Multiple Lights

Salem2007

Is there a way in Carrara 8.5 to select multiple lights and change all there setting at one time?  I imported a poser scene into Carrara and there are a bunch of lights that imported with the scene.  I want to change tehm all from spot to bulb and set teh lensflare effect to streetlight.  I'll probably have to lower the intensity and area as well--not sure yet.  I know I can set one bulb and duplicate it, but then I'd have to position the new bulb....

Any suggestions before I begin?

Thanks in advance.

 

 

evilproducer

I was going to suggest the Master Light option in the Edit Menu, but it doesn't do light effects such as lens flares and it can't change light types.

Like it or not, setting up an individual light and duplicating it may be your best option. If the street lights you mentioned are evenly spaced along the street, you can make your duplicate, position it on the next street light and duplicate again and again, and the subsequent duplicates will be translated along whatever axis and distance the original duplicate was moved. When you are done, there may be some minor adjustments needed, provided the street lights are the same distance apart.

Salem2007

Well, there's only 10 that I really need to set up--the rest I can delete.  I'm actualy using the street lamp effect on candles and tehy are at various levels, so positioning is critical.  I just wanted to mkae sure there wasn't an easy way to do it.  I'm surprised there is not a way to copy settings from one light to another.  Thanks for the input!

WendyLuvsCatz

Salem2007 said:

Well, there's only 10 that I really need to set up--the rest I can delete.  I'm actualy using the street lamp effect on candles and tehy are at various levels, so positioning is critical.  I just wanted to mkae sure there wasn't an easy way to do it.  I'm surprised there is not a way to copy settings from one light to another.  Thanks for the input!

you can drag a saved light from the browser to that light in scene tree then unparent it

I do this with lots of things like trees replacing in replicators etc so long as saved one 0,0,0

Salem2007

JaguarElla said:

Salem2007 said:

Well, there's only 10 that I really need to set up--the rest I can delete.  I'm actualy using the street lamp effect on candles and tehy are at various levels, so positioning is critical.  I just wanted to mkae sure there wasn't an easy way to do it.  I'm surprised there is not a way to copy settings from one light to another.  Thanks for the input!

you can drag a saved light from the browser to that light in scene tree then unparent it

I do this with lots of things like trees replacing in replicators etc so long as saved one 0,0,0

That worked perfectly!  I had no idea I could save a light and re-use it.  Thanks!

evilproducer

I had forgotten that one. Thanks Wendy.

MarkIsSleepy

You can save the individual components of a light too.  For example if you set-up a lens flare reset you like, you can then save that preset and load it to other lights.  You still need to do it individually for each light,but it's a lot faster than having to set each one up individually.  In this case JaguarElla's way is even faster, but thought I'd add this as just an additional piece of info that might be useful some time. 

jrm21

Salem2007 said:

Is there a way in Carrara 8.5 to select multiple lights and change all there setting at one time?  I imported a poser scene into Carrara and there are a bunch of lights that imported with the scene.  I want to change tehm all from spot to bulb and set teh lensflare effect to streetlight.  I'll probably have to lower the intensity and area as well--not sure yet.  I know I can set one bulb and duplicate it, but then I'd have to position the new bulb....

Any suggestions before I begin?

Thanks in advance.

 

It doesn't seem like it was specifically mentioned...   You can edit multiple lights and change their settings at on e time. Just select all the lights in the "Instances" panel and make your edits. You can change from spot to bulb, change intensity and edit many other details. Unfortunately, you cannot edit effects (i.e. lensflare) in this way. Combining this with the "preset" suggestion above may be a good solution for your situation.

Salem2007

Thanks for the additional options, guys.  I think I missed the light type, intensity, and range were still editable when multiple lights were selected because the "Restrict Lighting" option was removed (making the light options move-up).  When the light options moved--I thought they were removed.....a big oversight on my part.

Thanks again!