The Ultimate Light Sniper Toolkit for Maya

FEATURES:

✦ Press the “L” key to snipe lights at objects

✦ Hold the “L” key to activate the sniper while a gizmo locator is selected to change where the light is aimed

✦ Automatic gizmo locator snapping and light aiming at any geometric surface

✦ Right-click on the viewport to access the Light Operations marking menu

✦ Right-click any geometry to access the Light Operations marking menu and snipe lights specific objects

✦ Object automatically becomes “Live” (for snapping) when the gizmo locator is selected

✦ Toggle Snapping (ON) button controls the global snapping of all gizmo locators

✦ LightMe DAG object holds all the lights and gizmo locators

✦ Select the transform node of the gizmo locator to enable/disable individual light snapping (Extra Attributes)

✦ Select the gemDistanceDimension Shape node of each light to access additional attributes (Distance Dimension Shape Attributes, Extra Attributes)

✦ Deleting a light or gizmo will remove all nodes associated with them

✦ Add gemDistanceDimension node via the node editor and use it to connect to other nodes

Light Operations Marking Menu:

Add Light — adds a Light Me light to the scene

Light Me Sniper (L Key) — activates the sniper (click on any object to aim the light at that exact position)

Duplicate Light — duplicates the Light Me light

Track To Target — adds an offset target object to change aiming of the light

Preferences — opens the Light Me Preferences window

Install for Maya:

Copy the LightMe.mod file and LightMe folder into your Maya user modules folder.

Maya modules location in Windows:

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\maya\modules\

macOS:

~/Library/Preferences/Autodesk/maya/modules/

Linux:

~/maya/modules/

To load the plug-in, go to Window > Plug-in Manager in the Maya menu bar drop-down. Ensure that gemDistanceDimension.py and LightMe.py are both loaded.

The LightMe plug-in is automatically activated and ready to snipe objects with lights when loaded

How to use:

Hover the mouse over the viewport or any object and press the "L" key on the keyboard to add a light.

Right-click on the Maya viewport or any object to access the Light Operations marking menu.

Each gizmo transform node has a Light Me Enable Snapping checkbox attribute under Extra Attributes to toggle individual snapping.

Select the gemDistanceDimension node to control the Distance Dimension Shape Attribute and Extra Attributes.

Select the LightMe node to see all the lights, gizmos, and gemDistanceDimension nodes that are in your scene.

The preferences file is stored in Windows:

 C:\Users\%USERNAME%\LightMe\Preferences.json

Light Me Preferences:

• Default Light Type: The default light type for adding a Light Me light to the scene. Supports Maya Standard, Arnold, V-Ray, Redshift, Pixar RenderMan, and Octane lights.
• Create Light at Origin: Adding a light will place the gizmo at the scene's origin. (Default OFF)
• Initial Min Light Distance: The initial distance between the light and the gizmo (Default 5.00)
• Initial Light Scale: The initial scale of the light (Default 1.00)
• Initial Gizmo Scale: The initial scale of the gizmo (Default 4.00)
• Make Lights Snappable: Lights added to the scene are automatically snapped to the nearest object (Default ON)
• Show Distance Line: Show the orange ray that extends from the light to the gizmo target (Default ON)
• Show Distance Intersection: Show the red ray intersection dot on objects (Default ON)
• Show Distance Number: Show the ray distance in Maya units from the light to the gizmo (Default ON)
• Show Distance Circles: Show the green ray dots at each end of each ray (Default ON)
• UI Drawable Size Multiplier: The size of the ray UI graphics (Default 1.00)
• Snapping Gizmos: Global snapping toggle of all the Light Me gizmos in your scene (Default ON)
• Auto-Snap on Toggle Gizmos (On): Snaps all Light Me gizmos to the nearest object when Toggle Snapping is clicked (Default OFF)
• Draw Viewport Overlays: Show the viewport Toggle Snapping (ON) button and info (Default ON)
• Ctrl+Alt+MMB to open Light Me (Default is Click RMB): Allows the user to access Light Me marking menu by pressing Ctrl+Alt+MMB (Default OFF)
• Node ID: (Experimental) Add custom nodes to the Default Light Type menu. Ensure the Node ID matches the Maya node.
• Node Name: (Experimental) Custom name for your reference. Click the "+" or "-" buttons to add the node to the Default Light Type menu.
• Save: Saves the preferences to the Preferences.json file
• Close: Closes the Light Me Preferences window without saving

Additional Notes:

Light Me v2025 for Maya is only compatible with Maya versions with Python 3 support. Autodesk Maya 2022 officially dropped support for Python 2.7 and fully transitioned to Python 3. Starting from Maya 2022, Python 3 became the default and only supported Python version. In Maya 2020 and Maya 2021, both Python 2.7 and Python 3 are available, allowing users to switch between them for compatibility.

Product Demonstrations:

• Light Me for Maya - Promo (Vimeo)
• Light Me for Maya - Product Demo (Vimeo)