Create a light at camera
This would save me so much guesswork, I would just check Camera To View then place the camera where I would like a spotlight or other types of lights to be located at and the spot to be pointing at. Hit a [ Create a light at camera ] then move the camera to the next place where I want a light. So simple.
14 Comments
You can also create the light anywhere, select it, also select the camera, and in the object properties copy all location and rotation values from the camera to the light.
It is possible to "look through" any object's negative z direction just like the camera and use walk or fly navigation move to place the object. This works for lights. Ctrl+numpad 0
It would be nice if you could select an object or light and then shift click the camera icon in the viewport to look through it like a camera.
* @thinsoldier * Yeah! something like that.
I have no idea what you're requesting, but would giving your lamp a "track to constraint", so it tracks an object, would that help?
* @BlenderSplendor * It's no different than Camera to View except do the same with a light. Light to view. For a spot light it would point directly at the same direction you are looking at a scene.
You can control lights like cameras
* @Anže * How do I make a spot light point the same way as camera to view?
* @toydragon * blender.stackexchange.com/questions/167860/blender-align-selected-light-to-view-similar-to-maya
* @Anže * This is not what I am proposing, it's actually the opposite this makes a light wherever the 3D cursor is and the view becomes the location of the spotlight. No! I want without moving the view at all to have a spotlight created and pointing at exactly what the camera sees.
* @toydragon * copy and paste the location and rotation values from the camera to the light. Can also be done with constraints. Can probably be programmed pretty easily. Consider hiring a python dev to code it for you. Shouldn't take them long so it should be cheap.
* @thinsoldier * My karma is negative now so I am merely a pariah of this board just so you know. Here is the solution I found at less hostile boards than here.
Select Camera
Shift+s Choose: Cursor to selected
Look through your camera (View > Active Camera) or numpad 0
Add your spotlight and choose Align > View
I say this should be done within 1 step but I'll take it.
* @toydragon * You're not a pariah. This board is for suggesting much more important things that require significant time and effort from the Blender developers. Like I said, if this feature is important enough to you, you can find someone to make a script or addon for it. It's a simple enough feature that can be created from existing code within Blender or within addons that already exist.
This is the #1 biggest difference between Blender and every other similar program. Ask anyone who works with 3DS Max how impossible it is to get a small feature request added to the official program. It is impossible. Ask them how hard it is to find a programmer who can customize 3DS Max for them without having to get help from the actual 3DS Max team. Some would say that is beyond impossible. But with Blender, 100% of the code is free and anyone can go look at it and see how it works and copy/paste parts of it together to add a new feature that only they or their team needs and don't need to involve the rest of the Blender team or win support from the wider community.
The update to this forum should be done some time in the summer of this year and when they update it they will tweak this section so that even if your idea is extremely unpopular, it will not subtract from your overall Karma score. Unpopular posts in other areas will reduce karma but you will no longer be punished for an unpopular proposal in the Right-Click-Select section.
* @thinsoldier * It's not about my needs or how important this proposal is to me, I just want to be part of making Blender a better product that is why I came here. I didn't propose something for my selfish needs, I was proposing things that might interest many. My ideas didn't appear any less important than the trending proposals. So I added my own, now I'm permanently muted, if you don't like the term "pariah" I'll limit that to how I feel.
* @toydragon * Some your suggestions got upvotes. Some got many downvotes. Try deleting the very unpopular ones and see if your karma improves.
If you want to interact with the community without the stupid karma system please join blender.chat/ and blenderartists.org/
If you want to make product suggestions then join devtalk.blender.org/ but you have to seriously think before posting things. Think about the current state of development, the current develoment roadmap, the realities of writing, organizing, reviewing, and maintaining a very large code base with very few programmers, etc. before suggesting very insignificant or unrealistic things.
Most of your suggestions here are easily doable by any 1 current Blender dev. But they are already busy on a long list of things that was decided upon several years ago. To really do all of your suggestions they would need to hire at least 18 more programmers and put 2 on each of your requests. But as soon as they start your requests they'll be asked to go do something more important first so you'll still be waiting a good 2 years before all 9 of your requests are implemented.