2009

Color The color of the light’s geometry. This has no effect on the color the

light emits.

Using Lights

In general, these are the reasons to use light objects on page 4970:

■ To improve the illumination of a scene.

The default illumination in viewports might not be bright enough, or it

might not illuminate all faces of a complicated object.

■ To enhance a scene's realism through realistic lighting effects.

Guidelines for Lighting on page 4986 has suggestions about making lighting

appear realistic.

■ To enhance a scene's realism by having lights cast shadows.

All kinds of lights can cast shadows. Also, you can selectively control

whether an object casts or receives shadows. See

Shadow Parameters on

page 5099.

■ To cast projections in a scene.

All kinds of lights can project still or animated maps. See the Projector

Map group in the

Advanced Effects rollout on page 5108.

■ To help model a source of illumination in the scene, such as a flashlight.

Light objects don't render, so to model a source of illumination, you also

need to create geometry that corresponds to the light source. Use a

self-illuminating on page 8122 material to make the geometry appear as if

it's emitting light.

■ To create lighting scenes using manufacturers'

IES on page 5034, CIBSE on

page 7935, or

LTLI on page 8029 files.

You can visualize commercially available lighting in your model by creating

photometric lights on page 5005 based on manufacturer's photometric data

files. By experimenting with different fixtures, and varying the light

intensity and color temperature, you can design a lighting system that

produces the results you want. See

Photometric Lights: Web Distribution

on page 5028.