# Lighting a Sprite with Light Nodes Add lighting and shadows to your scene with light nodes. ## Discussion You can use a sprite’s lighting properties, [`lightingBitMask`](/documentation/SpriteKit/SKSpriteNode/lightingBitMask), [`shadowCastBitMask`](/documentation/SpriteKit/SKSpriteNode/shadowCastBitMask) and [`shadowedBitMask`](/documentation/SpriteKit/SKSpriteNode/shadowedBitMask), to apply effects such as illumination and shadow casting and receiving. These can be used in conjunction with normal mapping to simulate 3D lighting. The following figure shows a normal mapped sprite node acting as background and two shadow casting sprite nodes (each with a rabbit texture). The [`SKLightNode`](/documentation/SpriteKit/SKLightNode) object’s [`categoryBitMask`](/documentation/SpriteKit/SKLightNode/categoryBitMask) matches the lighting bit mask of the background, and the lighting and shadow bit masks of the two rabbits: ```swift // Create the background sprite node let background = SKSpriteNode(texture: noiseTexture, normalMap: noiseTexture.generatingNormalMap()) background.position = spriteKitViewController.center background.lightingBitMask = 0b0001 scene.addChild(background) let x: CGFloat = 150 let y = spriteKitViewController.scene.size.width - 150 // Create a light let lightNode = SKLightNode() lightNode.position = CGPoint(x: scene.size.width / 2, y: y) lightNode.categoryBitMask = 0b0001 lightNode.lightColor = .white scene.addChild(lightNode) // Create two rabbit sprite nodes and assign them with both a lighting and a shadow cast bit mask. for position in [CGPoint(x: x, y: y), CGPoint(x: y, y: y)] { let rabbit = SKSpriteNode(imageNamed: "rabbit") rabbit.position = position spriteKitViewController.scene.addChild(rabbit) rabbit.lightingBitMask = 0b0001 rabbit.shadowCastBitMask = 0b0001 } ``` The resulting scene shows the two rabbits casting shadows over the background (the light is rendered as a white circle). The noise texture gains a 3D look from the normal mapping:  --- Copyright © 2026 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. | [Terms of Use](https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/terms/site.html) | [Privacy Policy](https://www.apple.com/privacy/privacy-policy)