Superlight replaces manual tweaking with instant iteration. Place lights and cameras, orbit around your subject, and randomize setups in real-time. Achieve professional-grade results faster than ever, with a tool designed for exploration, speed and precision.

Quick Reference

A complete hotkey cheat sheet covering launch/exit, positioning, light and camera controls, modes, and angle cuts.

Launch / Exit

Positioning

Light Controls

Camera Controls

Modes

Angle Cuts

Getting Started

Start with a selected object, add a Superlight light or camera, then press Tab to begin exploring. The sections below cover the main controls and features.

Current Version

Superlight is made by Morecode. The sidebar contains the everyday tools: randomization, presets, A/B/C Compare, keyframing, gobos, and gradients.

What Superlight Adds

Add A Superlight

1. Select an object in Object Mode.
2. Right-click in the 3D View.
3. Choose Add Superlight.

Superlight creates an Area light, places it around the selected object, and aims it at the object's center. Larger objects start with a greater distance, while smaller objects start at a sensible minimum distance. The starting direction is varied, with a helpful bias toward positions above the subject.

The selected object's center becomes the light's pivot. This pivot is the point the light aims at and the point used for orbiting, distance changes, and random placement.

Add A Superlight Camera

1. Select an object in Object Mode.
2. Right-click in the 3D View.
3. Choose Add Superlight camera.

This creates a camera in the Superlight collection and aims it at the selected object. When you add it from a 3D View, it starts from that view's position, angle, and lens, so it feels like a camera version of the view you are already using.

The selected object's center becomes the camera's pivot. You can then orbit, randomize, move the camera, drag its pivot, save it as a preset, or animate it with Motion Easing.

Retarget A Pivot

Opening the live tool keeps the existing pivot. To choose a new target, use any of these options:

• Drag the cyan pivot marker onto a mesh.
• Use Point & Shoot for a camera, then click a surface.
• Use Specular Target for a light, then move over the highlight surface.

The light or camera aims at the new point and updates its distance automatically.

Interactive Modal Tool

Press Tab in the 3D View to start the live tool. It works with all selected Superlight lights and cameras.

When the tool starts, Superlight saves the selected objects so you can cancel safely. A normal Blender light or camera is prepared automatically with a pivot. If an A/B/C state has not been created yet, the first state is saved and the tool starts on the next slot.

Existing pivots are kept. Superlight only refreshes the information it needs to follow normal Blender transforms.

Modal Controls

Default Mode

Modifier Modes

Horizontal and vertical mouse gestures are independent. The exact light setting depends on the light type and, for Area and Spot lights, the current gobo mode.

Pass-Through Inputs

These inputs continue to work as normal Blender controls: Middle Mouse, G, R, S, Numpad 0, and Shift + Right Mouse.

Specular Target And Point & Shoot

Inside the live tool, press Tab to toggle this special aiming mode. What it does depends on whether a light or a camera is active. The overlay shows a SPECULAR TARGET or POINT & SHOOT pill while it's on.

Specular Target (Lights)

This is the fastest way to place a highlight exactly where you want it — perfect for catching a glint on a product, an eye, or a curved surface.

• Move your mouse over your mesh. As you hover, the light automatically repositions to the precise angle that bounces toward the camera, putting a specular highlight right under your cursor.
• The pivot follows your cursor onto the surface, so the light stays aimed at the highlight spot.
• The motion is gently smoothed so the light glides instead of jittering across small surface bumps.

Point & Shoot (Cameras)

• Move your mouse to preview where the camera's pivot will land on the surface.
• Click to confirm — the camera then aims at that point and updates its distance to match.

Aiming happens on the click (not while hovering) so the view stays stable even when you're looking through the very camera you're aiming.

Floor Mode

Key: F (toggle).

Floor Mode keeps lights and cameras in the upper half of the sphere around the pivot. When it's on, randomization and new positions are never generated below your subject — ideal for product and studio setups where you don't want a light coming up through the floor.

The FLOOR pill appears in the on-screen overlay while it's active.

Randomization

Randomization is the heart of the "fast lighting" workflow: instead of placing a light by hand, you scroll the mouse wheel and let Superlight throw the light to a fresh position around your subject. Keep scrolling until you like what you see.

Each light and camera carries its own seed — the number that produces its current random position. Scrolling up steps the seed forward; scrolling down steps it back, so you can always return to a position you liked. You can also type a seed directly in the Randomization panel.

