IES Sky Light (Photometric)

Create panel > Systems > Create a Daylight system in your scene. > Modify panel > Daylight Parameters rollout > Skylight > IES Sky

Create panel > Lights > Photometric > IES Sky

Create menu > Lights > IES Sky

Outdoor scene lit by the IES sky light

IES Sky is a physically-based light object that simulates atmospheric effects on skylight. Its values are set automatically based on its orientation in the scene, according to a user-defined geographic location, time, and date.

Note: You can create daylight lights manually, but to get the best results, you should use them in conjunction with the Daylight system. The Daylight system combines the two daylight components of sun and sky in a unified interface. It allows you to set date and time positions with the light type you want to use.

Note: IES Sky works correctly only when the sky object is pointing down from the Z-axis, meaning that it points down when looking from the Top view.

Note: IES Sky does not render unless you use one of the advanced lighting options: radiosity or light tracing.

Note: When you add an IES Sky light, the software automatically assigns a Look At controller to it, with the the light's target object assigned as the Look At target. You can use the controller settings on the Motion panel to assign any other object in the scene as the Look At target.

Interface

In addition to the IES Sky Parameters rollout described here, the IES Sky light also uses the following rollouts:

Shadow Parameters

Advanced Effects Rollout

Optimizations Rollout

On—Turns the sky light on and off in the viewport.

Multiplier—Adjusts the intensity of the skylight.

When this is set to 1.0, the intensity will be physically accurate based on angle. You can, however, override this by changing the value. This is useful for doing night shots with artificial lighting.

Sky Color—The color swatch opens the Color Selector, which lets you set the color of the sky.

Clear/Partly Cloudy/Cloudy—Determines how much light is scattered through the sky.