I'm not sure on this one and I just want to make sure that I understand saving attached lights correct.

Here's what I'm trying to do.  I want to save a specific light arrangement for a car model that has parented to the car.   If I save these light settings in my library like I normally do then will the lights be automatically parented to the car when I decide to use them or is there something more that needs to be done.

If I'm wrong then any information on how to make the above work is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

If the parent item is a prop, then the lights loaded from the Lights palette will automatically parent to that prop, and only to a prop with that exact name and number, eg "car_1".

If the item is a figure then the lights will parent to the selected instance of that figure. That is to say if there are figures named "car 1" and "car 2", the lights will parent to whichever instance of the car is the selected figure when the lights are loaded, providing that the figure contains the relevant parent part.

Note that if the parented light is for example "spotLight 1", and a light with that name already exists in the scene, no new light will be added, rather the existing "spotLight 1" will be parented to the car.

Also, in the case of a figure, any lights parented to the figure will be saved with the figure.

Ironic that this is exactly the topic I came here to start! But in my case, I've got a starship model with lights parented to its physical lights, so that they actually cast light and shadows realistically (warp nacelles, running lights, etc.). All are parented so they snap into the proper locations, and each is named according to its function. The problem is that they show up in the hierarchy editor just fine, but when I try to save them as a light set, they are not on the list - only the external lights show up in the dialog. Any experienced suggestions for how I can save this light set so the model can self-illuminate?

TIA!

lesbentley

Thanks for the detailed answer I, appreciate it. I didn't know about the issue of having a light already existing that would replace the one that I created.  I could see myself having two lights with the same name and wondering why some lights are always changing settings even though I saved the light set.  But thanks to your answer I'll be able to avoid making that mistake.

ptrope

We must be working on the similar brain waves because my question originated from me working on the interior of a space ship and it took me a while to set up the lighting and I was thinking how I would hate setting up the lights again and how I would want to save it as a light set that would make it easy for me to add the lights when I want to use them for that particular prop.

Ptrope, try this. Delete any lights you don't want in your set, then just save to the Lights palette without using the "Select Subset" thingy.

Ahhh, the old "negative space" approach - I like it! Actually, I could save all the OTHER lights as a set, delete them, save the internal lights, then add the others right back in. Good idea! Why didn't I think of that? :blink: