Connect lights with a camera

[macavelli79]

So I have only just started to scratch the surface of MEL programming and scripting, but I am fairly certain that what I am trying to do can be achieved.  So if you know how to do it PLEASE help me out.

I need to make a switch that when a camera is active for rendering it will turn on a certain set of lights or a groups visibility and then turn them off when the camera is not the rendering camera.  I need to set up a system like this for 5 different cameras all rendering using their own lights and no others.

Any ideas or help is greatly appreciated.

[kolyo-ivanov]

hi,
I can suggest going to your script editor and turning Echo All Commands from the history tab I think.. then clear history. Do what you want to do through the interface by simply clicking on the necessary tabs and buttons and then study the script generated in the script editor. Do this for one light so you can get the idea how things works and the rest is a matter of a loop to do it for any number of  lights.
hope this helps.
Kolyo

[thnkr]

That wouldn't work. It's really simple, and you don't even need any MEL skills, just the Connection Editor. Load the camera shape on the left the light shape on the right and connect the renderable attribute to the visibility attribute of the shape.

If you want to do it in MEL, it would look like this:

connectAttr -f camRedShape.renderable spotLightRedShape.visibility;
connectAttr -f camGreenShape.renderable spotLightGreenShape.visibility;
connectAttr -f camBlueShape.renderable spotLightBlueShape.visibility;

[macavelli79]

Michiel
Connecting the camera's renderable attribute to the vis doesn't work.  I have multiple camera's that are all renderable in the the same render layer so this still leaves me with all the lights effecting all of the cameras.

Kolyo
I took a look into the script editor to try and pull out what I am needing, but am not getting any closer.  It could just be due to my weak MEL skills.

Is there any way to connect the light vis to the camera name being output in the file prefix name during render time?  so an if then statement that says if this camera name is being used than turn on this light.

thanks for the help so far.

[joojaa]

It could just be due to my weak MEL skills.

This is not a issue of mel, but a issue of not knowing the execution environment.

Usually high mel skill is to know how connections work, just like good api skills is to know hoe mel works, and good node deign skill is knowing what humans do.

Is there any way to connect the light vis to the camera name being output in the file prefix name during render time?  so an if then statement that says if this camera name is being used than turn on this light.

hmm... yes (tough not form that slot) but in not sure how to do that with minimal effort in way thats actually safe for a wider environment. Since i don't know your pipe I cant say for sure either. I would need to decree some sert fo boundary rules to your entire production staff for a fool proof solution. Or use the api.

Neither of which are easy in this context as i cant know your execution environment

For example you may want to be fancy and register a new render procedure xml for render or edit the mayaBatchRenderProcedure.mel* etc etc..

• mayaBatchRenderProcedure.mel is the main loop of a render.