How to add light in 3Ds Max?

In the real world, lights allow us to see things, and 3ds Max lights do the same thing. In the absence of any specified lights, 3ds Max provides default lighting. In this way, you can see any objects you create directly without worrying about lighting the scene. If you create a new light, the default lights disappear, but if you delete all the other lights, they magically appear again.

Let’s now look at an easy way to add light in 3DS Max.

1. To begin with, we need to see the options for converting the default scene lighting into an actual light object.

Open Create menu, then Lights > Standard Lights > add Default Light to Scene
or
Open Object menu, then Lights > Add Default Lights to Scene

For viewports, there is a key light positioned in front and to the left of the scene, and a fill light behind it.

In the picture, key light A is in front of the object on the upper-left side, while fill light B is behind it on the lower-right side.

Note: Keep in mind that if you have already added a default light, you’ll receive a warning prompting you to rename or delete the previous default light object.

To add default lights as objects, follow these steps

2. Right-click or click the General viewport label (“[ + ]”).

3. Select Configure
4. On the Viewport Configuration dialog > Rendering Method tab, in the Rendering Options group, select Default Lights and then select 2 Lights. Click OK to close the dialog.
5. Select Object menu >Lights > Add Default Lights To Scene
6. On the Add Default Lights To Scene dialog, toggle Add Default Key Light, Add Default Fill Light, or both. Click OK.
7. Activate the Top viewport, and on the status bar, click (Zoom Extents).
In the viewport, you can now see the lights.