How to Eliminate Lights from Models in Maya

In Maya, lighting models is a common practice for rendering 3D models and virtual scenes. If you wish to negate the impact of lights on a specific model or completely remove lights to render a model or virtual scene without their influence, follow these steps:

1. Open Relationship Editor:

   Go to the "Window" menu and select "Relationship Editor."

2. Select Light-Centric View:

   In the top-right corner of the Relationship Editor, find a button resembling a camera icon. Click this button to switch to "Light Centric View."

3. Unlink:

   In the list of models on the right side, locate the model you want to exclude from the influence of lights. Click on the model name to select it, then click the adjacent minus sign (-) button to unlink the light from that model.

4. Preview and Render:

   Use the real-time view or interactive rendering mode to confirm that lights no longer affect the selected model.

5. Remove Light from the Scene:

   Using the Outliner or Hierarchy view, find the light object you want to delete. Select the light object and press the Delete key on your keyboard to remove it from the scene.

6. Delete Light from Material Editor:

   If you added lights in the Material Editor (e.g., Hypershade), open the relevant Material Editor window, select the light node you want to delete, and click the "Delete" button in the top toolbar.

7. Clean Up Unused Resources:

   To ensure all related resources are properly removed, you can execute the "Clean Up Unused" command. Go to the "Edit" menu, select "Clean Up," and then choose "Unused Nodes."

Before performing these actions, it's advisable to save your file and create a backup in case you need to revert to the original state or reconsider the removal of lights from the model.