Setting Lighting Effects

You can vary ambient lighting effects using directional light sources (i.e. light sources coming from a given direction, generating constant-intensity parallel lighting).

  1. Select View > Lighting.... (In VPM Digital Review, you can also click .)

    The default light source settings look like this:

    Important: Two Lights is activated by default. The sphere indicates the current lighting direction. The handles on the sphere indicates the direction from which the light is being projected: by default, the light is coming from the top left and from the top right.

  2. In the Light Sources dialog box, drag the desired slider to set the ambient, diffuse and specular coefficients (from top to bottom) or use the spin box next to each slider either by clicking the up and down arrows, or by entering a value directly in the box.

    • Ambient coefficient: defines the intensity of light emitted in any direction by the object, even if not lit by any light source. The ambient light is essentially used to show objects or parts of objects that are not illuminated directly by the light source.
      Ambient = 0.50 Ambient = 1.00




    • Diffuse coefficient: defines the intensity of light diffused by the object when lit by a light source.
      Diffuse = 0.50 Diffuse = 1.00




    • Specular coefficient: defines the intensity of light reflected in one particular direction. This coefficient affects the highlight on shiny surfaces. The higher the value, the bigger the specular spot.
      Specular = 0.50 Specular = 1.00




  3. Drag the top-right handle down and towards the bottom right.

    The light is now coming from the bottom right and from the top left:





  4. Click Single Light to remove one of the two light sources:

    In our example, using one light source means that the lighting is now too dark.

  5. Drag the brightness slider (the first slider in the list) to the right or use the spin box next to it to increase the brightness:

  6. Now drag the handle down towards the bottom left to change the direction of the light source:

  7. Click Neon Light to produce a neon light effect:

  8. Click No Light to switch off all light sources:

    Tip: You can also double-click a light source handle to color the light source using the Procedure for Defining Colors Through the Color Chooser.