and nice diction, understand almost every word ).
Awesome, Thank you! Very easy to follow along.
sorry for my language, byt I con’t write this in English.
wspaniała robota.
Trudno znaleźć w jednym miejscu więcej informacji na temat węzłów i sposobu w jaki one działają, co bywa często sporym utrudnieniem.
fajnie by było żeby pojawiły się inne tutoriale na temat reszty węzłów. Sposób w jaki działają często może być podchwytliwi, a efekty, bez znajomości detali, nieoczekiwane.
mam pytanie, za dany “piksel” odpowiadają różne wartości kolorów z różnych promieni “pochodnych” – np. wielu diffiuse rays. muszą one chyba być dodawane z jakimiś współczynnikami. czy zależą one od liczby promieni pochodnych?
Wybacz głupie pytanie początkującego.
Very well explained, thanks
Thanks very much for this video! I played around with this light path node a bit trying to get a cornea that didn’t look like a glass marble. Needless to say, without really understanding the concepts behind it (and I did read the Wiki), I couldn’t get any kind of good results. Maybe now I will have better luck!
For some reason the ‘login’ button did the same thing as the ‘dim lights’ button on this page?? But when I went back to the previous page it worked again. don’t know If it can be solved…
-Davinade
Wow. Didn’t know how complicated a raytracer is….
(I will never shout at my computer rendering slowly…. poor guy….
Superb – I will be coming back to this tutorial again and again! Personally, I had a yellow object in my scene that seemed to be reflecting far too much yellow colour onto the grey floor. Now I can easily ‘turn off’ that yellow cast and hide the problem. Sorted!
Thanks for this tutorial. Made a lot of things clearer to me.
You really have solid knowledge about the subject you talk about.