The 3ds Max Design Lighting Analysis feature can help you evaluate how interior or exterior space is illuminated at different times of the day, or how interiors are affected by various man-made lighting systems.

In this tutorial, you will use a 3ds Max Design Light Meter object to evaluate how light intensity from a daylight source affects the lighting of an indoor tennis court. You’ll render the scene and export the Light Meter data to an Excel file, making it available for analysis by third parties. Also, you will overlay the image with a layer of Light Meter readings for a more visual representation of lighting intensity.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to:

• Use the Lighting Analysis Assistant to prepare a scene for lighting analysis
• Create a Daylight system
• Use a weather data file to set daylight system light intensity
• Create a Light Meter and adjust its sampling point density
• Adjust the range of color feedback from the Light Meter
• Convert Light Meter data to spreadsheet format
• Overlay Light Meter data onto a rendered image of the scene

Skill level: Intermediate

Time to complete: 1 hour