Area Light Attributes
 
 
 

For a description of Maya’s Area Light, see Create > Lights > Area Light.

Type

See Type.

Color

See Color.

Intensity

See Intensity.

Note

Intensity for area lights is based on the intensity per area units, not for the light as a whole.

Illuminates by Default
Emit Diffuse and Emit Specular
Decay Rate

Controls how quickly the light’s intensity decreases with distance. The Decay Rate setting has no effect at distances less than 1 unit. The default setting is No Decay.

For more information on light decay, see Light decay.

Tip

The Decay Rate also controls how fog brightness decreases with distance from the light source.

In the Attribute Editor, click the arrow to display the drop-down list and select a Decay Rate. In the options window, type a value or use the slider.

No Decay

no decay; light reaches everything

Linear

light intensity decreases directly (linearly) with distance (slower than real world light)

Quadratic

light intensity decreases proportionally with the square of distance (the same as real world light)

Cubic

light intensity decreases proportionally with the cube of distance (faster than real world light)