Target Spot

Target Spotlight icon

Creates a spotlight with a target. A spotlight casts a focused beam of light like a flashlight, a follow spot in a theater, or a headlight.

Reference

Clicking the line that connects the light and its target selects both objects. However, region selection doesn’t recognize the link line.

When you rename a target spotlight, the target is automatically renamed to match. For example, renaming Light01 to Klieg causes Light01.Target to become Klieg.Target. The target’s name must have the extension .Target. Renaming the target object does not rename the light object.

How To

To create a Target Spotlight

1. Go to the Create panel and click Lights.
2. In the Object Type rollout, click Target Spot.
3. Drag in a viewport. The initial point of the drag is the location of the spotlight, and the point where you release the mouse is the location of the target.

The light is now part of the scene.

4. Set the creation parameters.

To adjust the light, you can move it with the Move transform. Because the spotlight is always aimed at its target, you can't rotate it about its local X or Y axes. However, you can select and move the target object as well as the light itself. When you move either the light or the target, the light's orientation changes so it always points at the target.

Tip: Because the target is displayed as a small square, and because it is often in the same area as objects that you want to illuminate, it can be hard to select by clicking. Select the target spotlight itself, right-click it, then choose Select Target from the popup menu. You can also choose Lights from the Selection Filters list on the toolbar, and then click the target. Clicking the line that connects the light and its target selects both objects.

Another way to adjust a spotlight is to use a spotlight viewport.

To change a viewport to a spotlight view

1. Right-click the viewport label.

The Viewport Properties menu appears.

2. Choose Views.

The name of each spotlight appears in the View list.

3. Choose the name of the spotlight you want.

The viewport now shows the spotlight's point of view.

The default keyboard shortcut for spotlight viewports is: $