2017

Incidental Light Reflection
Set how a surface reflects incidental light by applying ambient or diffuse lighting. The actual colour of the
reflection depends on both the colour value of each pixel and the colour of the incidental light. The intensity
of the reflection depends on the orientation of the light source relative to the surface; it is greatest where
the incident light strikes the object perpendicular to its surface. The intensity of the reflection is independent
of the camera eye position.
When you turn shading on, you do not have to enable a light source to see the lighting effect, as a default
infinite light source supplies ambient light at 20% intensity. The infinite light source is located behind the
camera eye and cannot be moved. As soon as you add a light source, the infinite light source is replaced by
the new light source.
In the Surface menu, make a selection in the Lighting box:
To reflect incidental light:Select:
To all parts of a surface that are not directly illuminated.Ambient
Equally in all directions, producing a flat reflection on the object.Diffuse
TIP You can optionally adjust the colour of the incidental light using the ambient or diffuse RGB channels. To
display the RGB channels, click Animation to display the Channel Editor. Expand the surface's folder (it should
already be selected), expand its Material folder, then expand the Ambient or Diffuse folder.
Flipping a Surface's Normals
Flips the normals of the surface so that light is applied to the opposite side of the surface. Use to create a
two-sided shaded surface. To control both surfaces, parent them by a new axis and use this axis to rotate,
scale, shear, and move the two surfaces.
NOTE There may be a priority problem causing one surface to be drawn over the other. To correct this problem,
use the
Priority Editor (page 453) to animate the drawing priority of surfaces, or change the Z position of one
surface by one pixel.
Converting to Wireframe
You can remove some lighting effects for a selected surface by converting surfaces to a wireframe depiction
of the surface. When Wireframe is enabled, specular values and any applied textures are replaced with a
wireframe view of the surface. When used on an image, the surface will adopt a screen-like look.
Light Menu Settings
When accessing Action as a Timeline FX, you have access to a quick menu with some of these Light settings.
To see the full Light menu, click the Editor button to enter Action.
Action Lights and Lighting Effects | 539