Night and lamps

Set a night mood in Atmosphere and the scene’s lamps come on. Painted lights are dim decoration in daylight and real light sources after dark. You never switch a lamp on; the scene’s darkness does it.

What turns on

Every placed fig with painted light : streetlamps, windows you painted lit, glowing signs, a firefly jar. Each one pools its light and casts its shadows per Light and shadow .

The Glow row on the fig’s organizer form still has the last word: Off keeps one lamp dark in a lit street.

Buildings pass light through openings

A drawn building with a lit interior spills light through its windows and doorways, and nowhere else. Walls block light; openings pass it. A window spills only when a lit lamp stands inside the building. A closed door does not leak: open it and the light comes through. A cottage at night reads as warm windows on dark walls, not a glowing box.

Buildings never glow on their own. If a building shines at night, something inside it is doing the shining: a lamp fig you placed, a lit ceiling panel you painted.

Building a night scene

1. Set a night mood.
2. Place lamps where the scene needs pools of light: a streetlamp by the path, a window fig on the wall.
3. Turn one or two Glow rows Off for contrast.

Two or three lamps light a scene better than ten. Darkness between the pools is what makes the pools read.