Lights and Cameras

“Little Village Far, Far Away”

Copyright 2000 Eni Oken

Lights and cameras are scene objects that simulate their real-world counterparts.

Lights provide lighting for the geometry of a scene: they can light the scene from “offstage,” or (with a little extra work), they can appear within the scene itself. Standard lights are simple and easy to use. Photometric lights are more complex, but provide a physically accurate model of real-world lighting.

Cameras frame the scene, providing a controllable point of view. You can animate camera movement. Cameras can simulate some aspects of real-world photography, such as depth-of-field and motion blur.