The next light source is called the Spotlight. As the name suggests, it is used to create a light source that emits a cone of light in a specific direction, similar to a follow spot used in theaters. The Spotlight tool button can be found on the Lights panel within the Visualize panel in the 3D Basics workspace, as shown in the following screenshot. An alternative method is to type the command name, SPOTLIGHT, (or just type SPO) and then press Enter, as shown in the following screenshot:

If you are using the 3D Modeling workspace, you can find the Spotlight tool button in the Lights panel within the Visualize panel.

A Spotlight source can be created as follows:

1. After starting the Spotlight source command, specify the location of the Spotlight using the mouse cursor. Alternatively, you can type the coordinates of the location using the keyboard and then press Enter. In the example in the screenshot, the upper-end point of the vertical line is selected.
2. Use the mouse cursor to specify the direction of the Spotlight. In the following screenshot, the corner point will be selected so that the Spotlight is facing that corner:

3. After specifying the location, a settings menu will appear. To create the light source using the default settings and end the command, click on eXit.

The command terminates and the light source is created. Light is cast as a cone originating from the Spotlight location, as shown here:

As shown in the previous example, an options menu containing ten options for the light source appears in the third step just before the command ends. The options are the same as those discussed in the previous section, with the addition of two more that are specific to Spotlights, which are Hotspot and Falloff. These two options are for adjusting the Hotspot and Falloff angles of the Spotlight.

If you select the Spotlight source, you will find a number of grab (control) points that can be categorized into four types:

• Along the Spotlight direction line, you will find two points. These are Position and Target grab points, which can be used to modify the location and direction of the Spotlight.
• On the outer side of the Spotlight direction line, you will find two outside pointing arrows. These can also be used to change the position and the target of the Spotlight, but change is limited to along the Spotlight direction line.
• On the light cone's outer circle, you will find four small arrows called the Falloff grab points. They can be used to modify the outer light cone angle.
• On the light cone's inner circle, you will find another four small arrows called the Hotspot grab points. These can be used to change the light cone Hotspot angle. The four grab points are highlighted in the following screenshot:

As previously mentioned, Position and Target grab points can be used to quickly modify the location of the Spotlight and the location of the target point, as shown in the following screenshot:

Position and target line grab points can also be used to change the position of the Spotlight source and target, as shown in the following step-by-step example:

1. Click on Position along the line grab point.
2. Move the mouse to change the Spotlight location. Notice that the Spotlight movement is limited to the light cone direction.
3. When you arrive at the desired destination, click again to finish. In the following screenshot, we can see that the light intensity has decreased because the Spotlight has moved away from the wall:

Falloff grab points can be used to control the light cone outer angle, as shown in the following screenshot. Notice that only the outer angle has changed; the Hotspot angle did not change:

The light cone has an inner angle called the Hotspot angle. This angle forms the limit of the maximum brightness (or the beam angle, as it is called by lighting designers). The brightness will gradually decrease to reach the minimum at the edge of the full cone (at the Falloff angle). The Hotspot grab points can be used to control the Hotspot angle of the light cone, as shown in the following screenshot:

The intensity and the color of the created Spotlight source can be modified by using the properties palette. For more details, please refer to the Creating a Point light source section of this chapter.