8

Light H otspot 795
Widening the hotspot creates a brighter light.
Click this button, then move the mouse in the light
viewport to make the cone of the hotspot n arrower
or wider (the hotspot cone is shown in blue, the
falloff (page 3–1048) cone is in gray).
Hold down the CTRL key while moving the mouse
tolocktheinitialangleseparationofthehotspot
and fal loff cones.
You can’t adjust the hotspot larger than the falloff,
because that would change the falloff value.
Likewise, when you reduce the falloff, it stops at
the hotspot size (in both cases, separated by the
Angle Separation (page 3–863) ,specifiedonthe
Rendering page of the Preferences dia log).
To override the separation of the hotspot and
falloff parameters and cause the parameters to
affect each other, hold down the SHIFT key.
For more information on the hotspot and falloff
parameters, see
Spotlight Parameters (page
2–1183)
and Directional Parameters (page
2–1193)
.
Note: If the light is a photometric light (page
2–1155)
with spotlight distribution, this button
cont rols the light’s beam angle. At the beam
angle, the lig ht’s intensity has fallen to 50 per cent
(rather than 100 per cent at the hotspot angle for
astandardlight).
Procedure
To change a light’ s hotspot:
1.
Set up a Perspective viewport so you can see
the light in 3D space.
2. Activate a Light viewport.
3. Press H to display the Select Objects dialog.
Select the lig ht.
The light and its cones should be v isible in the
Perspective viewport.
4. Click Lig ht Hotspot.
The button highlights when it is on.
5. Drag in the Light viewport to change the
hotspot angle.
The blue hotspot cone expands and contracts
as you drag.
• Dr ag down to widen (increase) the hotspot
angle and illuminate more of the scene. The
hotspot grows inside the falloff as its angle
increases. By default, the hotspot can be no
larger than the falloff cone.
• Hold down SHIFT as you drag to override
the default. This lets the falloff cone increase
in size as you increase the size of the hotspot
cone.
• Draguptonarrow(decrease)thehotspot
angleandilluminatelessofthescene.
• HolddownCTRLasyoudragtolockthe
initial angle separation of the hotspot and
falloff cones.
6. Press ESC or rig ht-click to turn off the button.