Fortunately, moonlight is not all that different from sunlight in its properties.
The main difference is the color and intensity of the light itself.
You still get much of the same reflection of moonlight on surfaces like you do with sunlight, especially when the moon is very bright.
Much like the sun, moonlight also tends to change color depending on where the moon lies in the sky.
However, the moon usually goes from an orange beige color to a bluish-white color as it reaches mid-sky.
Depending on intensity, shadows do exist and can be as intense as sunlight shadows.
People unfamiliar with a renderer's lighting system might be somewhat confused at first.
Rather than defining lights through wattage and bulb type, lights are defined by RGB color schemes as well as a host of other options.
If you have been working with 3D programs, however, you will feel right at home with your 3D application's lighting system.
your 3D application supports just about every option that you could want-stopping just short of caustics.
With a firm grasp of lighting setups, you are ready to explore using your 3D application's lighting system to its fullest potential.
With your 3D application, you now have five lights from which to choose.
Granted, many of the functions contained within them are similar, but each light contains at least one characteristic that makes it unique.
As mentioned previously, your 3D application lights incorporate two types of attenuation and two types of decay.
The new attenuation uses a Near and Far value.
Near Attenuation is designed to control how far from the light source you begin to see the light.
Far Attenuation follows the same principal from the original your 3D application whereby it controls the distance at which the light's effect is completely diminished in relation to the source.
Attenuation is not the best way to control a light's decay for natural lighting.
Instead, use the new Inverse or Inverse Squared Decay options.
Inverse Decay falls off less quickly than Inverse Squared but is not as close to real life.
Recall that Inverse Squared is natural lighting falloff.
Inverse gives you similar results with respect to decay but tapers off much less.
You could use it if your scene is too dark with Inverse Squared.
Note that using decay with attenuation does work.
In this case, it acts much like the Limits parameters of some modifiers.
The decay now occurs between the start and end attenuation distances, rather than from the light source to infinity.
The main difference is the color and intensity of the light itself.
You still get much of the same reflection of moonlight on surfaces like you do with sunlight, especially when the moon is very bright.
Much like the sun, moonlight also tends to change color depending on where the moon lies in the sky.
However, the moon usually goes from an orange beige color to a bluish-white color as it reaches mid-sky.
Depending on intensity, shadows do exist and can be as intense as sunlight shadows.
People unfamiliar with a renderer's lighting system might be somewhat confused at first.
Rather than defining lights through wattage and bulb type, lights are defined by RGB color schemes as well as a host of other options.
If you have been working with 3D programs, however, you will feel right at home with your 3D application's lighting system.
your 3D application supports just about every option that you could want-stopping just short of caustics.
With a firm grasp of lighting setups, you are ready to explore using your 3D application's lighting system to its fullest potential.
With your 3D application, you now have five lights from which to choose.
Granted, many of the functions contained within them are similar, but each light contains at least one characteristic that makes it unique.
As mentioned previously, your 3D application lights incorporate two types of attenuation and two types of decay.
The new attenuation uses a Near and Far value.
Near Attenuation is designed to control how far from the light source you begin to see the light.
Far Attenuation follows the same principal from the original your 3D application whereby it controls the distance at which the light's effect is completely diminished in relation to the source.
Attenuation is not the best way to control a light's decay for natural lighting.
Instead, use the new Inverse or Inverse Squared Decay options.
Inverse Decay falls off less quickly than Inverse Squared but is not as close to real life.
Recall that Inverse Squared is natural lighting falloff.
Inverse gives you similar results with respect to decay but tapers off much less.
You could use it if your scene is too dark with Inverse Squared.
Note that using decay with attenuation does work.
In this case, it acts much like the Limits parameters of some modifiers.
The decay now occurs between the start and end attenuation distances, rather than from the light source to infinity.