SPOTLIGHT

The first type of light I want you to learn is spotlight. This type of light is commonly used in night scenes. In the famous cartoon series The Batman, spotlights are found almost everywhere. There are so many ways on how to use spotlights. Let me show you how to use them.

In this sample scene, I have a closed room and a Teapot object positioned in front of a Free camera. When I render this scene, the default lights are used to provide the necessary lighting.

Figure 4-7. Default lights are used in this scene.

There are two types of spotlights in Max. These are the Target Spot and Free Spot, just like the camera. You can check out these lights in the ‘Lights’ button under the Create tab in the Command Panel.

In the figure below, I placed a Spot light in front of the Teapot object. Notice how the scene is lighted and the absence of the shadow of the Teapot. We can always configure the Parameters of the spot light.

Figure 4-8. Spotlight is used in this scene.

In the General Parameters of the spotlight, you can change the Light Type and add Shadow effects to your spotlight. Also, you can configure the Intensity, Color, and Attenuation of the spotlight. For example, I can add shadow and even change the color of the shadow in the ‘Shadow Parameters’ roll-out.

Figure 4-9. Shadow map is on with Shadow color yellow.

That’s how you can use the Free Spot in lighting your scene. There’s no much difference between the Target Spot and the Free Spot. Only in the Target Spot, you can configure the Target separately from the spotlight itself. Now, let me introduce to you another type of light, the Omni Light.