Create a light source

Note: Avoid instancing lights. This is particularly important for shadow depth maps.

Copy the lights instead of instancing.

To create a light

  1. Do one of the following:
    • From the Create > Lights menu, select the type of light you want to create.

      By default, the light is added to the center of a scene.

      To set light options before adding the light to the scene, select Create > Lights > .

      (You can make a one-time change to the default options of a type of light before you add the light, or you can adjust the options to change the way all subsequent lights you create look and work. )

    • Click the light icon on the Lighting shelf.

A light’s default options determine how the light affects the scene and whether or not it casts shadows, but you can (and typically do) change most of these options on a per-light basis by adjusting the light’s attributes (see Adjust light source attributes).

For a description of the light options, refer to the following:

Related topics

Parent topic: Set up a direct light source