Interactive placement of lights

Interactive placement is done using the light properties dialog box.

NoteIn addition to the following instructions, you can position lights using the Showcase transform controls. See Transform objects.

To open the light properties dialog box:

Press the L key (or select Appearance > Lights) to open the Lights interface.
In the Lights interface, right-click a light icon and select Properties.

Interactive Placement

Click the Start button to interactively position the light around your objects. The light will maintain its distance to the current point of interest, as if sliding on the surface of a sphere centered on that point. Moving the point of interest will change the radius of that sphere.

To move the light up around the point of interest, click anywhere in the view and drag up.
To move the light down, drag down.
To move the light clockwise around the point of interest, drag left.
To move the light counter-clockwise, drag right.
To place a highlight at any position on a surface, hold down the Ctrl key and click at that position. This places the point of interest where you click, and moves the light so that the current camera “sees” a highlight from the light at that point.
To move the highlight around the surface to find the best position, hold down the Ctrl key and drag over the surface.
To place the point of interest at any location on a surface, hold down the Shift and Ctrl keys and click that location. This aims the light toward that location, but does not move the light.
When you have moved the light to the desired location, click the same button in the Light Properties dialog, now labeled Stop.