What are the classifications of Maya lighting and how to light it?

1. Point light (floodlight source)

Also called point light source, it is the most common light source used. Light radiates from a point source in all directions, so the light rays are not parallel, and the point of intersection of the light rays is where the lamp is. It simulates an unshaded light bulb hanging in the space. Point lights can cast shadows. The shape of the shadow cast by the point light source is as follows. Note that its shape diverges outward.

2. Directional Light (parallel light source)

High beam is used to simulate a very bright, very distant light source. All light rays are parallel. Although the sun is a point source of light. But because it is so far away from us, the sunlight actually has no angle when it reaches the earth, so we use parallel light sources to simulate sunlight. Note that directional light has no attenuation properties. Directional light can cast shadows. The shadows cast by parallel light are as shown in the figure. Because the rays of parallel light are parallel, the shadows it casts are also parallel. This is a major feature of it

3. Spot Light (spot light source) )

A spotlight is a directional light. All light rays spread out from a point in a cone shape you define. The cone can be measured in degrees from the vertex by using the Cone Angle slider. Spotlights have the most complex parameters of all lights. Many types of lighting effects can be produced by adjusting its parameters.

Cone Angle controls the degree of beam diffusion, usually the default value of 40 degrees is enough. Do not set the Cone Angle too large, otherwise shadow problems will occur.

4. Area Light (area light source)

Area light is a special type of Maya light. Unlike other lights, area light is a two-dimensional area light source.

Its brightness is not only related to intensity, but also directly related to its area. Its size and orientation can be changed through Maya's transform tools.

Area lights can simulate situations such as light coming from a window. And the calculation of area light is based on physics. There is no need to set attenuation options.

Area lights can also cast shadows. But if you use the Depth Map Shadow algorithm to calculate the shadow of the area light, its shadow is no different from other lights. To get real area light and shadow, a light and shadow tracing algorithm must be used.

5. Ambient Light (Ambient Light)

As the name suggests, ambient light can illuminate all objects in the scene evenly from all directions. Ambient light has two contradictory properties. Part of its light illuminates the object in all directions (like the light emitted from the inner surface of an infinite ball), while the other part of the light is emitted from the position of the light source (like a point light source). Combine these two opposite parameters by setting the size of the ambient light's Ambient Shade value in the Property Editor. If the value of Ambient Shade is 1, the ambient light becomes a point light source. Using an ambient light can simulate a combination of directional lights (such as the sun and a lamp), combining point and diffuse lights. Ambient lights can also cast shadows, but only the ray tracing algorithm to calculate shadows is available to you.

6. Volume Light (Volume Light Source)

Used to simulate volumetric light sources, such as lasers. This is a new light type added to Maya5.0.