Introduction to Maya - Modeling Fundamentals Vol 2
This course will look in the fundamentals of modeling in Maya with an emphasis on creating good topology. It's aimed at people that have some modeling experience in Maya but are having trouble with complex objects.
# 1 28-07-2004 , 11:38 PM
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Animating Spotlight's intensity

Is there a way to animate a spotlight's intensity when you use intensity curves? Since the graph editor shows a light's intensity over distance, how do you change its value over time?

# 2 29-07-2004 , 08:45 AM
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Since the graph editor shows a light's intensity over distance

No it doesnt. It shows it over time. What exactly do you need to do? If you just want to animate the light's intesity over time then just key it as with any other attribute.

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# 3 29-07-2004 , 03:52 PM
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Animation light's intensity

If you click on 'create' next to 'intensity curve' in the Attribute Editor, you get a curve in the Graph Editor like on the image i've attached. The horizontal value is labeled 'lightInfo.sampleDistance', which shows the light's fading intensity over a distance. Maya's help files say the same thing. So how do you switch from looking at distance to looking at time? Thanks!

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# 4 29-07-2004 , 04:16 PM
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key it normally e.g. in the channel box and then look at the graph editor you will then see it over time.

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# 5 29-07-2004 , 06:19 PM
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It doesn't work. Nothing happens when i set keys in the channel box. I also tried first keying the intensity over 100 frames and then creating an intensity curve and got an error saying "spotlight intensity already has an incoming connection". Maybe you can explain your process step by step, so i can make sure i'm not omitting anything. Thank you!

# 6 30-07-2004 , 08:54 AM
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1> create a new light
2> right click on intensity in the channel box >> key selected
3> move time slider
4> repeat step 2

that's it

Alan


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# 7 30-07-2004 , 08:24 PM
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Yes, of course this works. The problem is i am trying to combine keying the intensity (what you've described) with using intensity curves (a curve that represents a light's diminishing intensity over distance). They both show up in the graph editor, and from what I've experienced can only be used one per light as they occupy the same channel. If you know of a way to combine them, please let me know. The workaround I came up with is keying light's color instead.

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