Set Light Type

[lloydalvarez]

Anybody know how to set the Light type?

addLight adds a spot light and i want a point light.

Thanks

[nab]

Hey Lloyd,
you can't do that directly with scripting.

The possible workarounds are:

• 1. attach to your script a project with a single comp that contains each type of light (layer 1: parallel light, layer 2: spot light, etc), and import that project into the current project. I think this has been discussed in the forum (do a search for more details). You would use a script like this:

  Code: Select all

  // Import the "light" project
  var lightProjName = "light.aep";
  var impOpt = new ImportOptions(File(lightProjName)); // same folder as the script
  var proj = app.project;
  proj.importFile(impOpt);
  
  // Retrieve the comp that contains the light layers
  var i, lightComp;
  for (i = 1; i <= proj.numItems; i++)
  {
      if (proj.item(i).name == lightProjName)
      {
          lightComp = proj.item(i).item(1); // assuming the comp is the first item
          break;
      }
  }
  
  if (lightComp)
  {
      // Retrieve light layers    
      var parallelLight = lightComp.layer(1);
      var spotLight = lightComp.layer(2);
      var pointLight = lightComp.layer(3);
      var ambientLight = lightComp.layer(4);
      
      // Add point light to the active comp
      var activeComp = proj.activeItem;
      pointLight.copyToComp(activeComp);
      
      // Delete imported stuff
      proj.item(i).remove();
  }
  

• 2. write a little plug-in that creates a light and sets its type using AEGP_SetLightType(). I can give you the full source code since I wrote this plug-in last year (you would have to compile a version for Mac, or ask Dale to do it for you ).

[lloydalvarez]

Thanks for the great reply nab! And I would love to take a look at that plugin code if you don't mind.. might as well.. scripting has certainly proved to be my gateway drug into programming

if you want to email it you can send it to my name at aescripts dat com

[nab]

I sent the files via PM because I received an error with the other address