Overview#
Appearances decide how a surface reacts to light. Scene Settings decide what light exists. In Fusion the lighting of a render comes mostly from an environment: a high dynamic range panoramic image that surrounds your model. It supplies both the light and the reflections you see on glossy and metallic parts. Because the environment is an image, "moving the light" means rotating the environment.
Scene Settings also controls the background, the ground plane, camera exposure, output aspect ratio and size, and (in current builds) depth of field. This page covers all of them except the camera focus controls, which are covered on the camera page.
Where to find it#
- Render workspace > Setup > Scene Settings.
- The dialog has an Environment Library tab, then Environment (Style, Brightness, Position), Background, Ground, and Camera groups (Camera type, Focal Length, Exposure, Depth of Field, Aspect Ratio). Click Close when done.
Step by step#
Choose and tune an environment#
- Open the Render workspace and click Scene Settings.
- In the Environment Library, click a thumbnail (studio, outdoor, interior). The canvas updates.
- Drag the Brightness slider until highlights are strong but not clipped. Choosing a Style sets default exposure and rotation for the lights.
- Move the environment with the Position slider until a bright area of the environment lands where you want a highlight on your product.
- Toggle whether the environment is visible as a background (see Background below).
Set a clean studio background#
- In Scene Settings, find Background.
- Switch from Environment to Solid Color (white, gray, or brand color). Scene Settings offers only these two background choices; a transparent background is an option in the Capture Image and Render dialogs.
- Keep the environment lighting active. The lighting and the visible background are independent.
- Enable the ground plane for a soft shadow and, optionally, a reflection.
Configure the ground plane#
- In the ground group, turn on Ground Plane.
- Enable Reflections if you want the part mirrored, then adjust Roughness (available only with Reflections on) to control sharpness.
- Optionally enable Flatten Ground to map the environment image as a texture on the floor.
- Turn off the plane for a floating, studio cut-out look.
Set output size#
- Under Camera, set Aspect Ratio (it defines the aspect ratio for the Render workspace).
- Pick a Depth of Field setting or leave it off. The aspect ratio here is a ratio only; the pixel size is set in the render or capture dialog.
Options reference#
| Option | What it does | Notes/default |
|---|---|---|
| Environment library | Preset HDR environments | Includes studio, outdoor and interior sets; some load on demand |
| Attach Custom Environment | Load your own environment image | Supported types: EXR, HDR, PIC, RGBE, XYZE |
| Brightness | Intensity of the lights from the Style (lux, 0 to 100,000 in the API) | Adds real light to the whole scene |
| Position | Position and rotation of the lights | Moves highlights and reflections (the API calls it light angle, in radians) |
| Background: Environment | Panorama visible behind model | Default |
| Background: Solid color | Flat color behind model | Reflections still come from the environment |
| Transparent background | Not a Scene Settings option | Set in Capture Image or the Render dialog |
| Ground plane | Surface under model | Controls shadow, reflection |
| Reflections / Roughness | Mirror the model on the floor; Roughness (0 to 1, API) controls sharpness | Roughness applies only with Reflections on |
| Exposure | Camera exposure compensation in EV (-15 to 25) | Applied after lighting; +1 EV doubles brightness |
| Aspect ratio | Output shape, ratio only | Match intended use (for example 16:9) |
| Resolution | Output pixels, chosen in the render or capture dialog | Affects render time and cloud cost |
| Depth of field | Camera blur by distance | See camera page |
Tips and pitfalls#
Tip: Environments with large soft light sources (softboxes) give flattering results on products. A harsh sun-style environment produces hard highlights and black shadows.
Tip: Think of Rotation as lighting direction. Cycle through a few angles while in-canvas rendering is on and watch the speculars move. The fastest way to improve a render is often to rotate the environment by 30 to 60 degrees.
Warning: The environment also appears as reflections in glossy surfaces. A bright window in the HDR will show up in your chrome part. That can be wonderful or distracting, so rotate until it works.
Warning: If you render with a transparent background and the ground plane is on, shadows may remain. Check the exported PNG on a colored background before delivering it.
Warning: Very large models or very small ones can make the ground shadow look off because the environment is scaled relative to the model. If your model is tiny, use a camera close-up rather than scaling the model.
Tip: Save your favorite combination of environment, brightness and camera as a Scene setting or named view, so you can reuse it across designs. The API also offers saveAsDefaults and restoreDefaults for scene settings.
Tip: Dark environments with a white background feel unnatural. Match the background color to the environment tone unless you plan to composite.
Additional details:
- Exposure and Brightness overlap. Use Brightness to change how much light the scene has and Exposure for final tone adjustment. Making both extreme usually creates washed-out or noisy images.
- Emissive appearances (LEDs, screens) read better against dimmer environments.
- Environment resolution matters for reflections. A low-resolution HDR gives blurry mirror reflections on chrome parts, so choose a higher-quality one for polished metals.
- Outdoor environments have a horizon line that appears in reflections. If the horizon cuts through your product awkwardly, rotate or tilt the camera.
- Ground plane position is based on the bounding box of visible geometry. Hiding a part changes where the floor sits.
- Cloud and local rendering both start from the same scene setup (environment, camera settings, camera position), per Autodesk's Render the design topic.
Working with multiple scenes#
If you need a product on white and the same product in a lifestyle environment, save two named views and change settings between them. Scene settings are global per design, so the flow is: adjust, capture or render, adjust again. Keep notes of the numbers you used so renders match across a series.
