ShaderMaker for Lights is one of the most powerful lighting solutions available in a 3D package, offering procedural control of any light in your scene. I'll be demonstrating a simple, but effective use of these light shaders.
Step 1: Download & Open the Sample Scene

A quick render reveals it is a simple eyeball. Nice. Simple.

Now, suppose for a minute we'd like to add a few additional highlights to the eye to give additional depth to the scene. More highlights = more light sources, so let's add a few lights.
Step 2: Replicate the Default Light
Select the Light.
Step 3: Use Step & Repeat

With the light selected, choose 'Step & Repeat' from the Edit Menu. When the dialog opens, set the step to 4, and the X Offset to -40.

Click 'OK'

 

This duplicates the light 4 times, and Offsets each copy by -40, leaving us with 5 evenly spaced lights.

A Quick Render shows that 5 lights are just too bright, and blow out the image. We want to keep the highlights, but not destroy the diffuse lighting.

To do this, we are going to use one of the more mysterious features of Pixels - ShaderMaker for Lights.

 
Step 4: Create Light Shaders
Select the 4 duplicate Lights we created.
Click an empty swatch in the Shader Manager.

The ShaderMaker for Lights Dialog opens. This allows us direct procedural control of the lights.

Drag the Diffuse Slider to 0.000.

This tells Pixels to only render the Specular Highlights for these lights.

If you are going to render an animation, uncheck the Sample Once box.

 

Click OK.

 

Do a quick render -

Notice only the original light is actually lighting the scene. The other lights are merely highlights only.

 

 
Homework: Experiment with Light Shaders
Using simple primitives ( spheres, cones, cubes, cylinders ), create several lights and several light shaders. Experiment with different Diffuse & Specular colors, amounts, and light positioning. With a little practice, you can use Light Shaders to accomplish an unlimited amount of effects.