adding spotlight makes the scene go black

blue6string

In other words, adding it turns all other light sources off.... It didnt do this in the past, any remedies?

maclean

When you add a light, it always overrides the default OpenGL lighting. To revert to the default light (for preview purposes only), press CTRL+L. The probable cause of a black scene is that your light is pointing away from whatever's in the scene. Select the light in the camera dropdown to look through it and see where it's pointing. Then use rotate to point towards the scene objects.

My lighting tutorial may be helpful.

http://digilander.libero.it/maclean/DStutorial.htm

mac

blue6string

thanks ... will do

SpottedKitty

Incidentally, the easiest way to have everything go black is to have a freshly loaded unposed figure in the middle of the scene, then add a spotlight. The spotlight normally loads right in between the figure's feet shining a fairly narrow beam of light away from the camera... which means it isn't lighting up the figure at all. Select the light and pull it back towards the camera (the easiest way is to use the "Z Translate" dial in the Parameters tab) and you'll see the lighting gradually creep up your figure's legs. You need to move and turn the light so it will illuminate the whole figure, and this goes for all the lights you add to the scene.

Note that you don't get this problem with a Distant Light — you point it in the same way as a spotlight, but the light source is "infinitely far away" instead of between the figure's feet, so it will always light up your scene... unless you have another object blocking the light.