& Construction

Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
& Manufacturing

Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Exclude lights from objects to achieve non-physical special effects.
Type:
Tutorial
Length:
6 min.
Tutorial resources
These downloadable resources will be used to complete this tutorial:
Transcript
00:03
We're continuing to build our triangle lighting set up.
00:06
We've currently got a key light and a fill light.
00:10
Let's now create some rim lights
00:12
just to avoid any performance issue. When duplicating lights,
00:15
I'm going to hold the scene updates in my Arnold render view
00:19
and I'll also store a snapshot of this rendering with only the key and fill lights.
00:24
So create a snapshot of that
00:26
and then let's duplicate our key spotlight,
00:29
select it,
00:30
grab the move tool,
00:32
hold down the shift key
00:33
and drag up in the top viewport to make a duplicate
00:37
in the clone options. Dialogue. It'll be a copy.
00:40
Let's rename it
00:41
rim spot oo one
00:44
and click. Ok.
00:45
Let's see what that looks like by itself.
00:48
We'll select the fill light and disable it temporarily
00:51
in the modified panel.
00:53
Likewise with the key light, select it and disable it.
00:57
And then we can do an interactive production rendering of only that rim light
01:01
in the Arnold Review, restore the scene updates.
01:05
So that's the effect of the rim light.
01:07
We can make this better.
01:08
I want to illuminate the edges and not so much the top of the radio.
01:13
So once again, with the move tool active, we can select that rim light,
01:16
we can pan or track in that left viewport with a middle mouse button
01:20
and maybe bring that rim light down.
01:23
I've got some values that we can plug in
01:26
with that rim light selected,
01:27
we can plug in the values for the X position
01:32
Y position of 54 moving it back somewhat
01:36
and a Z position of only 20 we want to move that down.
01:40
Now we're getting a nice subtle effect there of that rim lighting
01:44
cool. So let's make another duplicate. And again, I'll hold the scene updates
01:49
pan around with a middle mouse button.
01:51
Hold down the shift key
01:53
and drag to create a duplicate in that top viewport
01:56
in the clone options, dialogue. We'll make it a copy
01:59
and the name is automatically rim spot oo two
02:03
click. OK?
02:05
And restore the scene updates.
02:08
Now, we've got rim lighting on both sides.
02:11
Once again, we can fine tune that rim lights position.
02:14
I've got some values for that.
02:16
We'll give it an X position
02:18
of negative 50.
02:20
The Y position of 54 is fine.
02:23
The Z position will bring down to only 13 centimeters.
02:27
Now, we've got strong side lighting here on the left.
02:31
Ok. That's our rim lighting.
02:33
We can store that as a snapshot
02:36
and compare it to the fill and key light.
02:38
So here's fill and key only
02:41
and here is rim lighting only.
02:43
We'll go back to a live interactive production rendering.
02:47
Let's combine these two by re enabling the other lights. So we can select our
02:52
key spot
02:53
re enable it,
02:54
select our rim disc light
02:56
and re enable that as well.
02:59
And having done that, it looks like we have too much rim lighting, it's too bright. So
03:04
let's bring the exposure down to those rim lights. I'll select one of them
03:07
and the modified panel said its exposure value to five
03:11
and likewise with the other one, select it
03:14
and set its exposure value to five as well.
03:18
So that's a much more balanced illumination.
03:21
OK. Let's make another snapshot.
03:24
And we can compare these,
03:26
here's our version with no rim lighting
03:29
and here's a version with the rim lighting added.
03:33
Alright, cool. So we'll go back to a live interactive production rendering.
03:36
Now, I want to illustrate an issue that might come up.
03:39
We're not seeing any problem here in our physical camera rendering.
03:43
But if we changed our lights position or the framing of our composition,
03:47
we might see a problem in which we get a big hot spot from the reflection on the floor,
03:53
we can work around that
03:54
by excluding the lights from the floor.
03:57
So let me illustrate that
03:59
we want to render the perspective view to see the problem.
04:02
And in order to render the perspective view,
04:04
we'll need to unlock the renderer viewport.
04:07
So we'll close the Arnold render view,
04:10
go into the render, set up
04:12
where we previously locked the view to render.
04:15
So disable that padlock icon,
04:17
close the render set up,
04:19
give focus to the perspective view by right clicking in it
04:23
and then once again launch the on render view
04:26
and start the interactive production rendering again.
04:29
Once that starts up, we'll see a very strong hotspot here from our rim lighting.
04:35
All we need to do is exclude
04:37
the rim lights from the floor.
04:39
And then there will be no illumination from the rim lights on that floor.
04:43
The floor is currently on a frozen layer.
04:46
So let's go to the layer explorer,
04:49
open up the floor layer and select the floor.
04:53
And then in the modify panel,
04:55
we can add a modifier called arnold properties,
05:00
then open up the light group section
05:04
and we see an enable switch
05:06
and two fields included and excluded
05:09
when we turn on the enable switch,
05:11
suddenly we get no illumination
05:14
on that floor at all.
05:16
All we're getting is reflections.
05:18
There are no lights illuminating the floor because
05:20
they're all in the excluded section here.
05:23
Well, I do want some light from the key.
05:26
And if we orbit around the perspective, you hear to
05:29
get closer to our actual framing,
05:31
we'll see this more clearly.
05:33
So I do want the floor to be illuminated by the key spot but by nothing else.
05:38
So I'll double click on that key spot
05:41
and that moves it over into the included section.
05:44
Now, the only light illuminating that floor is the key light.
05:48
Later, we are going to use the Skydome to produce reflections on the floor.
05:53
So we want the sky dome to be included as well. So let's double click skydome.
05:57
Currently, the sky dome is disabled, so we see no effect,
06:00
but we're just getting ready for the last stage of our production.
06:04
That's how to add rim lighting
06:05
and control the exclusion of lights from objects
06:09
using the Arnold Light groups.
Video transcript
00:03
We're continuing to build our triangle lighting set up.
00:06
We've currently got a key light and a fill light.
00:10
Let's now create some rim lights
00:12
just to avoid any performance issue. When duplicating lights,
00:15
I'm going to hold the scene updates in my Arnold render view
00:19
and I'll also store a snapshot of this rendering with only the key and fill lights.
00:24
So create a snapshot of that
00:26
and then let's duplicate our key spotlight,
00:29
select it,
00:30
grab the move tool,
00:32
hold down the shift key
00:33
and drag up in the top viewport to make a duplicate
00:37
in the clone options. Dialogue. It'll be a copy.
00:40
Let's rename it
00:41
rim spot oo one
00:44
and click. Ok.
00:45
Let's see what that looks like by itself.
00:48
We'll select the fill light and disable it temporarily
00:51
in the modified panel.
00:53
Likewise with the key light, select it and disable it.
00:57
And then we can do an interactive production rendering of only that rim light
01:01
in the Arnold Review, restore the scene updates.
01:05
So that's the effect of the rim light.
01:07
We can make this better.
01:08
I want to illuminate the edges and not so much the top of the radio.
01:13
So once again, with the move tool active, we can select that rim light,
01:16
we can pan or track in that left viewport with a middle mouse button
01:20
and maybe bring that rim light down.
01:23
I've got some values that we can plug in
01:26
with that rim light selected,
01:27
we can plug in the values for the X position
01:32
Y position of 54 moving it back somewhat
01:36
and a Z position of only 20 we want to move that down.
01:40
Now we're getting a nice subtle effect there of that rim lighting
01:44
cool. So let's make another duplicate. And again, I'll hold the scene updates
01:49
pan around with a middle mouse button.
01:51
Hold down the shift key
01:53
and drag to create a duplicate in that top viewport
01:56
in the clone options, dialogue. We'll make it a copy
01:59
and the name is automatically rim spot oo two
02:03
click. OK?
02:05
And restore the scene updates.
02:08
Now, we've got rim lighting on both sides.
02:11
Once again, we can fine tune that rim lights position.
02:14
I've got some values for that.
02:16
We'll give it an X position
02:18
of negative 50.
02:20
The Y position of 54 is fine.
02:23
The Z position will bring down to only 13 centimeters.
02:27
Now, we've got strong side lighting here on the left.
02:31
Ok. That's our rim lighting.
02:33
We can store that as a snapshot
02:36
and compare it to the fill and key light.
02:38
So here's fill and key only
02:41
and here is rim lighting only.
02:43
We'll go back to a live interactive production rendering.
02:47
Let's combine these two by re enabling the other lights. So we can select our
02:52
key spot
02:53
re enable it,
02:54
select our rim disc light
02:56
and re enable that as well.
02:59
And having done that, it looks like we have too much rim lighting, it's too bright. So
03:04
let's bring the exposure down to those rim lights. I'll select one of them
03:07
and the modified panel said its exposure value to five
03:11
and likewise with the other one, select it
03:14
and set its exposure value to five as well.
03:18
So that's a much more balanced illumination.
03:21
OK. Let's make another snapshot.
03:24
And we can compare these,
03:26
here's our version with no rim lighting
03:29
and here's a version with the rim lighting added.
03:33
Alright, cool. So we'll go back to a live interactive production rendering.
03:36
Now, I want to illustrate an issue that might come up.
03:39
We're not seeing any problem here in our physical camera rendering.
03:43
But if we changed our lights position or the framing of our composition,
03:47
we might see a problem in which we get a big hot spot from the reflection on the floor,
03:53
we can work around that
03:54
by excluding the lights from the floor.
03:57
So let me illustrate that
03:59
we want to render the perspective view to see the problem.
04:02
And in order to render the perspective view,
04:04
we'll need to unlock the renderer viewport.
04:07
So we'll close the Arnold render view,
04:10
go into the render, set up
04:12
where we previously locked the view to render.
04:15
So disable that padlock icon,
04:17
close the render set up,
04:19
give focus to the perspective view by right clicking in it
04:23
and then once again launch the on render view
04:26
and start the interactive production rendering again.
04:29
Once that starts up, we'll see a very strong hotspot here from our rim lighting.
04:35
All we need to do is exclude
04:37
the rim lights from the floor.
04:39
And then there will be no illumination from the rim lights on that floor.
04:43
The floor is currently on a frozen layer.
04:46
So let's go to the layer explorer,
04:49
open up the floor layer and select the floor.
04:53
And then in the modify panel,
04:55
we can add a modifier called arnold properties,
05:00
then open up the light group section
05:04
and we see an enable switch
05:06
and two fields included and excluded
05:09
when we turn on the enable switch,
05:11
suddenly we get no illumination
05:14
on that floor at all.
05:16
All we're getting is reflections.
05:18
There are no lights illuminating the floor because
05:20
they're all in the excluded section here.
05:23
Well, I do want some light from the key.
05:26
And if we orbit around the perspective, you hear to
05:29
get closer to our actual framing,
05:31
we'll see this more clearly.
05:33
So I do want the floor to be illuminated by the key spot but by nothing else.
05:38
So I'll double click on that key spot
05:41
and that moves it over into the included section.
05:44
Now, the only light illuminating that floor is the key light.
05:48
Later, we are going to use the Skydome to produce reflections on the floor.
05:53
So we want the sky dome to be included as well. So let's double click skydome.
05:57
Currently, the sky dome is disabled, so we see no effect,
06:00
but we're just getting ready for the last stage of our production.
06:04
That's how to add rim lighting
06:05
and control the exclusion of lights from objects
06:09
using the Arnold Light groups.
How to buy
Privacy | Do not sell or share my personal information | Cookie preferences | Report noncompliance | Terms of use | Legal | © 2025 Autodesk Inc. All rights reserved
Sign in for the best experience
Save your progress
Get access to courses
Receive personalized recommendations
May we collect and use your data?
Learn more about the Third Party Services we use and our Privacy Statement.May we collect and use your data to tailor your experience?
Explore the benefits of a customized experience by managing your privacy settings for this site or visit our Privacy Statement to learn more about your options.