How It Works

1. Superlight starts from the pivot point and the pivot distance.
2. If Distance is enabled, the distance is varied within the Distance Range (default 50%–150% of the base distance).
3. A random direction on the sphere around the pivot is chosen.
4. If Floor Mode is on, only directions above the subject are used.
5. Directions outside the active angle cuts are rejected.
6. If Avoid Occluders is on, Superlight casts a ray from the pivot and skips positions blocked by other objects. If every tried direction is blocked, it picks the one with the most clearance and stops just in front of the obstacle.
7. Any locked axes are respected (the position can't change on those axes).
8. The light/camera is re-aimed at the pivot.
9. For lights, brightness is recalculated so the subject stays roughly as bright even though the light moved closer or farther.
10. Optionally, size, spread, color, and intensity are randomized too, if those toggles are on.

Randomization Panel

Location: Viewport Sidebar (N) -> Superlight -> Randomization.

Angle Cuts

Angle cuts confine randomization and orbiting to a slice of the sphere on the X, Y, or Z axis, so a light or camera can never wander into directions you don't want — for example, keeping a key light to one side of your subject.

You can set them with sliders in the Randomization panel, or live inside the tool:

• Hold X, Y, or Z and scroll to move that axis's upper bound (in steps of 0.05).
• Add Shift (Shift + X/Y/Z + scroll) to move the lower bound instead.

While you hold an axis key, a faint sphere can show the allowed range. When a cut is active, the overlay shows CONSTRAINTS ACTIVE. Use Restore Defaults to open the range back up. Turning on an axis constraint disables occluder avoidance; turning avoidance back on restores the full angle ranges.

The Pivot System

Every Superlight light and camera has a pivot: a point in the scene it aims at and moves around. This keeps positioning simple and makes orbiting, randomization, targeting, and animation work together.

Why The Pivot Matters

Instead of moving and rotating a light by hand, you tell Superlight what the light should be looking at — the pivot — and then move the light around that point. Because the pivot is fixed, the light stays aimed at your subject no matter where you send it.

The pivot is the center used by all of these tools:

The Pivot Marker

A selected Superlight light or camera shows its pivot as two cyan circles. The marker grows or shrinks with your view distance so it remains easy to see.

• Viewport overlays must be on for the normal cyan marker.
• When angle limits are active, a white guide can show the allowed area.
• The optional HUD and temporary light guides can still help when overlays are off.

Dragging The Pivot

You can move the pivot directly onto your geometry — this works both inside the live tool and out in the normal viewport:

1. Move your mouse near the cyan pivot marker (within about 30 pixels of it).
2. Press and hold the left mouse click button.
3. Drag across your mesh. Superlight finds the surface under your cursor and snaps the pivot there.
4. Release to drop the pivot. The light/camera re-aims at the new point and its distance updates to match.

If your click isn't close enough to a pivot marker, the click simply behaves normally — so pivot dragging never gets in the way of regular selection.

If Light Keyframes is enabled (or Blender's Auto Keying is on), dragging a pivot also records a keyframe — handy for animating where a light is pointed over time.

Pivot Tracking

Superlight follows normal Blender moves and rotations made with G and R. While you transform a selected light or camera, the pivot follows it too. If you cancel the move, the pivot returns to its previous position.

There is no separate Follow/Static pivot setting in the current version.

Distance From The Pivot

Each light and camera remembers how far it is from its pivot. The starting distance depends on the subject, the current viewport, or the object being converted. It is also the distance used as the starting point for random placement.

Change it with Ctrl + Scroll, or drag the pivot onto a new surface and Superlight will update the distance for you.

Features

Documentation and examples for A/B/C Compare, Isolation Mode, Object Cycling, Light Linking, Presets, Gobo Library, Gradients, Keyframing, and Motion Easing.

A/B/C Compare

A/B/C Compare lets you save up to three complete looks for each selected light or camera, then move between them while you work.

For lights, saved looks include position, pivot, distance, energy, color, light type, and size or spread settings. For cameras, they include position, pivot, distance, lens, Depth of Field, focus distance, and f-stop.

When you first open the live tool, State A is created if needed and the tool starts on State B. The A key cycles through the states that have been saved.

Isolation Mode

Key: ' or accent grave.

Isolation Mode hides all scene lights except the ones currently selected. The original visibility of every light is restored when:

• Isolation Mode is toggled off.
• The modal is cancelled.
• The modal is confirmed.

When cycling lights with 1 while Isolation Mode is active, the previous light is hidden and the newly selected light becomes visible.

Object Cycling

Key: 1 (inside the live tool).

Cycling lets you jump from one light or camera to the next without leaving the tool — ideal for adjusting a whole rig of lights one after another. It moves to the next object of the same type as the one you're on:

• On a light → the next visible light.
• On a camera → the next visible camera.

Objects are visited in name order and only visible ones are included, so you need at least two of the same type for cycling to do anything. If the next light or camera has never been set up with Superlight, it's converted automatically as you land on it. Cycling onto a camera also makes it the active scene camera.

