Hello everyone,

I'm currently having difficulty simulating a a halogen lamp. It's for a car that I'm currently texturing, and I can't seem to get the right look. The appearance I'm trying to simulate is here; (http://www.dmmultimedia.com/3dtips_04c.htm). I've tried using a spotlight to to simulate the main light, and then either translucency, glow intensity or another point light to try get the lens flare. I'm rendering in mental ray, and I'm inexperienced with compositing to make an optic flare render pass with maya software render, of which to then overlay on the original mental ray image. I can't seem to get a decent result. In the tutorial I've linked above, they're using 3Ds max with something called mental ray glare, which is an option not supported in maya. How would I achieve a similar effect with maya?

Another thing I'd like to know is how to stop a point light from bleeding light when enclosed in an object. For example, if I have a cylinder with a cavity in it, and I place a point light in it, I would expect it to emit light out the cavity, and not emit out of areas blocked by the cylinder. It appears as though the point light is ignoring the object as an instance that can block light. How would I stop that from happening?

Any tips? I've been having difficulty simulating a car headlamp lately, and help would be much appreciated.