When you enter Action, you can activate a global shading option (from the Rendering section of the Action Setup menu) to light your complete scene. Once you add a light to the scene, the shading becomes active, and you can also enable Scene Ambient lighting from the Rendering section of the Action Setup menu, or in individual Light menus. Action objects are lit up in the scene according to the number, position, direction, and colour of added light sources, as well as the rotation and spread of each light source.
Action lights also serve as the parent node for a number of lighting effects, such as lens flares, rays, Lightbox shaders, and shadow casts.
Keep in mind the following when working with Action lights:
- You can add up to 64 active light sources to a scene. You can also control each light individually.
- You can set individual lights to different types, such as spotlights or area lights. Ambient is also available as an individual light type, and is different than the global Scene Ambient lighting.
- Lights can respect priority order in Action. Use the Light Source box in the Light menu Basics tab to select whether a light is added to the result of previous lights in the Priority Editor (Additive Light) or to the source diffuse (Solo Light). The Light Priority Editor is also useful for setting the order of Lightbox shaders attached to a light.
- A GMask (or multiple GMasks) connected to a Light with a selective GMask Link can help you create interesting effects, where the light is cast through the GMask shape. You can track the GMask, and combine GMask Links with Look At Links and Replica nodes to easily build a composite, such as simulating sunlight shining through windows.
- Use the Action Object Solo (F8) view on a light to see the scene through the point of view of the light, as if it was a camera.
- Similar to cameras in Action, you can set a Free or Target light mode. Select Free to light the scene in the direction that you aim the light, or Target to aim the light at a target object in the scene based on a point of interest. Different settings are available in the Light menu based on the choice of light mode.
- You can attach a look-at connection between Action objects with axis characteristics (Axis, Camera, Light, and Projector). The connection allows the parent object to rotate to face the child look-at object, no matter where it is positioned. Look-At links can be animated; therefore you can link different objects from the parent at different frames. In the channel editor, you can see a lookAt channel for every look-at parent.
- By default, the light you add to the scene is applied to all surfaces. However, you can also apply a light source to specific surfaces with inclusive and exclusive light links.
- You can also use image-based lighting (IBL) to light objects in the scene. IBL maps behave differently than other lighting effects, such as lens flares, since you don't attach it to a light in the scene. The IBL performs lighting based on media as an environment texture. Global ambient lighting can also be enabled or disabled from the IBL menu.
- Create your own Lightbox shaders to add interesting custom lighting effects that are cast from lights.