2011

Add and Position Lights
Lights and light studios can be taken directly from the archives and applied to the model by dropping them into
the palette. These can then be repositioned as needed.
The Recommended archive contains five lights (Ambient, Distant, Eye, Point, and Spot), a Standard Light Studio,
an Environment Light Studio, an Environment folder containing two Environment lights utilizing HDRI-based
light sources (see “
Image-based Lighting” on page 367 for more information), and an Exterior folder with different
city locations around the world, each containing three light studios (Clear Sky, Overcast Sky and Sun Study).
If you are creating an external render of a building, for example, then you may find that one of the Environment
light studios can give a very realistic effect, using image-based lighting to light the model. Exterior light studios
may also give you the effect you require. These do use physically accurate lights, however, which generally take
longer to render the scene.
Alternatively, you may prefer to use the Standard Light Studio as a starting point and build up your lighting
from there, adding combinations of the basic recommended lights to create the desired effect.
The Standard archive contains a Default Eye Light studio (which is effectively rendering with a head light); an
Environmental folder; a folder of Exterior light studios, which predominantly consists of light studios that use
a number of lights to replicate the effect of a Sky light. Not using physically accurate lights means, you don’t
have to turn on Auto Exposure (see “
Auto Exposure” on page 376), which can negatively impact on the basic
recommended light settings; a folder of Interior light studios for use in internal scenes; a folder of Object light
studios which are best suited to lighting smaller models, such as a vehicle or piece of machinery, for example;
and a folder of Projector light studios, which can be used to project an image onto an object in the scene; and
a Simple Sky folder.
The Templates archive contains all of the basic light shaders that are available. These can then be edited (as can
all lights) to create the exact lighting you require (see “
Edit Lights” on page 363 for more information).
To add lights to the model
1 Open the Presenter window, and click the Lighting tab.
2 In the left pane, choose the light you want to add to the scene.
3 Drag the light and drop it into the palette (right pane of the Lighting tab). This will automatically be added
to the scene.
NOTE If you drag a light studio into the palette, this will replace any existing lights with those that make up the
light studio.
As a general guide, the more lights there are in a scene, the longer it will take to render it photorealistically.
For external rendered scenes, you may consider using the Standard Light Studio from the Recommended
archive as a starting point, then strategically add a couple of Point and Spot lights around the scene. Point
lights are good to light up a dark area of the scene, while Spot lights can add an element of drama and
enhance realism.
Add and Position Lights | 361