Default Lighting Hot Spots - How to Turn Off

[mattsons]

Hello. This globe is self illuminated (check box checked to illuminate scene) with no other lights in scene, final gather enabled. I want to turn off the hot spots created by the default lighting system, is this possible? thanks

[PROH]

Hi. To turn off the default light simply create a new light in the scene - and then set this light as wanted, or turn it off, to have complete darkness. If you want to turn on the default light again, then delete any lights in the scene.

Hope it helps

[mattsons]

thank you for the response, adding a light and turning it off does remove this hot spot effect. Is it possible though to remove the hotspot reflection from the surface while still having the light on? i have a new light on that is creating the outer light effect i want around the globe but is creating a small spot on the globe itself. just wondering if this is possible to remove. thanks!

[ekahennequet · Accepted solution]

You can turn off "Specular" by unchecking it in your light's Advanced Effects setting or set the Glossiness of the Material to 0, but note that these settings will make your surface to look matte.

Lighting and Shading >  Lights > Common Lighting Rollouts and Dialogs >  Advanced Effects Rollout:

http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/16/ENU/3ds-Max-Help/index.html?url=files/GUID-A5AB2530-3AB0-40FD-AAC...

[jeff · Accepted solution]

There are a couple of ways to approach this: One, go to the Advanced Effects properties of the light(s) and turn off "Specular". You can also dial down the specular amount in your material(s), both "shinyness" and "amount".

[jeff]

ah -- ! -- eka beat me to it.

[mattsons]

haha thank you both. i turned down the glossiness in reflections, just enough to where it disapeared but the material didn't go completey matte. Thanks again 🙂

[ekahennequet]

Jeff, if it's any consolation, I accepted your post as Solution. 🙂

Matt, if you get around to playing with it some more later, some people also use the "white card" trick by reflecting an object (often rectangular to look like a window) that mimics the light source. This way, you can still get that reflective look without the light's default hotspot. You basically place that object with 100% illumination directly in front of the light and turn off Visible to Camera and Cast Shadows in Object Property. You keep the Glossiness setting in your Material, but turn off the Specular in your light by unchecking it. You can adjust the intensity of the "white card" object by assigning an Output Map to its Diffuse slot and adjust the Output amount.

[mattsons]

oh excellent, thank you so much! you are basically projecting and inverse shadow, i love it!