Create and group lights

You can create lights and organize them into groups in the Light Editor. This way, you can disable or isolate multiple lights simultaneously, and your Light Editor interface appears more streamlined and organized.

To create a light

Click any of the (point light), (spotlight), (area light), (directional light), and (volume light) icons to create a light.

To group lights

Click New Group to create a group, and middle-drag and drop lights to include or exclude them from a group.

Each light can only belong to one group.

To add a light to a group automatically upon creation, select the group, then click the applicable light icon. Otherwise, the light is created, but does not belong to any group.

Note: All lights created via the Maya Create menu appear in the Light Editor, but do not automatically belong to any group.

Referencing a scene with lights

Grouping and ordering of lights is not supported through references. When referencing a scene with light sources, any light groups within the referenced scene are ignored. New light groups can be created in the destination (main) scene to group and order both referenced lights and new lights. However, if a reference is unloaded, the group membership and ordering of the referenced lights will not be preserved when the reference is later reloaded again.