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Lights Palette

The Lights palette and the controls that can be found on it are described in the table below. When controls also bring up additional dialogs, these are referenced for more information.

What It Does

The Lights palette displays the lights in your project, and allows you to:

• Customize the lights.

• Turn each light on or off.

• Move the lights around.

• Reposition a light to the current camera position.

• Render shadows for individual lights.

Lights Palette Fields

Control

Type

What it does

Notes

Sorted by

dropdown

Lets you specify whether to list lights by their name or in a custom order. To use a custom order, drag the lights up and down the list.

 

button

Lets you reposition the selected light to the current camera position.

 
Environment
Color | Intensity text field, slider Sets the intensity (brightness) of the selected light. 0.010 to 100.000; defaults to 1.000.
General | Fixed To

dropdown

Sets what the light is fixed to:

• Scene (default) - the light is fixed to the model, for example if a light is set at the model's back, it always points at the model's back, no matter how you move the view.

• Camera - the light is fixed to a camera view, for example you can have a light always shining from above the camera, allowing you to move the model around and cast light on different areas.

  
General | On

checkbox

Whether the light is on or off.

  
Texture | Up Axis dropdown Sets the image being used for the environment light to either Axis X, Axis Y (default), or Axis Z. This adjusts both the background (canvas) image and the lighting on the model.  
Texture | Rotation text field, slider Rotates the background image and the lighting on the Y axis. 0.000 to 360.000 degree
rotation; defaults to 0.000.
Texture | Background dropdown Toggles the visibility of the background (canvas) image by selecting Show or Hide. This does not turning on or off the lighting, only the image on the canvas.  
Texture | Resolution dropdown Sets the resolution of the lighting to either 64, 128, or 256. This does not affect the resolution of the background (canvas) image.  
Texture | Cubemap Type dropdown Sets how the cubemap is handled: either None, LatLong, or Cross. If a 2D image is being used for the environment light, this option specifies the method used for interpreting the image into a cubemap. When a 2D image is brought into the Image field, Mari attempts to set the Cubemap Type automatically, but this can be changed at any time.  
Texture | Image arrows, button, file browser

Click the blank image space to choose an environment from the Mari Environment library. Clicking either of the arrow keys cycles backwards or forwards through the Mari Environment library, loading the image as it does.

Clicking the file browser opens the Open an Image dialog. Select an image of any of the file formats listed in the File of Type field. You can also drag-and-drop an image from the Image Manager or a file browser onto the blank image space to load the image as an environment light.

 For more about the options in the dialog, refer to Open an Image Dialog.
Texture | Blur text field, slider Blurs the background (canvas) image. If the image is a low resolution, it may not blur evenly. 0.000 to 1.000; defaults to 0.000.
Texture Animation | Animation dropdown Sets the background (canvas) image animation to either be Static, where it does not move, or Rotate, where it rotates around the object on the canvas at the speed set in the Speed field. If the control is changed from Rotate to Static, the background (canvas) image is reset back to its default position.  
Texture Animation | Speed text field, slider Sets the rotation speed of the background (canvas) image. If the Animation field is set to Static, this control has no affect. 0.000 to 1.000; defaults to 0.050.
Light

Color | Specular

swatch

Sets the specular color of the light (the “shiny” color of the light).

Defaults to white.

Color | Diffuse

swatch

Sets the diffuse color of the light (the “surface” color of the light).

Defaults to white.
Color | Intensity text field, slider Sets the intensity (brightness) of the selected light. 0.010 to 100; defaults to 1.000.

General | Fixed To

dropdown

Sets what the light is fixed to:

• Scene (default) - the light is fixed to the model, for example if a light is set at the model's back, it always points at the model's back, no matter how you move the view.

• Camera - the light is fixed to a camera view, for example you can have a light always shining from above the camera, allowing you to move the model around and cast light on different areas.

 

General | On

checkbox

Whether the light is on or off.

 

Position | Position

control sphere

Lets you move the light around your project. Click and drag to move the light.

 

Rendering | Render Shadows

checkbox

Renders and displays the shadows cast on the model by the selected light in its current position.