Interaction with in-canvas rendering#
The in-canvas render uses the same environment as the final. That makes it a reliable preview for lighting decisions, even though the sampling is far noisier. Use it to rotate environments interactively and then commit with a final render.
Verified ranges and units#
Autodesk's API reference for the scene settings object documents the underlying ranges, which are a good guide to what the sliders mean.
| Setting | Documented unit and range | Practical reading |
|---|---|---|
| Brightness | Luminance of the scene in lux, 0 to 100,000 | Higher means more light on the model; 100,000 lux is about direct sun, so most studio looks sit far below it |
| Camera exposure | Exposure value (EV), -15 to 25 | Each +1 EV doubles the brightness of the final image; -1 halves it |
| Light angle | Rotation of the lighting, stored in radians | The Position slider |
| Ground displayed | On or off | Carries the shadows and reflections |
| Ground reflections | On or off | Mirrors the model in the floor |
| Ground roughness | 0 (smooth) to 1 (rough), used only when reflections are on | 0.2 to 0.4 gives a soft glossy floor |
| Ground offset (API property) | Centimeters from the bottom of the model; 0 is the bottom, positive is up | Use a tiny negative value to avoid shadows at an exact contact line |
| Flatten ground | Maps the environment image as a texture on the ground | Makes the floor match the environment image |
| Aspect ratio | A ratio only, not a resolution | 16:9, 4:3, 1:1 or custom |
| Camera focal length | Millimeters | Shared with the viewport perspective angle |
| Depth of field | Center of focus plus blur (0.001 to 2.0) | See the camera page |
Two consequences follow. First, Brightness and Exposure are genuinely separate controls: Brightness changes the amount of light physically arriving, Exposure is the photographic compensation after the fact. If you push Exposure by +3 EV you have multiplied the image by eight, which also multiplies noise, whereas raising Brightness adds real light and converges more cleanly. Second, the aspect ratio in Scene Settings is only the shape of the frame. The pixel size is chosen where you render or capture, so a "1920 x 1080" instruction is really "16:9 in Scene Settings, 1920 x 1080 in the render or capture dialog".
Worked lighting recipe: white-background product shot#
- Choose a studio environment with a large soft box. Set the Rotation until the main softbox reflection sits along the top-front edge of the product.
- Set the background to a solid light grey (about 235 per channel), not pure white.
- Switch on the ground, enable reflections, set roughness around 0.3, and keep the reflection faint.
- Leave Brightness at the environment's default and adjust Exposure in steps of 0.3 EV until a white label sits at around 240 and not 255.
- Capture at 16:9 and compare against the same shot on a colored backdrop to check the edge halo.
This takes about ten minutes the first time and two minutes thereafter if you keep the numbers.
Failure modes and fixes#
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Image looks washed out | Exposure and Brightness both raised | Reset Exposure to 0, adjust Brightness only |
| Dark shadows with no detail | Single hard light in the environment | Choose a softbox environment or lower the contrast by rotating |
| Floor reflection looks like a mirror | Ground roughness 0 | Raise it to 0.2 to 0.4 |
| Shadow detaches from the part | Ground offset moved up or down | Set the offset back to 0 |
| Product floating in a transparent PNG | Ground displayed with transparent background | Turn the ground off or keep only its shadow and test on a colored background |
| Reflections of a window on every metal surface | Environment content | Rotate the environment, or choose an environment with a softer sky |
| Output cropped when the aspect ratio changes | Framing set before the ratio | Choose the ratio first, reframe, and resave the Named View |
Environment choice by product#
| Product | Environment | Rotation goal |
|---|---|---|
| Glossy plastic consumer product | Studio with softboxes | One long highlight along the top |
| Polished or brushed metal tool | Environment with several distinct bright panels | Reflections that show shape, not a flat gradient |
| Transparent bottle or lens | High-contrast studio with dark edges | Dark outline lines along the edge give glass its shape |
| Outdoor equipment | Outdoor sky and ground | Horizon below the product's top edge |
| Matte machinery | Any soft environment | Even light with directional hint |
Workflow advice#
Fix the environment before you finalize materials, because a roughness that looks right in one environment looks wrong in another. Make environment Position your primary lighting control. Set Brightness to the point where the highlights are strong and the diffuse parts mid-tone. Use Exposure last, and only in small steps. Because the scene settings are shared by local and cloud renders, you can test with a small local render as a reasonable preview of the cloud result.
Practice exercise#
- Open the glossy part from the appearances exercise and enable In-Canvas Render.
- Open Scene Settings and note the starting Brightness, Exposure and Rotation values.
- Try three environments (studio, outdoor, interior). In each, rotate until a long soft highlight runs along the top edge, and write down the Rotation value that works.
- Choose a solid light grey background (about 235 per channel), enable the ground with reflections and roughness 0.3, and confirm the shadow touches the part. If it does not, set the ground offset back to 0.
- Raise Exposure by +1 EV and compare against doubling Brightness. Describe the difference in noise after 30 seconds.
- Set the aspect ratio to 16:9, reframe, and capture at 1920 x 1080.
- Expected result: a product-style image with a grounded shadow and one dominant highlight, a notes list of three Rotation values, and a note on whether a comparable Brightness increase converges with less noise than a +1 EV exposure change (judge by eye; it depends on how your build applies exposure).
Related#
- Camera and Depth of Field
- In-Canvas Render
- Tips for Photoreal Output