Light Linker And Matte | Blender

Take control of your lighting workflow with Light Matte Linker, a production-focused Blender add-on designed to simplify light linking, matte creation and scene management.

Built for artists, Light Matte Linker provides fast, intuitive tools that eliminate repetitive setup work and help you focus on lighting and rendering.

Quickly connect lights to selected objects with a single click.

• Link a light to selected objects

• Break light influence from selected objects

• Manage multiple lights and objects efficiently

• Faster workflow than Blender's default light linking interface

Instantly inspect which objects are influenced by a specific light.

• Select a light

• Click Show Affected

• Automatically select and highlight all linked objects

Perfect for large scenes with dozens or hundreds of assets.

Create production-ready matte objects in seconds.

• Holdout mattes

• Transparent matte setups

• Visibility control presets

• Fast masking workflows for compositing

Streamline lighting workflows with powerful scene management tools.

• Quick light inspection

• Light-object relationship management

• Faster navigation in complex scenes

• Lighting Artists

• Look Development Artists

• Product Visualization Artists

• Motion Graphics Artists

• VFX Artists

• Archviz Artists

• Blender Users Transitioning from Maya or Redshift

Blender offers powerful lighting tools, but managing light relationships, mattes, and shadow catchers can become tedious in production scenes.

Light Matte Linker brings the most commonly used lighting and matte operations into a clean, artist-friendly interface, allowing you to:

• Work faster

• Reduce setup time

• Keep scenes organized

• Focus on creativity instead of technical setup

✓ One-click Light Linking

✓ One-click Light Breaking

✓ Show Objects Affected by Light

✓ Matte Object Creation

✓ Production-Friendly Workflow

✓ Clean and Intuitive User Interface

✓ Built for Professional Lighting Workflows

Whether you're creating product renders, animations, visual effects, or look-development setups, Light Matte Linker helps you manage lighting and mattes with speed and precision.


For Feedback/Suggestions/Bugs: Email us at : Prodat.courses@gmail.com

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║               LIGHT MATTE LINKER  v1.5  —  RELEASE NOTES                  ║

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  Release Date:   June 2026

  Compatibility:  Blender 4.0 and above  |  Cycles render engine

  Developed by:   ProdatDigital

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  WHAT'S NEW

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  ★  INVISIBLE BLOCKER  (Major New Feature)

  ─────────────────────────────────────────

  A new Special Mode inside Matte Tools. Apply it to any mesh object and

  that object becomes invisible to the camera — but still physically exists

  in the scene, blocking and occluding everything behind it.

  The object itself will not appear in your render. The space it occupies

  will appear black (or transparent with Film Transparency ON). Any object

  behind it is clipped by its silhouette — exactly as if an invisible solid

  wall were sitting there.

  How it works under the hood:

    — Creates a dedicated  LML_Blocker_<LayerName>  collection for the object

    — Creates a separate   LML_BlockerLayer  view layer that renders only

      the blocker, with everything else excluded

    — Sets the blocker collection to Holdout in your main view layer,

      punching an alpha hole in its shape

    — Automatically wires the Compositor with Render Layer nodes and an

      Alpha Over node so both layers combine correctly on every render

  Everything above is set up automatically in one click. No manual

  view layer or compositor work required.

  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐

  │  USE CASES                                                       │

  │                                                                  │

  │  • Hide a proxy mesh while keeping its occlusion contribution    │

  │  • Mask out geometry for compositing over a background plate     │

  │  • Create invisible walls that block objects in a product shot   │

  │  • VFX integration: match real-world occluders in CG             │

  └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

  ★  CLEAR INVISIBLE BLOCKER BUTTON  (New UI)

  ────────────────────────────────────────────

  Every Invisible Blocker layer in the Matte Layers list now shows a

  dedicated red  [ Clear Invisible Blocker ]  button directly below it.

  One click performs a complete teardown:

    ✓  Unlinks object from the blocker collection

    ✓  Deletes the LML_Blocker_ collection

    ✓  Removes the LML_BlockerLayer view layer

    ✓  Removes the LML_ compositor nodes

    ✓  Clears the holdout flag on the main view layer

    ✓  Restores the object's original visibility state

    ✓  Removes the layer from the scene registry

  No manual cleanup needed.

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  CHANGES FROM v1.4

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  +  Invisible Blocker mode added to the Create Matte dialog

  +  Clear Invisible Blocker button added to the Matte Layers list UI

  +  LML_OT_RemoveInvisibleBlocker operator registered

  +  Compositor auto-wiring on blocker apply and full cleanup on removal

  +  Updated guide documentation (Section 7 — Invisible Blocker)

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  KNOWN LIMITATIONS

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  • Invisible Blocker requires Cycles. EEVEE is not supported for this mode.

  • One active blocker view layer per scene (LML_BlockerLayer). Multiple

    blocker objects should be added to the same layer, not separate ones.

  • The auto-wiring assumes your main view layer is named "ViewLayer"

    (Blender's default). Renamed view layers require manual adjustment.

  • Existing custom compositor nodes are preserved; LML nodes are labelled

    with the "LML_" prefix for easy identification.

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  UPGRADING FROM v1.4

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  1. Go to  Edit → Preferences → Add-ons

  2. Find "Light Matte Linker" and click  Remove

  3. Restart Blender

  4. Install  light_matte_linker_v1_5.zip  (do not unzip)

  5. Enable the addon and save preferences

  Existing Light Linking and Matte setups in your .blend files are

  fully compatible — no scene changes required.

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  Light Matte Linker  ©  ProdatDigital

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