From the course: 3ds Max 2019: Advanced Lighting

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Collimating an Arnold light beam with Spread

Collimating an Arnold light beam with Spread - 3ds Max Tutorial

From the course: 3ds Max 2019: Advanced Lighting

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Collimating an Arnold light beam with Spread

- [Instructor] 3ds Max Photometric lights always obey the inverse square law, such that the intensity falls off proportionally to the square of the distance. This is also known as quadratic decay, and it accurately simulates the propagation of energy from a light source. However, many of the lighting fixtures that we use in our daily lives are not just simple light sources, but instead, they are actually assemblies of optical components: light sources, reflectors, and/or lenses. One of the main goals of many lighting fixtures is precisely to defeat the inverse square law and focus light into a beam, so that its intensity is greater at a distance. This is not something that Photometric lights and 3ds Max can do. For any fixture that employs a reflector or a lens or both, the Photometric lights will not accurately represent the light decay. Unfortunately, this invalidates the accuracy of any lighting study done with the 3ds Max Photometric lights that involves lighting instruments with…

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