Carved Light guide

Every control

The panel opens with what matters first: the light you hold and the mood around it. Everything else sits in the groups below, each by what it changes.

Every slider prints its value. Double-click a slider to put it back to where the look had it. A control that a kind of light does not use is still there, and its line says so.

Load and save

They stay at the top while the panel scrolls. Your pictures stay on this device for every lab tool until you press × on a tile. Reset puts the light back; your picture stays.

Image AButton: Your picture. Press it to open one from your device, or drop one anywhere on the page. It is kept on this device, never uploaded, and every lab tool that takes a picture opens with it until you press × on its corner.
SwapButton: Changes which tile Carved Light uses, so a picture you added as B in another tool can be lit here. When the other tile is empty, the sample comes back.
Image BButton: A second kept picture. Carved Light lights one picture at a time: the tile it is not using is dimmed and says Not used here.
Save PNGButton: The lit picture at its full size as a PNG (E).
Record reelButton: Records the reel as an MP4 in the shape, path and length set under Reel, frame by frame, so no frame is dropped.

Light

The light you are holding: which one, its colour, how bright and how large.

1 · 2 · 3Pick one: The lights of the look. Press one to hold it; the one you hold wears a ring on the picture.

1: The first light, usually the key.

2: The second light.

3: The third light.
Add lightButton: Adds a light in the middle of the picture, up to eight (N). Double-click the picture to add one where you click.
· · · · · · · · Pick one: The colour of the light you hold.

: Warm white.

: White.

: Candle.

: Amber.

: Red.

: Magenta.

: Sky.

: Cyan.

: Green.
Any colourColour · starts #fff1de: Any other colour for the light you hold.
From pictureButton: Then click the picture: the light takes the colour of that spot, lifted to a light's brightness (I).
BrightnessSlider · 0 to 3 · starts at 1.3: How bright the light is.
SoftnessSlider · 0 to 1 · starts at 0.75: How large the light is. A large light wraps further round a form and softens every shadow it throws. See soft shadow.

Mood

The light of the room and how far the picture stands out toward you.

FillSlider · 0 to 1.5 · starts at 0.3: Light from the room that reaches everywhere, coloured by Fill colour under Finish. Raise it to open the shadows.
DepthSlider · 0 to 1 · starts at 0.35: How far the picture stands out toward you. Higher makes every form deeper and every shadow longer. While you drag it the picture shows the light alone. See height field.

Lamp

What kind of lamp the chosen light is, where it sits in height, and how it behaves.

Point · Spot · Sun · Window · BlindsPick one: What kind of lamp the light is.

Point: A bulb: light spreads from one point and falls off with distance. See inverse-square law.

Spot: A bulb in a cone, aimed at the middle of the picture.

Sun: So far away that its light arrives in parallel, the same everywhere.

Window: Sunlight through window panes: the frame falls across the subject. See gobo.

Blinds: Light through blinds: thin bars of shadow.
HeightSlider · -1 to 2 · starts at 0.78: How high the light is above the picture, toward you. Below zero it is behind the subject: it lights the edges and leaves the face. The ring on the picture shows it too.
Reach Point and Spot onlySlider · 0.3 to 4 · starts at 2.2: How far the light carries before it falls off.
Cone Spot onlySlider · 6 to 80 · starts at 30: How wide the spot's cone is.
Pattern Window and Blinds onlySlider · 0.4 to 3 · starts at 1: How large the panes or slats are.
FlickerSlider · 0 to 1 · starts at 0: A flame's flicker: the light breathes on its own.
SoloButton: Only this light, the others dark, to see what it does (S).
MuteButton: Switches this light off and on (M).
RemoveButton: Removes this light (Delete).

Shadow

How the shapes in the picture block the light.

Cast shadowsOn or off · starts on: Whether shapes throw shadows at all.
LengthSlider · 0.1 to 1.5 · starts at 0.55: How far shadows are thrown onto what is behind.
SoliditySlider · 0.05 to 1 · starts at 0.45: How solid things are. Lower it and light passes under thin things such as hair, horns and fingers, instead of each throwing a wall of shadow.
FadeSlider · 0.1 to 2 · starts at 0.75: How far a shadow carries before the room fills it in. A backdrop far behind a head gets a softer, fainter shadow anyway.
ContactSlider · 0 to 1 · starts at 0.6: Small dark creases where surfaces meet. See contact shadow.
Shadow fillSlider · 0 to 1 · starts at 0.3: How much coloured light fills the shadows, so they are never flat black.
ClearanceSlider · 0 to 0.1 · starts at 0.02: The step in depth a surface needs before it shades itself. Raise it if fine noise turns dark.
Shadow colourColour · starts #2c3350: The colour of the light inside the shadows.

