Lights in Maya.
In the video tutorials on 3DbyBuzz, we have looked at creating the various kinds of light that are available in Maya. One thing we have not looked at is using lights as precise, local fill lights.
Fill lights.
We create lights by going to Create on the Main Menu and going to Lights. Here is a rendering of the Moai statue we have used in the videos. The only light is a directional light.
Softening the nose shadow.
Now, we create a point light and locate it near the left bridge of the nose.
We have softened the shadow.
But, what about Volume lights?
You might think that the best kind of light to use for very refined control would be a Volume light that is set to shine inward:
But the problem is that Maya 2013 seems to have a lot of trouble rendering volume lights with either the Maya software renderer or Mental Ray. It simple seems that the light does not exist. But if we want to use the Hardware renderer, it will work:
