Lighting an Interior Space

Set up the scene:

• In the \tutorials\lights directory, open the file interior_unfinished.max.

  The scene shows an interior living-room space, with a fireplace and entrance alcove. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the room have been frozen to make them difficult to select accidentally.

  Tip: If the walls are hard to see, use Customize > Customize User Interface > Colors to make the viewport background a lighter gray.

  If you were to render the scene now, you would see a plain, bare room. This is the default lighting from a single light source.

  

  Room rendered with default lights

Add a light with a preset value to the entryway:

1. Choose Create > Lights > Photometric Lights > Presets > 75W Bulb.

   This creates a light object with a typical wattage.

2. In the Top viewport, move the cursor over the alcove, and then click to position the light.

   The light is now in the alcove.

   

   Positioning the alcove light

   If you look at the Left viewport, however, you will see that the light is on the floor.

   

   By default, the alcove light is created at the level of the floor.

3. Right-click the Left viewport to activate it. Turn on Move, and then move the new light up to the level of the ceiling.

   

   Alcove light moved to ceiling level

   If you were to render the scene now, it would be very dim.

   

   Room lit only by the alcove light

   Adding a light turns off the default lighting. Once you add a light, all the lighting for the scene must come from light objects that you place yourself. (The rendering also shows what appears to be a bit of a light leak above the door frame. Don't worry about this: it won't be apparent once you add more lights.)

Add an overhead fixture:

For overhead lighting in the living room, you will use a prepared light assembly from a separate MAX file.

1. On the Create panel, turn on Lights. Choose Photometric from the drop-down list, turn on one of the light object buttons, and then turn on the AutoGrid toggle.

   It doesn't matter which button you turn on. You are not going to create a light from scratch. However, AutoGrid should be on so the merged light-fixture assembly will align with the ceiling.

2. Move or resize your 3ds Max window so you can also see a Windows Explorer window.

3. Right-click a viewport and choose Unfreeze All from the Display (upper-right) quadrant of the quad menu.

   AutoGrid doesn't work well when the geometry is frozen.

4. Drag the file ceiling.pendant.max from the \tutorials\lights directory onto the Camera02 viewport in the 3ds Max window.

   A pop-up menu appears, giving you the choice of opening, merging, or cross-referencing the scene with the ceiling pendant.

5. Choose Merge File.

   The ceiling pendant geometry appears. It is selected and because of AutoGrid, it is aligned to faces in the scene.

6. Drag the light fixture until it is aligned with the ceiling, and move it to a position near the fireplace.

   

   Top plan position of the ceiling pendant fixture

   

   Camera view of the pendant light

   Now that you have a single light in the living room, you can make instances of it to provide the room with more light.

Freeze the room again:

1. Click to select the room object (Box01).

2. Right-click a viewport and choose Freeze Selection from the Display (upper-right) quadrant of the quad menu.

   This keeps you from selecting and moving the entire room, when you are trying to clone the light fixture.

Make an array of light instances:

1. Activate the Top viewport and turn on Move.

2. While holding down the Shift key, move the light to the right along the X axis. (Watch the Camera02 viewport so the light ends up hanging from the ceiling, and not from the skylight.)

   

   Top plan position of the first cloned light

   

   Camera view of the first cloned light

   The Clone Options dialog appears.

3. In the Object group, choose Instance, and then click OK.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 two more times, so you have a row of four light fixtures.

   

   The first row of cloned lights

5. On the toolbar, make sure that the Window/Crossing toggle is set to Window, then drag in the Top viewport to select all four lights.

6. While holding down the Shift key, drag the four lights up along the Y axis to add another row, near the far wall.

   The Clone Options dialog appears.

7. Make sure Instance is still chosen, and then click OK.

   

   Top plan view with two rows of ceiling lights

Render the scene:

• On the main toolbar, click Quick Render.

  3ds Max renders the room.

  

  Room lit by all lights (direct lighting only)

  Now the living room is illuminated, and you can see the colors on the walls. It still looks rather shadowy, but this is only because the rendering shows direct light only. In real life, objects are illuminated by both direct light and reflected (“bounced”) light. In 3ds Max, you can add reflected light by calculating the scene's radiosity.

  

  Room with radiosity calculated to provide bounced (indirect) light as well as direct light

  The radiosity solution shows that in fact, you might want to turn down the level of the living-room lights before making a final rendering. The lesson Managing Multiple Lights shows some ways to manage an array of instanced light objects such as those you just created.

Save your work:

• Save the file as room_with_lights.max.

  Note: The scene interior_with_lights.max contains the completed version, and the scene interior_with_lights_and_radiosity.max contains both the completed version and a radiosity solution.