Placeable lights
Drop point and spot lamps into a scene — with shadows, a day/night schedule, projected gobo patterns, and volumetric light shafts.
Open in the interactive manual →The interactive version has full-text search, a table of contents, and light/dark themes.
Beyond the scene-wide sun & sky, you can drop placeable lamps into a scene — a lantern, a streetlamp, a spotlight on a display. A light node adds to the sun & sky; it's a lamp, not a second sun. Add one from Create ▸ Light ▸ Point Light or Spot Light, then tune it in the Light section of Properties.
Point vs spot
| Type | What it is |
|---|---|
| Point | A bulb that shines in every direction from its position. |
| Spot | An aimed cone of light. It beams down the node's local -Y — rotate the node to aim it. |
The controls
| Control | Does |
|---|---|
| Color | The light's tint. |
| Intensity | Brightness in candela (physical) — around 30 reads like a bright lamp a few metres out. |
| Range | How far the light reaches, in metres. 0 = unlimited. |
| Decay | Falloff exponent — 2 is physically correct; lower carries the light further. |
| Angle° / Softness | Spot only. The cone's half-angle, and how feathered its edge is (0 = hard, 1 = fully soft). |
Shadows (budgeted)
Tick Cast shadows to have a light throw real shadows. Shadows are expensive, so at most four lights per scene cast at once — the first four shadow-enabled lights in scene order win, and the Inspector shows the running count (and warns a light that's over budget). Everything else stays lit, just shadowless.
Day / night schedule
Each light has a Time of day setting so it can switch itself with the Live sky:
A "Night only" streetlamp lights up at dusk and switches off at dawn on its own. (The Always-daytime toggle and Studio mode both count as day.)
Gobos & light shafts (spot only)
A gobo projects a pattern through a spot's beam — the dappled light of leaves, window slats, rippling water. Pick a bundled pattern (Dapple, Blinds, Window pane, Caustics) or a Custom image/video, and optionally set Motion ▸ Drift to give it a slow wind-like pan and spin.
Turn on Lit air (volumetric beam) and the beam becomes visible shafts of light — god rays through the cone, carved by the gobo if one is set. Beam density controls how thick the lit air reads.