Create light overrides in your render layer

The Light Editor provides a convenient way for you to manage the lights in your scene. Use the Light Editor in conjunction with the Render Setup editor to easily create light overrides for your render layer.

Click on the status line, or double-click the Lights tab at the top of the Render Setup editor to open the Light Editor. All the lights in your scene are listed.

To display the light attributes for each layer, including the Scene layer, set it as visible. You can also select the layer from the drop-down list in the Light Editor.

This enables you to:

Override specific light attributes in a render layer, and set the override values
Examine the light attribute values in the current render layer
Disable a specific light or lights in a render layer by overriding the Enable attribute

The Light Editor always reflects the values for the render layer that you are in. For example, if you are in the scene layer, the Property Editor displays the scene values for each light. When you are in a render layer, the Property Editor displays the values set in the current layer for each light.

Lights are automatically added to each render layer by default. To override this behavior, disable Options > Include all lights in each render layer by default in the Render Setup editor. You can then add specific lights to each layer's Lights collection. See Add lights to a render layer.

Create overrides for individual lights in your layer

Override any of the following:

Attributes on the shape node (for example, Color and Intensity)
Attributes on the transform node (Translate, Rotate, Scale)
The Enable and Isolate attributes

Create a lights collection by dragging and dropping it from the Scene settings to your layer.
Click the icon to switch to the layer for which you want to create a light override.
In the Light Editor, select the light for which you want to create an override.
In the Light Editor Property Editor, right-click the attribute and select Create Absolute Override for Visible Layer or Create Relative Override for Visible Layer to create an absolute or relative override.
Note: You must not have any collections selected in the render layer; otherwise, the override is created for the collection and not for the light you selected.

Overridden values are denoted in orange. As soon as an override is created, a Lights collection is created for your layer in the Render Setup editor, if it does not exist already. A collection containing the light you just modified is created within this Lights collection, as well as the corresponding override.
Adjust the value of your override in the Light Editor or Render Setup Property Editor.

Note:

You cannot drag and drop the Lights collection in a render layer into another collection within the same layer.

You can only cut, copy and paste the Lights collection from one render layer to another. You cannot cut, copy and paste individual light overrides or individual light subcollections.

Color of attributes in the Light Editor

Overridden attributes appear in orange, and animated attributes appear in red.

Attributes without any overrides applied appear in white. Locked attributes also appear in white, but cannot be edited.

Disable a light in a layer using an override

To disable a light in the layer, override its Enable attribute.

In the Light Editor, switch to the layer via the drop-down list.
Select the light that you want to disable. In the Property Editor, right-click its Enable attribute and select Create Absolute Override for Visible Layer.
The icon appears with an orange border to indicate that it has an override applied, and the Enable attribute appears in orange.
Toggle off the Enable attribute.

Note: You must create an override to disable a light in a render layer. If you simply toggle off the Enable attribute of a light without creating an override, you are disabling the light in the scene, and not in the render layer.

Relationship between the Light Editor and the Attribute Editor

Opening the Light Editor creates a connection between the editor and the Visibility attribute on the light shape nodes in your scene. This connection enables you to control the visibility of lights using the Light Editor's Enable and Isolate attributes; however, the Visibility toggle in the Attribute Editor also becomes unavailable.

If you, however, right-click on the Visibility attribute and select Break Connection, the icon for the corresponding light appears with a red border in the Light Editor to indicate that you can no longer use this icon to control the light.

To override the Visibility attribute, do one of the following:

Close and re-open the Light Editor. The red border around the icon will disappear upon re-opening, and you can create an override on the Enable attribute.
In the Attribute Editor, right-click the Visibility attribute and select Create Absolute Override for Visible Layer. This override remains functional even if you close and re-open the Light Editor, but the red border around the icon remains.