The render time for this frame, however, is significantly longer than any of the other
renders so far in this chapter. Calculating soft light such as this is quite intensive, unless a
lighting plug-in such as Light Tracer is enabled in the render setup.
Common Light Parameters
Most of the parameters for the Standard lights are the same for all the lights and will be
described in this section. You may want to create a spot or directional light so you can
follow along with the information about light parameters given here.
Figure 10.31
Turning on shadows for the skylight dramatically increases render
times, but it gives a nice effect with soft shadows mimicking
a radiosity effect.
Figure 10.30
The skylight flattens the spheres and blows them out.
The Skylight light is not intended to be used without some other light source(s) in the scene.
It is designed to be used only with Radiosity, Light Tracer, or mental ray rendering techniques.
These techniques are more advanced, so they will not be covered in this book. It is
important to learn traditional lighting and rendering methods before moving into advanced
techniques.
474 ?– chapter 10: 3ds Max Lighting
Figure 10.29
The Skylight Parameters
rollout
General Parameters Rollout
The General Parameters rollout for all the Standard lights (except for Skylight) is shown in
Figure 10.
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