9

754 Chapter 21: User Interface
The light has a narrow hotspot but a wide falloff area.
Making the falloff even wider illuminates a larger area.
Click Lig ht Falloff, then move the mouse in the
lightviewporttomakethefalloffnarroweror
w ider (the fal loff extents are show n in gray, the
hotspot (page 3–954) is in blue).
Hold down the
Ct rl key while moving the mouse
tolocktheinitialangleseparationofthehotspot
and fal loff cones.
You can’t adjust the hotspot larger than the fa lloff,
because that would change the falloff value.
Likewise, when you red uce the falloff, it sto ps at
the hotspot size (in both cases, separated by the
angle separation (page 3–826),specifiedonthe
Rendering p age of the Preferences dialog).
To override the separation of the hotspot and
falloff parameters and cause the para meters to
affect each other, hold down the
Shi f t key .
For more information on the hotspot and falloff
parameters, see Spotlight Parameters (page 2–1338)
and Directional Parameters (page 2–1348).
Procedure
To change a light’s f alloff:
1.
Set up a Perspective viewport so you can see
the lig ht in 3D space.
2. Activate a Light viewport.
3. Press H to display t he Select Object dialog.
Select the lig ht.
The lig ht and its cones should b e visible in the
Perspective viewport.
4. Click Light Falloff.
The button highlights when it is on.
5. Drag in the Light viewport to change the falloff
angle.
The gray falloff cone expands and contracts as
you drag.
• Drag down to widen (increase ) the falloff
angleandilluminatemoreofthescene.
• Draguptonarrow(decrease)thefalloff
angleandilluminatelessofthescene.Asits
angle decreases, the falloff shrinks around
the hotspot. By default, the falloff cone can
be no smaller than the hotspot cone.
•Holddown
Shif t as you drag to overr ide
the default. This lets the hotspot cone
decrease in size as you decrease the size of
the falloff cone.
•Holddown
Ct rl as you drag to lock the
initial angle separation of the hotspot and
falloff cones.
6. Press Es c or right-click to turn off the button.