What are highlights?

When a bright light (sunlight, spotlight, and so on) reflects off a surface, a specular highlight results. In another words, highlights are the hotspots where light is reflected off an object.

In the following image, the highlight value was increased for each object from left to right.

Highlight parameters

Show Highlights for this material

Check the Show Highlights for this material box to turn on highlights.

Use color

Adjusts the color of the highlights. For details on how to use these controls, see Change colors.

Use image file

Applies a specular map to control how highlights appear on an object. For details on how to use these controls, see Apply image maps.

Highlight size

Controls the size of shiny highlights or hotspots on the surface. (This value is sometimes called eccentricity.) Enter any numeric value with unit intervals of 0.1.

TipFor surfaces to be perceived as shiny, the highlight size should be small and the highlight transition value should be high.

TipFor surfaces to be perceived as dull, the specular highlight size should be large and the highlight transition value should be small.

Highlight transition

Modulates or scales the intensity of the specular highlight. (This value is also called specular rolloff.) Enter any numeric value with unit intervals of 0.1.

Environment lighting override

Determines how specular highlights interact with the environment light and/or image-based lighting. For details on how to use these controls, see Apply environment lighting overrides.