Is there a quick way in Lumion to apply a Material to the inside of a Ceiling Light Cove
and make it "self-illuminating" so it will glow?

We explored other methods:

1. Placing individual lights inside the cove--very time consuming, and heard to get rid of
hot/cold spots--i.e. make it an even light distribution that linear lights provide.

2. "baking" / lighting map method in 3dsMax. Possible, but not easy for us Max noobs.

And another thing we need to do: make it color-change along a curved/circular cove?

Any suggestions?

So you want it to just self-illuminate, and not cast light and shadow?

If so, and you have a separate surface for the light position/area/cove then just use Color Material and Overbright or Standard Material with a single color texture and Emissive.  You can ramp the emissive so it appears to be luminating without casting light, just a matter of getting the settings right for the render and other image or video settings used.

You can always make a 'light' based object for the cove without it being the cove and apply illumination requirements to that, or separate surfaces to apply different color, depending on how much change is needed.

If you need to cast light (and shadow), then you need to use lights, there's no rectangular area light, but has been suggested.

Yes--we need it to actually cast light and shadows--but it seems self-illuminating materials only glow, and do not cast shadows. So-- I guess it's just add a whole lot of individual lights in Lumion.

I know there have been requests before on the Wishlist-- but I'll ask again, since it is critical in our workflow:

1. Groups and Arrays--need to be able group items and array them, in linear and radial fashions.

2. Rectilinear/rectangular lights--for neon, accent stripes, coves, etc.

3. Color Change LED lights--how to set these up in Lumion?

cheers

Ah hah,  better get Morten to shift topic to Wish List.

Agree, they would be very useful lighting features including casting shapes.

1. Groups and Arrays--need to be able group items and array them, in linear and radial fashions.
2. Rectilinear/rectangular lights--for neon, accent stripes, coves, etc.

Thanks for your requests, cbarch - they have been mentioned by other users but it can't hurt to remind the developers about them (Since you are not a licensed user, your ideas would no longer be visible for you if I were to move them to the Wish List section, so I'll have to leave your requests here).

3. Color Change LED lights--how to set these up in Lumion?

It is currently not possible to animate the light properties.