While Isolation Mode is on, cycling hides the light you're leaving and reveals the one you move to — so you always see just the light you're working on.

Light Linking

Light Linking lets you choose which mesh a light affects.

1. Make the light active.
2. Place the cursor over a mesh.
3. Press and release E.

Each press moves through these three choices:

Presets

Location: Viewport Sidebar (N) → Superlight → Presets.

Save A Preset

1. Enter a name.
2. Optionally enable Save Selection Only.
3. Click Save.

Superlight saves a setup file and a viewport thumbnail in Blender's user preset folder:

<scripts>/presets/superlight_presets/

Presets remember the main light and camera settings, including their names, positions, pivots, distances, lens or light settings, and enabled light shading. They do not currently include A/B/C looks, angle limits, the saved brightness target, or camera Depth of Field settings.

Load A Preset

1. Select a thumbnail.
2. Click Load Selected Preset.

Matching objects are updated. If one is missing, Superlight creates the required light or camera.

Open The Preset Folder

Click the folder icon in the Presets header to open the preset folder.

Gobo Library

Location: Viewport Sidebar (N) → Superlight → Gobo Library.

Gobos are images, videos, or IES light patterns projected through a light to create windows, shadows, and other shaped-light effects. Choose the library folder in Preferences; it should contain the folders below.

Categories

Thumbnails are created in a previews folder inside each category.

Renderer Modes

Controls

Animated files can play and refresh automatically. Choosing an IES file switches to Cycles mode.

Gradients

Location: Viewport Sidebar (N) → Superlight → Gradients.

The Gradients gallery applies ready-made background looks to your scene's World.

How It Works

• Click a thumbnail to apply it to the World.
• Reload Library refreshes the gallery and creates missing or old thumbnails.
• Reset World removes the gradient and returns to a plain dark background.

Add Your Own Gradients

Open the bundled gradients.blend file in Blender and add a new node group. Save the file, then click Reload Library. The new gradient appears automatically; no code changes are needed.

Controls

Keyframing Lights

Location: Viewport Sidebar (N) → Superlight → Keyframing.

Turn on Light Keyframes before animating a light. Superlight then records the light's position, aim, distance, and pivot as you adjust it, so Motion Easing can use those keyframes later.

• Blender's Auto Keying can record the same light information.
• Camera keyframes are recorded when the tool is confirmed while Auto Keying is on.
• Dragging a pivot can also keyframe where a light points.
• The Superlight keying set is available from Blender's Insert Keyframe menu if you want to add the light or camera settings manually.

Motion Easing / Arc Rotation

Location: Object Data Properties → Superlight Motion Easing.

This panel is available for cameras and for lights with Light Keyframes enabled. It uses your own keyframes and adds smooth in-between motion without replacing the keyframes you made.

Basic Workflow

1. Create at least two keyframes for a camera, or enable Light Keyframes before animating a light.
2. Make sure the object has a Superlight pivot.
3. Open Superlight Motion Easing.
4. Add one or more Motion Layers and choose how the movement should feel.
5. Optionally add a Seamless Transition Layer.
6. Set the frame range and Step, then click Generate Inbetween Keyframes.
7. Use Clear Generated Keyframes to remove the added motion while keeping your own keyframes.

Motion Layers

Each layer can be turned on or off and can combine several effects:

Available easing styles include Custom Curve, Linear, Smooth, Sine, Power, Inverted Power, Cubic, Quint, Circular, Back, Elastic, and Bounce. You can combine layers with Compose, Mix, or Add and control each layer's influence.

360 Orbit includes an Arc or Turntable path, a choice of turns, and a Clockwise option. Camera Spin can return to the original angle at the next keyframe so the animation stays connected.

Seamless Transition Layers

A Seamless Transition Layer smooths the motion through middle keyframes instead of restarting at each one. Set the blend window and the Seamless Factor from ordinary motion to fully seamless motion. Your original keyframe values are restored when the effect is cleared.

Generation Range And Preview

Choose the Start, End, and Step values for the generated motion. The previous and next keyframe buttons make it easy to set the range. Preview Loop limits playback to that range. Auto Update rebuilds the added motion when settings change.

Custom Curve

Choose Custom Curve to draw your own easing shape in Blender's curve editor.

Add-on Preferences

Location: Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Superlight.

The gobo library folder should contain exr, stills, animated, and ies folders.

HUD Overlay

The on-screen HUD changes to match the control you are using.

Status labels may show CONSTRAINTS ACTIVE, ISOLATION, FLOOR, SPECULAR TARGET, POINT & SHOOT, MOVING PIVOT, AXIS SNAP, or STATE A, STATE B, and STATE C.