Lights
	A scene's mood, visibility, and shadows are affected by the lighting. Lights can be added and their intensity can be changed.
Part of	VRay
Part Type	Entity
Screenshot	[[File:|320px]]

Introduction to Lights in V-Ray

Lighting plays the most important role in rendering because it affects the color, shadow, reflection, and refraction among objects and materials in the scene. V-Ray comes equipped with Global Illumination , which is the natural lighting in a scene. It can be difficult to produce a specific lighting effect because of the many ways to create lights, as well as to change a light's appearance in a final render.

Be sure to choose a light that's best for the type of lighting needed for the scene. Lights can be created using Rhino commands. Or, use the sun and sky tool that is built into V-Ray to position a directional light.

There are two main ways to change lighting options. The first way uses the Properties panel in Rhino to change the properties of a selected light. This is helpful for controlling specific light objects. The second way uses Light Options in V-Ray, which controls the ambient light in the scene--that is, the lighting for the entire scene, not just one specific light.

Light Options in V-Ray Options

Settings for all lights are controlled in V-Ray Options.

Global Switches

Lights

Make sure this box is checked. If it is unchecked, any lights in the model will not be rendered.

Hidden Lights

When modeling in Rhino, lights can be hidden from the scene so that it is easier to model. Even though the lights are hidden, V-Ray will still render them if the box next to Hidden Lights is checked. To prevent hidden lights from affecting the render, uncheck this box.

Default Lights

Checking this box turns on the lights that are built into V-Ray. If this box is unchecked, be sure that GI (Skylight) under Environment is checked--otherwise, the render will turn out completely black.

Shadows

For a more realistic render, make sure this box is checked so that shadows of objects will be rendered.

Environment

GI (Skylight)

This controls the Global Illumination . A V-Ray Sky can be added for illumination.

Background

This controls the color of the background in the render. It can be changed to an image by clicking on the m next to the color selection.

Lights for Exterior Renderings

Typically, exterior renderings can quickly be made by using the default GI. However, to light a scene specific to a time and day, the sun and sky can be set.

Lights for Interior Renderings

Interior renderings require a different set of lights. There are several different types of lights in Rhino , but only a few are especially helpful for rendering interior scenes .