Surface

How the depth becomes a surface.

SmoothingSlider · 1 to 6 · starts at 1.5: How much the surface is smoothed before it is lit. While you drag it the picture shows the light alone.
Fine detailSlider · 0 to 1.5 · starts at 0.25: Skin, cloth and hair texture taken from the picture itself and added to the surface.
Old light outSlider · 0 to 1 · starts at 0.5: How much of the light already in the picture is taken out first. While you drag it the picture shows the colour alone. See delighting.

Finish

Shine, rim, exposure and the drawn style.

Natural · DrawnPick one: How the light is drawn.

Natural: As light falls in a photograph.

Drawn: In two or three flat tones with an ink line, like a drawn frame. See cel shading.
ShineSlider · 0 to 1.5 · starts at 0.12: How much the surface shines where a light reflects straight to you. See specular highlight.
Shine sizeSlider · 1 to 256 · starts at 40: How small and hard that shine is.
RimSlider · 0 to 3 · starts at 0.45: How much light catches the edges of the subject. See rim light.
WrapSlider · 0 to 1 · starts at 0.3: How far light reaches round a form past the line where it would stop, as it does on skin and cloth.
GlowSlider · 0 to 1.5 · starts at 0: A light inside the frame glows like a lamp you can see.
ExposureSlider · -2 to 2 · starts at 0: Brighter or darker, in stops. See exposure.
Fill colourColour · starts #a3abc6: The colour of the room's light, set by Fill under Mood.
Expose for the pictureOn or off · starts on: Keeps the lit picture about as bright as the picture itself, so a dark look stays dark and a bright one stays bright. Each look sets how much darker or brighter it means to be.
Tones Drawn onlySlider · 1 to 2 · starts at 1: Two tones or three.
Tone edge Drawn onlySlider · 0.005 to 0.2 · starts at 0.03: How hard the edge between the tones is.
Ink Drawn onlySlider · 0 to 1 · starts at 0: How dark the ink line is, drawn where the depth jumps or the surface folds.
Ink width Drawn onlySlider · 0.5 to 4 · starts at 1.5: How wide the ink line is.
Shadow hue Drawn onlyColour · starts #8a86b8: The hue of the shadow tone.

Reel

A short film of the light moving. With this group open, the picture shows the reel's own frame; drag the picture to move it.

Orbit · Arc · Sweep · Rise · Figure eightPick one: The path the light travels.

Orbit: Every light goes once round the subject.

Arc: The lights swing to one side and back.

Sweep: The light you hold passes across the front.

Rise: The light you hold rises from below and sinks back.

Figure eight: The light you hold draws a figure eight.
Even · Ease · BreathePick one: How it moves. See easing.

Even: At one speed.

Ease: Slower at the ends, quicker through the middle.

Breathe: Like breathing: a smooth swing.
4 s · 6 s · 8 s · 12 sPick one: How long one loop is. The reel closes on itself, so it can play on repeat.

4 s: Four seconds.

6 s: Six seconds.

8 s: Eight seconds.

12 s: Twelve seconds.
9:16 · 1:1 · 16:9 · PicturePick one: The reel's shape. See aspect ratio.

9:16: Upright, 1080 × 1920, for phones.

1:1: Square, 1080 × 1080.

16:9: Wide, 1920 × 1080.

Picture: The picture's own shape.
PlayButton: Plays the path in the reel's frame (Space).

Maps

What is under the picture: the light alone, the colour alone, the depth and the normals.

Lit · Light only · Colour only · Depth · NormalsPick one: What the picture shows.

Lit: The lit picture.

Light only: The light alone, on grey: the shape the depth gives.

Colour only: The colour alone, with the old light taken out. See albedo.

Depth: The depth: near is light, far is dark. See depth map.

Normals: The normals: the way each pixel faces, as colour. See normal map.
Save depthButton: The depth map as a 16-bit greyscale PNG.
Save normalsButton: The normal map as a PNG.
Save HDRButton: The lit picture as a linear HDR file, with light above white kept.
Show lightsButton: Shows or hides the lights on the picture (H).

Reset

ResetButton: Back to Soft key, its lights and the opening reel (R). Your picture stays.