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Assign colors to polygon vertices by painting
Working with color per vertex data
Animate polygon vertex colors
Assign colors to polygon vertices using Prelight
Prelighting
calculates and then stores the shading and lighting color data from
the rendered appearance of a polygon mesh directly on its vertex
colors. This is also referred to as “baking” the lighting.
Prelighting is often used when creating content
for interactive video games because it can more efficiently simulate
shading and lighting effects. This reduces the amount of rendering
calculations that must occur in real-time during the game and subsequently
improves the interactive performance of the video game.
You can prelight a polygon mesh in a scene using
either the Maya software renderer or using the mental ray for Maya
renderer. It is also possible to export the prelighting data that
is produced as a texture map.
To
prelight a scene
- Select
the meshes or components you want to prelight.
- You
can choose either the Maya software renderer or the mental ray for Maya
renderer depending on your desired workflow for your prelighting work.
Do one of the following:
- Set
the prelight options and apply the settings and close the window.
To save prelighting
to a texture map
- Select
the prelit mesh.
- Select
Color > Paint Vertex Color Tool > .
- In
the Paint Vertex Color Tool settings
window, open the Attribute Maps > Export section.
- Set
the attributes you want to export and click Export.
Notes
- The
mesh must be illuminated by at least one light for prelighting to
have any effect.
- Prelighting
can be an iterative process. You may need to repeat the process to
achieve the effect you want, tweaking the prelight options each
time.