Hi there,

I am trying to write a shader for my lantern model. I want it translucent and be able to let the light shine through it to light other object. I dont know how to write a true translucent shader. But basically, the color of the shader i set base on the distant from the light to the point on the surface and the angle between the incident light and the normal. And i have no idea how to let the light go out of the lantern. I am thinking about the trace function, but what happen when we call the trace function ? Will it only trace to gather information or will it light object it hit too ?

Thanks

There's a tutorial on lighting and shading that I think discusses the very thing you're talking about. I have it, it's a great tutorial, and while I don't recall exactly how this worked, it wasn't too hard to do. Might be worth getting.

http://cmivfx.com/productpages/product.aspx?name=HOUDINI_SHADING_AND_RENDERING [cmivfx.com]