The Light Select Render Element stores direct lighting information from user-selected lights in the scene.
Page Contents
Overview
The Light Select Render Element represents the lighting contribution from one or more user-selected lights in the scene. Each Light Select channel can output the selected lights' raw, diffuse, or specular contributions to the illumination, or the overall (normal) light contribution. When multiple lights are selected for one Light Select render element, all contributions from those lights are combined into that one render element. Multiple Light Select passes can be rendered for a single scene, and lights may be included in more than one Light Select pass.
This element is similar to the Lighting Render Element. However, the Lighting element combines the effect of all lights in the scene while the Light Select element allows for just a user-selected light or set of lights to be broken out; showing their own individual effect(s) on the scene's illumination. By using these render elements, specific lights in the resulting render can be adjusted (color, temperature, brightness, etc.) in a composite without the need for re-rendering.
For example, by generating a Light Select element for all of the back lights in a scene, an artist may adjust the back-lighting of the rendered scene easily in the composite, without affecting the rest of the scene's illumination.
UI Path: ||Toolbar|| > V-Ray Menu icon > Render > VRayRenderElement > Type: Light Select
Inputs
The Light Select Render Element node allows one or more lights to be connected as inputs.
Properties
Apply Color Mapping – When enabled, color mapping will be applied to the Render Element.
Consider for Anti-Aliasing – When enabled, anti-aliasing will be used where possible.
Type– Sets what type of lighting contribution is generated in the element as follows:
Normal – Lighting within the Light Select element behaves as normal and contains diffuse and specular information.
Raw – Lighting within the Light Select element behaves as a raw render element.
Diffuse – Lights within the Light Select element output only their diffuse contribution and contain no specular information.
Specular – Lights within the Light Select element output only their specular contribution and contain no diffuse information.
Notes
When using Light Select, a good practice is to have one Light Select pass for each light source in your scene. This way the Lighting element can be recreated from them, and adjusted as needed while compositing without re-rendering.
If the Light Select element type is set to Normal, the specular contribution is added to the render element. While this is perfect for simple compositing, a better workflow is for each light to be selected for two Light Select Render Elements, one with its type set to Diffuse and another with its type set to Specular. In this way, the specular and diffuse lighting can both be controlled independently at a composite level.