Maya 4.5 Fundamentals

Artists and photographers know that a beautiful image or scene owes a lot to the way it is lit. In the digital world, people often fail to give lighting the attention it deserves. The process of skillfully lighting a scene is an art form used by photographers, cinematographers, interior designers, stage lighting designers, and other artists. Lighting design in Maya is similar, but not completely identical, to how it's done in the real world. For example, lights might or might not cast shadows in Maya, and if they don't, they pass through objects to illuminate other objects normally hidden from the light.

By the end of this chapter, you should have a basic understanding of lighting that allows you to experiment with different lights without working "in the dark." In this chapter, you'll explore various lighting setups to understand how to best place lights in your scene and see where to find a variety of light effects. You have several types of lights to choose from in Maya; each one has unique attributes and benefits, and you'll learn what each type is best used for. When you know how to work with lights, scenes that once rendered dull can take on a new radiance. Lighting a virtual scene is a skill that will get easier as you get used to working with the properties of virtual lights. This chapter covers the following concepts:

  • Working with lights You'll get the opportunity to place and modify lights and become familiar with how they can light a scene.

  • Types of lights Understand the differences between the several types of lights you can choose from.

  • Light attributes By learning the primary light attributes and a few related Maya variables, you can get the results you expect when you create your scenes.

  • IPR render Tweaking lights would take ages without IPR (Interactive Photorealistic Rendering) for real-time feedback. You'll quickly see why this tool is so valuable.

  • The dark side of light shadows There are two different types of shadows in Maya. Learning the differences between them could save you hours in rendering times.

Key Terms

Directional A light type in Maya, similar to sunlight, that shines rays of light parallel to each other.

Ambient Light type that illuminates all objects in a scene, regardless of position; it has no apparent source and casts a uniform light.

Point Light type that emits rays of light in all directions from a single point in space.

Area Light type that emits light from a defined rectangular area instead of a point in space.

Spot Light type that emits rays of light in a conical fashion, similar to a flashlight or headlight.

Volume Light type that emits light within a bounded region (defined by a box, sphere, cylinder, or cone) and whose intensity falls off as objects approach the boundary edges of the Volume light shape.

Cone Angle A Spot light attribute that specifies how broadly to spread the light rays.

Penumbra Angle A Spot light attribute that softens or sharpens the edge of the illuminated area (the cone).

Decay Rate An attribute for Area, Spot, and Point lights that defines the rate at which the light intensity decreases with distance.

Light Glow An optical effect in Maya.

Depth Map Shadows A shadow type in Maya that creates and uses image maps to define shadows.

Raytraced Shadows A shadow type in Maya that accurately calculates paths for the rays of light emitted from a light source resulting in shadows.

Hotkeys to Memorize

t Light Manipulator tool.

7 Enable hardware lighting, using all scene lights in a 3D panel.

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