9

Place Highlight 467
the original transform (page 3–1026) of the source
object.
Place Highlight
Main toolbar > Place Highlight (on Align flyout)
Tools menu > Place Highlight
Keyboard > Ctr l +H
Place Highlig ht, available from the Align flyout
(page 1–462),enablesyoutoalignalightorobject
toanotherobjectsothatitshighlightorreflection
can be precisely positioned.
In Place Highlight mode, you can click and
drag the mouse around in any v iewport. Place
Highlight is a v iewport-dependent function, so
usetheviewportthatyou’regoingtoberendering.
As you drag the mouse in the scene, a ray is shot
from the mouse cursor into the scene. If it hits a
surface, you see the surface norm al (page 3–980) at
that point on the surface.
When you designate a surface, any selected objects
are positioned along a line that represents the ray
reflected off the sur face about the surface norma l.
The o bjects are positioned along this line based on
their original distance from the surface point. For
example, if the object is 100 units from the surface
point before being moved, it will be positioned 100
units from the surface point along the reflected ray.
If the object is a light, the position of the hig hlight
on the surface of the object will be the surface
pointthatyou’vechosen.
Tip: Place Highlig ht works with any kind of
selected object. It can be used to move objects
based on a combination of face normals and initial
distance from the face. You can also use Place
Highlight with a selection set that contains more
than one object. All objects maintain their initial
distance from the face. In this case it has nothing
to do with hig hlights, but is simply being used to
position objects.
Note: Highlight rendering depends on the
material’s specular propert ies and the t ype of
rendering you use.
Place Highlight aligns a camera and a sp otlight to the same
face.
Other alignment tools on the Align flyout are Align
(page 1–462), Quick Alig n (page 1–465), Normal
Align (page 1–465), Align to Camera (page 1–468),
and Alig n to View (page 1–468).
Procedure
To position a light to highlight a f ace:
1.
Make sure the viewport you plan to render is
active, and that the object you want to h ighlight
is visible in it.
The result of Place Highlig ht dep ends on w hat
is visible in the viewport.
2. Select a light object.
3. Click Place Highlight, or choo se Tools >
Place Highlight.
Choose Tools > Place Highlight.
Ifthebuttonisnotvisibleonthetoolbar,
choose it from the Align flyout.