Use Self Glow for glowing objects

Self glow applied to television screen.

Self Glow illuminates a surface as if it had light shining on it, without actually making it a light. For objects which you want to appear bright, but which don't need to illuminate other objects, this is much faster than making lights out of them.

• Balance illumination in scene without adding additional lights.
• More realistic signs, monitors and projection devices.
• Faster rendering times.

Rendering possibilities

• If your renderer supports Self Glow - making an object appear brighter without shining lights on it - use it
• If your renderer support image or texture illumination - treating an image or textured material as a light source - then you can use that but it may slow down the rendering process.
• If your renderer supports "Invisible" lights - objects which illuminate the scene, but do not appear in the scene - then you may be able to achieve the desired effect by placing invisible lights in front of the object.
• If your renderer supports translucent objects - which are illuminated by lights behind them, but still appear opaque - you can place a light behind the screen to illuminate the screen and make the screen translucent.

See also

• Rendering Tips