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Manual - Blender 2.48

[edit] Lamps

Blender comes equipped with five different lamp types, each with its own unique strengths and limitations. Here are the available lamps:

• Lamp is an omnidirectional point light source, similar to a light bulb.
• Spot is a directional point light source, similar to… a spot!
• Area is a source simulating area producing light, as windows, neons, TV screens…
• Hemi simulates a very wide and far away light source, like the sky.
• Sun simulates a very far away and punctual light source, like the sun.

You can add new lamps to a scene using the Add menu in the top header, or by using the add menu in the toolbox (Space → Add → Lamp), or ⇧ ShiftA.

Once added, a lamp’s position is indicated in the 3D View by a solid dot in a circle, but most types also feature dashed wire-frames that help describe their orientation and properties. While each type is represented differently, there are some visual indicators common to all of them:

A default Lamp, showing the Visual Height and Shadow Markers.

• Shadows

If shadows are enabled, an additional dashed circle is drawn around the solid circle. This makes it easier to quickly determine if a lamp has shadows enabled.

• Vertical Height Marker

This is a dim grey line, which helps locate the lamp’s position relative to the global X-Y plane. The line’s transparency can be adjusted in the Theme User Preferences, with the Alpha value of the 3D View → Lamp item (if you use the default theme, you must make a copy of it to be able to modify this setting!).

Manual

[edit] Subpages

1. Area
2.    Raytraced Shadows
3. Hemi
4. Lamp
5.    Raytraced Shadows
6. Lighting Rigs
7. Spot
8.    Buffered Shadows
9.    Halos
10.    Raytraced Shadows
11. Sun
12.    Raytraced Shadows
13.    Sky and Atmosphere