Maya lights spilling through geometry problem.

VikingJim

Hey Champions,

I am currently lighting a scene in Maya, and I'm having trouble finding a fix for this problem. The light selected is an area light, and it is spilling through the walls of the cell onto the stairwell. This is happening for multiple lights within the scene. Has anyone ran into this before? If so, I'd be very appreciative for a little guidance to resolve this issue.

Illusions

The simplest explanation is that lights with regular, default settings in Maya, coupled with regular, default render settings, do not behave like lights in real life do, and do not take into account obstructions when determining whether or not a surface is lit. For instance, in real life, if you were to put a light inside of a closed box, then put that box in a room, only the interior of the box would be lit. In Maya, with default settings, any surface oriented toward the light source will be lit. To overcome this, you either have to tweak the lights (for instance turning shadows on), or tweak how your scene is rendered.

VikingJim

THanks for the response, It was a combination of a few rookie mistakes and mislabled lights on my behalf. That and the inaccuracy of the viewport depiction of lights. Cheers!