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1151

Light Include/Exclude Tool 1137

•Movean

omni lig ht (p age 2–1148)

when it’s

a "practical" light within a scene ( a light that

appears in the scene itself). Combine the light

w ith a self-illuminating geometric object. If you

wanttomoveatargettypeoflight,selectboth

the light and its target to animate them together.

•Usea

free spotlight (p age 2–1144)

when a

spotlight is to move with in the scene. Free

spotlights are especially intended to be

animated a long a p ath, using a

Path constraint

(page 2–380)

. Unlike target spotlights, free

spotlights can b ank as they travel. Use

target

spotlights (page 2–1143)

when the light

position is fixed.

• If you do need to move a target spotlight, link

both the light and its target to a

dummy object

(page 2–15)

, then assign the path constraint to

the dummy object.

•Usea

LookAt Constraint (page 2–388)

to have

a spotlight track a moving object.

If the spotlight is a target spotlight, its previous

target is ignored.

Ifthespotlightisafreespotlight,iteffectively

becomes a target spotlight, with the looked-at

object the target.

•Changetheparametersofa

daylight system

(page 1–394)

or sunlight system to simulate

different times of day or year.

Animating Light Creation Parameters

Thefollowingtechniquescanbeusedtoanimate

Modif y panel parameters for lig hts.

• To dim or brighten a light over time, animate its

Multiplier parameter.

• Tochangethecolorofalightovertime,animate

its color parameters. Use a

smooth tangent

(page 2–300)

for color change keys unless you

want the color to change abruptly.

• To make a standard light flash on and off,

set its Multiplier to 0 in repeated ke yframes,

and assign a

step tangent (page 2–300)

to this

parameter.

Light I nclu de/Exclude Tool

By default, the Light Include/Exclude tool is unavailable

in the 3ds Max user interface. You can add it as a c ustom

keyboard shortcut, quad or menu item, or toolbar button

by using the

Customize User Interface dialog (page

3–836)

The Light Include/Exclude tool is a modeless

dialog that lets you include or exclude objects on a

light-by-light basis. When excluded, an object is

not illuminated by the selected light and receives

no shadows.

This dialog requires at least one light object in

your scene. For a selected lig ht, this dialog is a

shortcut to the same functionality available on the

Exclude/Include dialog (page 2–1179)

Although light exclusion does not occur in nature,

this feature is useful when you need exact con trol

over the lighting in your scene. Sometimes, for

example, y o u’ll want to add lights specifically to

illuminate a sing le object but not its surroundings,

or you’ll want a light to cast shadows from one

object but not from another.

Note: By default, no objects are excluded for a new

light. It’s necessary only to include objects that

have previously been excluded.