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Feathered shadows in renders

DPF

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

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