Is moving lights off camera very awkward?

DMacDraws

*workaround found, check my 3rd post further down if you're struggling with positioning manually tweaked lights*

Heya guys! First up Toolbag 3 is a magic tool, I'm loving the demo. However I'm thinking I'm missing something though because It's clunky moving lights, and when things are bad I've usually missed something. The three inconsistent field types for rotate, scale and transform did my head in Sorry if I've missed this in the docs!

If I have my composition right, my lights nearly right, how do I move my off camera lights while I watch the hilights on the model? I can do it with sky lights, that interface is awesome, just dragging on the rectangular pano.  But for dynamic lights I have to switch to another camera to move them around, so I can't see how the surface reacts.  Or I enter values in the text field for x translate, hit enter, try again?? 

What I'm looking for is universal spinners for numerical inputs or a wireframe scene view or something, I'm sure I'm missing it because it just can't be that awkward. In Maya I'd pick an x/y/z in the channel box and middle drag in viewport.  Then holding modifier keys changes the amount of the increment. Or I'd use a second viewport maybe in wireframe or flat shade to move the lights. In photoshop I drag the label next to a text field or tap up/down cursor keys in text field to increment decrement. What am I missing?

If this is right up front in docs or a video tute much apologies for wasting folks time!

Cheers!

EarthQuake

The best way to do this currently is generally with two cameras. There isn't a way to do split viewports at this time, but that is something we will consider adding in the future. Switching to spinners for the transform boxes is on the todo list, though I'm not sure when we'll be able to add that.

Thanks for the feedback.

DMacDraws

EarthQuake said:

The best way to do this currently is generally with two cameras. There isn't a way to do split viewports at this time, but that is something we will consider adding in the future. Switching to spinners for the transform boxes is on the todo list, though I'm not sure when we'll be able to add that.

Thanks for the feedback.

Hey thanks for the info Earthquake, much appreciated! I imagine turning down the skybox and putting in studio lights is a little bit of an off label use, but the results are so nice once you wrestle the lights into place.

I noticed with fbx imported files there's a checkbox for lights, could I just make a little light rig in maya and bring that in? Then I'd only need small adjustments.

With the spinners, is there a way to speed them up and slow them down (like with control and shift in other programs)? If not is that something you guys will be able to add down the road?

Thanks again for the help.

Joopson

You can also make the lights a child of the sky, and then, as you rotate the sky, the lights will also rotate. Not sure if that fits your needs, but it's very useful in my experience! Just hold shift, and click and drag in the viewport.

DMacDraws

Joopson said:

You can also make the lights a child of the sky, and then, as you rotate the sky, the lights will also rotate. Not sure if that fits your needs, but it's very useful in my experience! Just hold shift, and click and drag in the viewport.

Haha good timing, I was just popping back to say if anyone else had this problem I have a nice solution that's made my life easier. I came across it looking through Kostolny's Metal Johnny files and playing.

He had popped a light in the skybox and moved it, but then tweaked the values directly in the heirarchy. Now if you move them again they'll lose your colour and strength changes, but you can just rotate them right on the origin. Like  directional lights in Maya they'll fall on the outside of the model like a distant sun. It combines the easy initial placement of the sky lights and the tweakability of custom lights, plus the rotation happens on the origin so you don't have to switch cameras.

Thanks @EarthQuake and @Joopson