Working with lighting
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By default, the SFM uses the same lighting as the game, so if you're working with a Team Fortress map, you get Team Fortress lighting. You can adjust the lighting by adding new lights and light kits.
Tip:To adjust the overall brightness of your sequence, select the camera's animation set, and drag the toneMapScale control slider.
Note:Although you can have a large number of lights in each shot, only eight of them can cast shadows.To add a new light to a shot:
- In the Animation Set Editor, click the plus button, and click Create Animation Set for New Light. The light appears oriented to the scene camera.
To add a light kit containing a key, fill, rim, and bounce light to light a character:
- In the Animation Set Editor, select the joint control you want to illuminate, right-click it, click Dag Utilities Menu, and click create_lights. This creates animation sets for four lights (keyLight, bounceLight, fillLight, and rimLight), and also one for lightKit.
You can select the light kit's animation set and adjust its rotation and translation with the 3D manipulators; rotation adjusts the direction in which the light shines. You rotate and translate lights the same way you rotate and translate other objects.
Tip:You can drag a light into a viewport to make the viewport a manipulator. The label on the active camera button changes to reflect that the viewport is now controlling a light. Navigating in that viewport modifies the animation for that light. Rotating the mouse wheel adjust the light's field of view. (You can also drag the FOV control sliders in the Controls panel to change the light's field of view.)| Adjust brightness | Drag the Intensity slider |
| Adjust its color | Drag the color sliders |
| Make it volumetric | Right-click on its animation set in the Animation Set Editor, and clicking Enable Volumetrics. |
| Adjust volumetric intensity | Drag the volumetricIntensity slider |
To lock a light to a character in motion:
- Select the light (or light kit) in the Animation Set Editor.
- Position the light where you want it.
- Lock the light to the character by dragging the appropriate joint control (like its head) from the character's animation set onto the light kit's animation set.
- Drag the playhead until the light is in a position you like relative to the character.
- Apply the Playhead preset to the light to remove the counter-animation and thus allow it to move along with its parent.
Tip:Press Alt+V to move the screen manipulator to the center of the screen to make adjusting the light's position and rotation easier.