Lights and light studios can be taken directly from the archives and applied to the scene by simply dropping them into the palette. These can then be repositioned as you wish.
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 utilising HDRI-based light sources (see for more information), and an Exterior folder, that contains three light studios for different city locations around the World (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 scene. Alternatively, Exterior light studios may 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); a folder of Exterior light studios which predominantly consist of 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 ) 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.
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 for more information on editing lights).
From one of the archives in the left hand pane of the Lighting tab, choose the light you wish to add to the scene.
Drag the light and drop it into the palette (right hand pane of the Lighting tab). This will automatically be added to the scene. To reposition the light within the scene, see >Positioning lights in the scene
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, whilst Spot lights can add an element of drama and enhance realism).
Having added a light to the scene (see >Adding lights to the scene, double click on it, or right click and choose Edit... from the context menu, to open the Light Editor , (see
Point, distant, spot and projector lights have a Location parameter. Distant and spot lights additionally have a To parameter. You can type in x-, y-, and z- coordinates for these, or alternatively use the Pick button to interactively pick a point in the scene where the light and/or target is located. The light is represented by a 3D wireframe sun icon in the scene and the target by a wireframe sphere. The currently selected light is drawn in the selection color (see the section called "Selection Options" in chapter called "Selecting Items" in the Roamer book for more information on this).
JetStream does not allow you to pick a point in empty space so you must pick a point on the model.
Lights can be positioned interactively. The 3D wireframe sun icon, representing the light, has six bars extending out along the x- axis, y- axis and z- axis. Hover the mouse cursor over one of the bars. The cursor will change to a hand and the bars will extend further along that axis. Hold the left mouse button down to hold on to the light and move it in either direction, along the extended bar. Release the left mouse button to release the light in its new position. This can be performed for all three axis.
Lights can also be positioned in the current location of the camera, which can be anywhere in the scene. Navigate to the location where you wish the light to be positioned. Right click on the light in the palette (right hand pane of the Lighting tab) and choose Position as Camera from the context menu.
Not only will this position the light in the same location as the camera, if the light has a To parameter, this will also be set to the focal (or Look At ) point of the camera.