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

See Illuminates by Default.

Emit Diffuse and Emit Specular

See 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)