Feathered shadows in renders

[DPF]

Any way to feather the shadows in rendering? I'm a render newb and just playing around with it, teaching myself and I'm figuring most of it out and getting some nice simple renders. My only real lingering issue is that I can't find a way to feather the shadows for realism. The shadows are always hard-edged and that ends up making it look cartoony.



-DPF

 

[Guest]

Don't know if this will help, but it would make sense. Try messing around with your lights. Move the lights to a greater distance away from your model, or experiment with different types of lights.

 

[DPF]

Ya, I tried that a little bit, didn't really get me anywhere, I'll continue to pl;ay with it. There has got to be a way to at least simulate it. Thanks.



-DPF

 

[bem]

Soft edged shadows are an advanced rendering technique, better done with other software. However here is a technique you might want to play with.



Instead of rendering your scene with one key light (primary illumination) try a bar of spot lights (say 4 or 5 )closely spaced to each other. Of course, using this many lights to cast shadows will increase your rendering times This might give the effect your looking for. I don't know if Pro/e uses ray tracing or depth mapping for shadows but this is the best you can do unless you have photolux in wildfire.



p.s. I've also seen a technique using lights with negative brightness. Since pro e only allows you to control the color of a light, you could try adding lights that are very dark grey in color.

 

[Speling]

Hi

Try to play with materials transparency etc. You can use Maya or Studio Tools - both are best packages in their fields. Maya for 3d computer animation with special effects and Studio Tools in the industrial design field

 

[Guest]

I've also noticed on very large assemblies the resolution of the render decreases, including the shadows. How large is your assembly?