Apple Motion 5.1.1 User Manual
Page 942
 
Chapter 21
3D compositing
942
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Intensity: A slider that acts as a dimmer switch for lighting. If you use a Directional light at 
100% intensity pointed straight at a red object, the object looks red. If you lower the intensity, 
the object and scene get darker. However, if you increase the intensity above 100% you can 
begin to overexpose your scene, eventually causing the object to appear white. The Intensity 
value slider ranges from 0 and 400, but there is no upper limit for Intensity (use the adjacent 
value slider to set a value above 400).
Note: Multiple lights interacting with an object combine to increase the object’s apparent 
brightness as they would in the real world. If you have two spot lights overlapping in space 
and pointing in the same direction with Intensity set to 100%, you see the same result as 
having a single spot light with its Intensity set to 200%.
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Falloff Start: A slider that enables you to adjust where the falloff point of a light begins. In 
the real world, light falls off—or has less of an effect—as the distance from the light source 
increases. Usually falloff starts at the center of the light object. Setting Falloff Start adds 
additional control to your lighting. This parameter applies to light types that use a Position 
parameter (Point and Spot).
In the example below, a light is positioned slightly above the origin of the scene. There are 
three rings of cards at a distance of 200, 500, and 1000 units from the light. (In this example, a 
visible light source—the bulb at the center of the rings of cards—is simulated for illustrative 
purposes.) The light’s Intensity is set to 100% and Falloff is set to 10%. When Falloff Start is set 
to 0 (left, below), the light begins to fall off by the time it hits the innermost ring. When Falloff 
Start is set to 200 (right, below), the inner ring is lit at 100% intensity and the outer rings are 
slightly brighter than before.
Falloff Start set to 0
Falloff Start set to 200
When Falloff Start is increased to 500 (left, below), the inner and middle rings are lit at 100% 
intensity, and the outer ring is brighter than before. Finally, when Falloff Start is set to 1000 
(right, below), all rings are lit at 100% intensity.
Falloff Start set to 500
Falloff Start set to 1000
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