form•Z | Lighting | Emitter Materials

Lighting with Emitter Materials

The built-in light types are very convenient, but may not be appropriate for some situations:

• Many lights with the same emitter parameters.
• Unique geometry, such as tubes or rings.
  
  

In these cases, simply model the necessary emitter geometry and apply an emitter material. To change any form•Z native material into an emitter material, select it's Maxwell representation, choose the Translate Shaded option, then set the Material Hint to Emitter.

• Plain Color: The emitted light color will be that selected in the Shaded color picker.
• HDRI: If an HDRI image is loaded into the color channel of the Shaded renderer, it will be used as the emitter. Useful for setting up light-emitting television screens and the like.
• Temperature: Color is specified by emitter temperature, in degrees kelvin.
• Luminance: The luminance of the source can be specified via a number of industry-standard schemes, including by input power and efficacy, output lumens, lux, etc. The intensity of light is delivered into the scene is affected by not only by the luminance, but also by the color and the emitter size (see below).

Alternately, referenced MXMs containing emitters may be used. In this case, make sure to enable the 'Is Emitter' checkbox just below the MXM filepath entry.

For further information, see Lighting with Emitters.