Viewing a Scene from a Light


You can configure viewports to display the view from any light, with the exception of an Omni light. To do so, right-click the viewport title and then select Views and the light name at the top of the pop-up menu.

Note 

The keyboard shortcut for making the active viewport a Light view is the $ (the dollar sign that appears above the 4) key. If more than one light exists, then the Select Light dialog box appears and lets you select which light to use. This can be used only on spot and direct lights.

Light viewport controls

When a viewport is changed to show a light view, the Viewport Navigation buttons in the lower-right corner of the screen change into Light Navigation controls. Table 27.1 describes these controls.

Table 27.1: Light Navigation Control Buttons
Open table as spreadsheet

Toolbar Button

Name

Description

image from book

Dolly, Target, Both

Moves the light, its target, or both the light and its target closer to or farther away from the scene in the direction it is pointing.

image from book

Light Hotspot

Adjusts the angle of the light's hotspot, which is displayed as a blue cone.

image from book

Roll Light

Spins the light about its local Z-axis.

image from book

Zoom Extents All, Zoom Extents All Selected

Zooms in on all objects or the selected objects until they fill the viewport.

image from book

Light Fall off

Changes the angle of the light's fall off cone.

image from book

Truck Light

Moves the light perpendicular to the line of sight.

image from book

Orbit, Pan Light

The Orbit button rotates the light around the target, whereas the Pan Light button rotates the target around the light.

image from book

Min/Max Toggle

Makes the current viewport fill the screen. Clicking this button a second time returns the display to several viewports.

Note 

Many of these controls are identical for viewports displaying lights or cameras.

If you hold down the Ctrl key while using the Light Hotspot or Falloff buttons, Max maintains the distance between the hotspot and falloff cones. Holding down the Alt key causes the size to change at a much slower rate. The Hotspot cone cannot grow any larger than the Falloff cone, but if you hold down the Shift key, then trying to make the size of the hotspot larger than the falloff causes both to increase, and vice-versa.

You can constrain any light movements to a single axis by holding down the Shift key. The Ctrl key causes the movements to increase rapidly.

For Free lights, an invisible target is determined by the distance computed from the other light properties. You can use the Shift key to constrain rotations to be vertical or horizontal.

Note 

You can undo changes in the normal viewports using the Views image from book Undo command, but you undo light viewport changes with the regular Edit image from book Undo command.

Tutorial: Lighting a lamp

To practice using lights, let's try to get a lamp model to work as it should.

To add a light to a lamp model, follow these steps:

  1. Open the image from book Lamp.max file from the Chap 27 directory on the DVD.

    This file includes a lamp mesh surrounded by some plane objects used to create the walls and floor. The lamp model was created by Zygote Media. It looks like a standard living room lamp that you could buy in any department store.

  2. Select the Create image from book Lights image from book Standard Lights image from book Omni menu command, and click in any viewport.

  3. Use the Select and Move transform button (W) to position the light object inside the lamp's lightbulb.

The resulting image is shown in Figure 27.7. Notice that the light intensity is greater at places closer to the light.

image from book
Figure 27.7: The rendered lighted-lamp image




3ds Max 9 Bible
3ds Max 9 Bible
ISBN: 0470100893
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 383

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net