Maya® Studio Projects Texturing and Lighting

Project: Fine-Tuning the Shadow

At this stage, the depth map shadow is equally smooth along its edge. The softening is provided by the Filter Size attribute of the area light. Unfortunately, the degree of softening is equal along all points of a depth map edge. In contrast, artificial light sources, such as lightbulbs, create shadows that naturally soften over distance. You can re-create such softness by switching to raytraced shadows. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Select the area light and open its Attribute Editor tab. Expand the Raytrace Shadow Attributes section and select the Use Ray Trace Shadows check box. The Use Depth Map Shadows check box is deselected automatically. Return the Shadow Color attribute to black.
2. Render a test. Because ...