Night and lamps

Models with glowing paint light up the scene around them. The glow is painted on the model in the editor and goes with it into every scene. Lamps glow at any time of day but show most in the dark.

A dark time of day

Open Atmosphere and then Light. The Time of day row has presets. The dark ones include Night, Midnight, Cellar, Witching hour, and Blood moon. Midnight keeps a dim moonlight. Cellar turns the main light down to almost nothing, so lamps give the light.

Moods has whole-scene presets: Cozy night, Firefly night, Aurora, Midnight spook, Witching hour, and Blood moon. Firefly night adds glowing specks. They glow but are only for looks and do not light up anything around them.

Which lamps cast shadows

Shadows come from the sun and the two brightest glowing models in the scene. Other glowing models light what is near them but cast no shadows. See Light and shadow .

One lamp at a time

Select a placed glowing model on the Figs tab to open its page. Glow turns its light on or off: Casting or Off. Off stops it lighting the scene but keeps the glow painted on the model. When Casting is on, Light play sets how the light moves: Steady, Blink, Slow, or Flicker.

Glow works in every style. The Flat and Pixel styles show glowing parts as flat, solid color with hard edges.

Buildings pass light through windows

Buildings made in Build don’t glow on their own. Glowing models placed inside a building shine out through the openings (windows and skylights). A Window wall counts as an opening. Sunlight works the same way, shining through the openings onto the floors inside. Doors, including the Glass door and garage doors, are solid and block light.

Openings let all light through. To stop an inside lamp from lighting the outside, set that model’s Glow to Off.

Building a night scene

1. Pick a dark preset in Time of day.
2. Place models with glowing paint where you want light.
3. Set Glow to Off on any model that should glow without lighting the scene.