Light Types

Lights come in three types:

• headlights, the axis of which always coincides with the view of the camera,

• camera lights, which move together with the camera, but which can occupy any fixed relative position with respect to the camera,

• scene lights, the position of which is fixed to the scene, and which is thus unaffected by moving the camera. This is the default type.

Headlight

For headlights the pyvista.Camera.position and pyvista.Camera.focal_point properties are meaningless. No matter where you move the camera, the light always emanates from the view point:

import pyvista as pv
from pyvista import examples

mesh = examples.download_bunny()
mesh.rotate_x(90, inplace=True)
mesh.rotate_z(180, inplace=True)

plotter = pv.Plotter(lighting='none')
plotter.add_mesh(mesh, color='lightblue', smooth_shading=True)
light = pv.Light(light_type='headlight')
# these don't do anything for a headlight:
light.position = (1, 2, 3)
light.focal_point = (4, 5, 6)
plotter.add_light(light)
plotter.show()

Static Scene

Interactive Scene

Camera light

Camera lights define their pyvista.Camera.position and pyvista.Camera.focal_point properties in a coordinate system that is local to the camera. The coordinates in the scene’s coordinate system can be accessed through the pyvista.Light.world_position and pyvista.Light.world_focal_point read-only properties, respectively. For specifics of the local coordinate system used for the coordinates please see the documentation of pyvista.Light.set_camera_light().

plotter = pv.Plotter(lighting='none')
plotter.add_mesh(mesh, color='lightblue', smooth_shading=True)
# a light that always shines from the right of the camera
light = pv.Light(position=(1, 0, 0), light_type='camera light')
plotter.add_light(light)
plotter.show()

Static Scene

Interactive Scene

Scene light

Scene lights are attached to the scene, their position and focal point are interpreted as global coordinates:

plotter = pv.Plotter(lighting='none')
plotter.add_mesh(mesh, color='lightblue', smooth_shading=True)
# a light that always shines on the left side of the bunny
light = pv.Light(position=(0, 1, 0), light_type='scene light')
plotter.add_light(light)
plotter.show()

Static Scene

Interactive Scene