Light & Shadows in Petrel

Playing with light and shadows in the Petrel 3D Window can be a bit tricky. There are
plenty of possibilities available, but they are sort of hidden deep in the backyard, which is
actually a pity, since there are many interpreters who like to use illumination to highlight
subtle stratigraphic features in their data. The following discussion will show some hints
and tips how to use what is available in Petrel.

Using the Solsikke dataset (Norwegian North Sea) let’s start with an auto-tracked
horizon, which is displayed in Fig. 1 using the standard display parameters for the
horizon. The style used is “Cell Box” with low resolution mode.

Fig. 1 Auto-tracked horizon

Next, we use this data points to create a surface. Because we are interested in looking at
some of the geological features in good detail, we choose the same resolution as the
original seismic survey bin. This will create a surface with almost 2 million nodes in this
case, but we trust that Petrel’s scalability features will help us here.

The resulting surface is displayed in Fig. 2. Note that some interesting fault features start
to show up, but there is really not much detail to look at. Using the “headlight” source,
which is the default doesn’t help us much.
Fig 2. Gridded surface, without the contours option

What we need now is to change some of the display parameters both for the surface and
for the light sources and adjust them carefully until we get a better display.

First we make sure the surface is displayed without contours and with a maximum of
resolution. For this we need to adjust the settings of the horizon to high resolution, and
select the option for “Bright Plastic”. This will give us more shininess. See Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 Display settings for the surface

Next, we need to adjust the light source parameters. Those can be found in the Windows
Tab. There is a folder there called “Light Sources”, as
shown in the little image on the right. As default, only
the headlight exists inside the folder. Using the MB-3
on the “Light Sources” folder, select the option to
insert a new light source.
Adjusting the light
Now, follow the next steps to adjust the lighting:

• Turn off the Headlight and turn on the new Light source.
• Open the Settings… for the new Light source
• Change the option to “Point Light”. Leave intensity to maximum (doesn’t cost
more electricity!).
• Move the 3D scene until you view the horizon almost horizontal to your eyes.
Remember we want to highlight some faults, so this will determine in which
direction the light will be projected. Once you have the correct angle position and
direction, click on the “Move Light” button. See Fig. 4. This will reposition the
Source Light in “front of you “, so to speak. (Note that you may only see just a
grey image now, this is because the light spot is in front of you. Don’t panic,
when you move the 3D scene again, you will be able to visualize all your data).

Fig. 4 shows the angle of view where the Source light is going to be placed when the
“Move Light” button is applied. It also shows the settings for that light object.

Interactive moving of the light source.

Once you have positioned the light source, it can be moved interactively as well. It can be
“edited”. When the light source is active, the edit option becomes available on the object
via the MB-3 button. This posts a small widget in the 3D View where the light source is.
Be careful not to loose it, since it is small! With the pointer option active (Shortcut “P”),
you can grab this source light and –carefully- move it. While you do it, you should notice
how the illumination changes in the scene. By playing around with the angle, intensity
and the other options, you can get quite an amazing display. See Fig 5.

Fig.5 -Same horizon as before, but now using the Light source at a user-defined position.
The Headlight is turned-off. Note the subtle details of the fault patterns highlighted by the
illumination!