I must thank Nance for pointing me in the right direction. Shadow Cameras are the answer to many problems I have with shadows - the missing part of the puzzle. Where can I find information about them? Any tutorials? Can anybody give me some details about them?

Well, I can give you some details. Each light in Poser has an attached Shadow Camera (which is basically a camera in the same position as the light - for the most part) that is used to cast shadows from the light. In simplistic terms, the camera is used to get silhouettes of objects within its view and these are projected onto objects behind them as shadows. You'll find them in your Scene files (PZ3), Light files (LT2), and any other files that have lights (some Pose files give you different lighting schemes, for example) as SHADOW_CAM_???. I'm not certain, but I think there is a way to select them in Poser, but don't quote me on that. :0) BYS

I have made some progress with the shadow cams. They are selectable in the Camera list. I have found that if you rename your lights, the names of the shadow cams remain the same as they were, so if you have 3 lights, and you renamed them, then added a 4th, the new light would be Light1, and the sc light would be shadow cam 4. That little characteristic had me confused at first. This new knowledge is solving a nagging problem for me. I intend to experiment with these and master them. I never used them because I was under the false impression that they were for checking the lights' aim. thanks for the info - the more I know, the faster I progress! -fritz

Pleased that the info proved helpful. Don't know of any real tutes, though I believe Geep touched on them in some of his. However, if you search "shadowcam" in here as one word, at the least, a bunch of my other posts on different aspects of lighting and shadow manipulation should pop up.

you must experiment - lower values than 1 give hard, higher values soft shadows. Mungo

Mungo, What setting does those numbers you site refer to? Percentage?

sorry - I meant the percentage , 1 equals 100 Mungo

Without a doubt, shadowcams are the secret to getting good shadows in Poser. You should always zoom them in so that your shadow-casting objects fill the frame. If there is any space around them in the frame, you are just wasting your shadow resources and sacrificing detail. I have found that it is much better to use the parameter dials to move and zoom the shadowcam rather than the "trackball" camera controls which just don't seem to behave with the shadowcams. If you rename a light, be sure to also rename the corresponding shadowcam or wou might have trouble remembering which cam goes with which light.

Thanks, Ronstuff, This has all been a great help! I have a working knowledge of this obscure element of Poser. Now I can get some work done!

Yes, Nance has good info on using/adjusting the shadow cameras. You might also check the mini-tut(s) on my homepage for additional info on shadows (my info deals more with directional lights, where the shadow cameras seem to work differently... but you can use that info in conjunction with the other info - it's not exclusionary).

Thanks, Spanki, I will visit your page. I mostly use directional lights, so your info will be important. These replies have helped me a lot.

I just found the earlier thread... and it seems that Nance has looked into the subject (including my work-around) more than I have - so I'd recommend just reading everything she's written on the subject ;).

Thanks for the generous endorsement of those earlier threads. -floydd Nance (I really gotta start typing with a deeper voice)

D'oh! sorry... I assumed Nance was the first name... my bad.