5.5

217Motion User Guide
• Falloff: A slider to control the rate of falloff for a point or spot light based on the Falloff
Start setting. At low values, light falls off over a long distance from the light source;
therefore, the light travels farther in the image. At high values, the falloff occurs
more rapidly.
• Diameter: A slider that becomes available when Light Type is set to Directional, Point,
or Spot. Diameter affects how lights are reflected as highlights in 3D text objects.
• Cone Angle: A dial that becomes available only when Light Type is set to Spot. The
cone angle is measured from the center of the light outward and can be set to a value
between 0 and 90 degrees. The distance of the light from its target affects the result
of this parameter. If the light is close, a wider spot cone angle may be needed to light
more of the object. If the light is farther away, a lower cone angle may be needed to
isolate objects.
• Soft Edge: A dial that becomes available only when Light Type is set to Spot. Like Cone
Angle, this parameter can be set to a value between 0 and 90 degrees. Its starting point
begins at the outer edge of the cone angle. If set to 0, spot lights have a hard edge.
Low values produce a slight softening effect to the boundary of the lit area. Higher
values produce a wide, more natural fade. Adding softness expands the area of your
light, so you might need to adjust the angle to achieve a specific effect.
Note: Point lights, directional lights, and spot lights also contain a set of parameters to
control how they cast shadows. For more information on these parameters, see Intro to
3D shadows in Motion.
The Light HUD contains the Light Type, Color, Intensity, Falloff Start, and Falloff
parameters, which are also available in the Inspector. The Light HUD also contains 3D
transform controls. See Transform layers in 3D space in Motion.
Additional lighting controls in Motion
Layers and groups have properties that control how they react to lights in a scene. When
layer or group is selected, you can adjust these parameters in the Lighting section of
the Properties Inspector. Groups have a single Shading parameter. Layers have Shading,
Highlights, Shininess, and Diameter parameters.
• Shading: A pop-up menu to set how an object responds to lights in the scene. If set to
On, the object can be lit. If set to Off, the object ignores scene lights. If set to Inherited
(the default), the object uses the Shading value of its parent.
Note: When a layer or group is nested in one or more parent groups, setting its Shading
parameter to On overrides any Shading parameter settings applied to the parent groups.
• Highlights: A checkbox to control whether lit objects show highlights. This parameter
has no effect if Shading is set to Off. Click the disclosure triangle to reveal an additional
Shininess parameter.
• Shininess: A slider to set how strong an object’s highlights appear. Higher values
create a glossier appearance. This Shininess parameter is disabled when the Highlights
parameter is deselected.
Note: The Highlights and Shininess parameters are not available for 3D text or 3D
objects.