Modifying Lights

A newly created light is, by default, a white point light set to 100% intensity. You can customize the type of light, as well as its color and intensity.

You can animate these properties to create lighting effects in the composite. When you change a property at different frames in the clip, keyframes are set at each point and the property is interpolated between the keyframes.

For example, if you make the light blue at frame 0 and red at the last frame, the light gradually changes from red to blue when you play the clip. You can animate the intensity of a light to make lights "flicker," or change intensity slowly over time. For more information on animating, Creating Animations.

To modify a light:

1. Select the light. See Selecting Lights.
2. Click Light in the Composite Controls panel.

The Light controls appear.

3. To change the type of light, enable Distant, Point, or Spot in the Light Type group.



Note: If you enabled Spot, you can also customize the cone angle and edge softness of the light. For more information, see Modifying Spotlights.

4. To change the intensity of the light, adjust the Intensity field.
5. To change the light color, do one of the following:
• Click the Color box, choose a color from the Pick Color dialog that appears, and then click OK.
• Click the color picker and then click in a viewport to choose a color.



If the composite is the current operator in the viewport, the lighting changes appear.