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Solaris Lighting

 

Light Settings

In Solaris light objects have two main sections for controlling lights, a Base Properties tab and a renderer specific settings tab like the Redshift or Karma tabs.

 

Base Properties

The Base Properties tab sets the most commonly used light settings across all renderers. This is the best place to control things like light color, intensity, exposure and texture mapping.

A Light's Base Properties

 

Redshift Light Settings

The Redshift tab provides all of the familiar Redshift specific light settings that are not provided by the generic Base Properties tab which allows for full Redshift control over lights.

A Light 's Redshift Properties

 

Light Groups

Solaris supports Light Group AOVs with the use of the Light Group parameter in the Redshift specific settings of a light LOP as outlined below.

For more information on creating Light Group AOVs in Solaris please see the Solaris AOVs page.

Setting a Light LOP's light group to "key_light" to be used with an AOV

 

Light Types

In Solaris there are three main generic lighting LOPS that can be used to create and control lights.

In Solaris a Light LOP can be used for most Redshift light types by itself but other light nodes are needed for something like a Dome Light. The light LOPs are capable of creating the following Redshift lights.

 

Light LOP

Light LOP

Use a Light LOP to create most light types. The type parameter at the top controls whether the light functions like a point light, a distant light, or an area light and also defines its shape with the following options.

 

A Light LOP can also create Spotlights and IES Lights but this is not controlled with the type parameter.

For more information please see the Light LOP documentation for Houdini: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/lop/light.html

 

Please note that when a Light LOP's type is changed the Redshift specific settings will also change to the relevant parameters.

For example, setting a Light Lop to Distance reveals the Redshift specific Sun & Sky settings.

 

Use a Light LOP’s Base Properties settings to control commonly used settings across all renderers for things like light color, exposure or assigning a light texture.

Light LOP Base Properties

 

Spotlight

To create a Spotlight use a Light LOP and enable "Spotlight" under the Shaping tab.

Turning a Light LOP into a Spotlight

 

IES Light

To create an IES Light use a Light LOP and enable “IES” under the Shaping tab.

Light LOP setup for an IES light

 

Sun and Sky Light

To create a Redshift Physical Sun and Sky light use a Distant Light LOP (or Light LOP with its type set to Distance) and activate the “Enable Distant Light as Sun/Sky” checkbox in the Redshift tab.

The sky model can be set to Hosek-Wilkie or Preetham et al in the Redshift tab as well.

Light LOP setup for Redshift Physical Sun & Sky

 

In Solaris the Sun and Sky light has unique override options that are not available in the same light in Houdini. These options allow you to tweak the look and indirect lighting from the sky without affecting the direct lighting from the sun.

Exclusive Solaris options: Sky Overrides

 

Light Shader

Lights can be textured by using a Redshift USD Light Shader node.

Create a Material Library and set up a light shader network that like the one below.

Redshift USD Light Shader network

 

The light shader material must be assigned to an object in the scene, you can create a placeholder object like an emtpy mesh node for this purpose as seen below.

Assigning the Redshift USD Light Shader to a placeholder object in the scene

 

Then assign the Redshift USD Light Shader to the light's Shader Path.

Assigning the Redshift USD Light Shader to a Light's Shader Path

 

Dome Light LOP

Dome Light LOP

To create a Redshift Dome Light use a Dome Light LOP.

The Base Properties settings can be used to assign an HDRI dome light texture in the Texture path across all renderers and adjust commonly used dome light parameters.

Dome Light LOP Base Properties

For more information please see the Dome Light documentation for Houdini: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/lop/domelight.html

 

The Redshift tab provides all familiar Dome Light settings for Redshift.

Dome Light LOP Redshift properties

 

Lighting Tips and Tools

Solaris has several built in lighting tools that work with Redshift right, including viewport shortcuts that allow for easy light manipulation and control.

 

Viewport shortcuts

When a Light LOP is selected a list of shortcuts will become available in the Solaris Scene View.

For a full list of available viewport shortcuts for the Light LOP please see the Houdini documentation: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/lop/light.html#light_state

Light LOP viewport shortcuts

 

Light Mixer

The Light Mixer is useful for quickly accessing lights in a scene and adjusting their most common settings.

Drag and drop lights in the scene from the "Lights" panel on the left to the Sliders section on the right to add the light to the Light Mixer and begin adjusting its parameters as seen with "domelight1" in the image below.

For details on the Light Mixer please see the Houdini documentation: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/lop/lightmixer.html

Light Mixer LOP

 

Light Linker

The Light Linker can be used to control which objects a light effects in Solaris.

Drag and drop lights in the scene from the "Lights" panel on the left to the Rules section in the middle to add the light to the Light Linker as seen with the "key" light in the image below. Shadow links can also be created by alt-dragging lights into the Rules section.

For details on the Light Linker please see the Houdini documentation: https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/nodes/lop/lightlinker.html

 

Light Linker LOP

 

Light Instancing

In Solaris, instanced lights don't support material overrides but the following primvars can be overridden for each instanced light: