2010

Table Of Contents
When you open the scene, Maya lights the scene with default lighting
provided by an imaginary light fixture. It emanates light infinitely from
a point above and behind the active scene view camera. There is no icon
that represents the default light in the scene view.
Directional lights
Maya has many types of lights that simulate natural and artificial lighting. In
the next steps, you create a light for the scene using a directional light. A
directional light uses parallel rays of light, as if illuminating from a very far
distance, to illuminate the scene. A directional light is often used to simulate
sunlight.
To create a directional light
1 Select Create > Lights > Directional light >
.
2 Turn off Interactive Placement, then click Create.
A directional light is created at the center of the scene.
Because a directional light is similar to sunlight. Its parallel rays strike all
objects in the scene from a single direction as indicated by the arrow icon
representing the light. The position of the light is not so much important
as the direction that the arrow icon points.
486 | Chapter 9 Rendering