How do I make characters glow?

[Kibōchen]

I'm trying to get a character to glow with $rimlight, but I'm trying to change the color of the $rimlight effect. I really don't want to use lights since it's not very effective or dynamic.

I've seen one person do this in a video.

https://youtu.be/i8ICnrFY2b8

[R234]

Probably selfillum with fresnel ranges along the lines of "0 0.5 1".
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$selfillum#.24selfillum_textures

[Kibōchen]

Originally posted by R234:

Probably selfillum with fresnel ranges along the lines of "0 0.5 1".
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$selfillum#.24selfillum_textures

I tried doing that, it didn't work.

When I typed $selfillum with the "int" attribute and set it to "1", it did nothing.

[R234]

You can't add selfillum through override materials if the material does not have it in the first place. You'll have to add it in the VMT directly.

[Kibōchen]

Originally posted by R234:

You can't add selfillum through override materials if the material does not have it in the first place. You'll have to add it in the VMT directly.

It only has one skin. Does that I mean I have to make a new one?

[R234]

You can't add skins just like that, that requires recompiling the model. I simply mean editing the material file(s).

[raptornx01]

https://youtu.be/ItsklE7VRPk?t=8m56s

try that. using sultillum with selfillumtint on vector 3 lets you adjust it.

[Kibōchen]

Originally posted by raptornx01:

https://youtu.be/ItsklE7VRPk?t=8m56s

try that. using sultillum with selfillumtint on vector 3 lets you adjust it.

Alright, I will. Thanks.

[episoder]

which effect you wanna do? that "rim" there is a regular forward $phong reflection from the light there. note the shadows. it still depends on that lights direction. you can add $rimlight to the material. that'd do that backlit stuff mostly based on the camera but from the maps baked lighting.

the silver dude probably just got backlit too with a very modified blueish $lightwarptexture that warps the light all around with halflambert to give it that look.

to get a "static" baked form of glow in a room without light you could build a small black map in hammer. a dark room. put some brushes with unlitgeneric colored or $selfillum materials in it. then load this map ingame. place yourself and use the "lightprobe name sizeofcube" command. you get an static envmap that's usable to have some tinted reflections. it's spatially limited but works for some fx. note: only the hdr probe is usuable. and you gotta restart sfm. valve is not working on fixing that nor anything anymore. sh*t... but... *shrugs* :)

[Kibōchen]

Originally posted by episoder:

which effect you wanna do?

the silver dude probably just got backlit too with a very modified blueish $lightwarptexture that warps the light all around with halflambert to give it that look.

Yeah, that's exactly what I want, but how can I use the $lightwarptexture and $halflambert attributes correctly?

[episoder]

add them to the vmt. halflambert is used per default if you use $phong. if you don't use phong you have to add $halflambert. and you probably really need the halflambert for that warp. cause it does the light over 180 degrees. that's the effect of it.

the warp looks just like this[i.imgur.com] for example. right is the front where it's usually correctly lit. middle is the center where that glow appears. the left is the backside that you'd want to light like that. note that this "proper" shade only works if the light is behind the model. if you need sharper lighting you can modify the warp. it's a quick splotch and smudge in gimp. :D also if you use it as front lit warp you gotta flip the texture horizontally.

an alternative might be a phongwarp, for better a proper reflecting shade. but it's related to the diffuse shade. double trouble to get that working with all the grazing angle directions. still light dependent. so... i didn't want to... fiddle that together.

and... you can do it that cheap. a lil constrained, but it should work. :)