I have a mirror in my scene that works great but it is taking shadows unfortunately.  I selected the mirror and checked off "Cast shadows" but it still receives them.  What I mean by receive them is that shadows get cast on the reflective surface of the mirror ... Anyone know how to fix this?

Thanks

can you show a picture please?

There we go.   I was thinking of checking off "Cast shadows" on Jessi but I don't know if that will cause other problems.

You will HAVE to change lighting.  You might try a Point Light, No Shadow, between Jess and the Mirror.  Another trick is to use an Infinite light, again, No Shadow, on the far side of the mirror and pointing TO Jess.  This allows her reflection to be seen in the mirror.

Every scene is a little different and calls for different lighting solutions.  I've a bathroom scene and ended up using both Point and Infinite, both non-shadow casting, to front/backlight the figure reflected in the mirror.  Other Infinite and Spot lights light the scene ...

We'd love to see your solution.
Rªnce

Well, mirrors do catch shadows, but it shouldn't show quite that strongly.  How is the material set for the mirror?

A big trick with scenes involving mirrors in Poser is that as Rance says, you pretty much have to put a cheater light behind the mirror, because Poser does not handle light the way you might expect.  A real mirror will reflect light back onto the stuff that is in front of it, but that doesn't happen in Poser (no Global Illumination).

The shadow is not cast by the mirror, it is the shadow of the character, therefore turning off shadows for the mirror won't help (unless you have a light behind the mirror). Try setting the shadow strength of the light to zero (or a small value, say 0.2) in its properties.

I dunno about that, I tend to think the material properties of the mirror need some attention - particularly specular should be set to 0 (no specular) since you're doing proper reflection.

Looking at the example pic, the shadow cast on the mirror is exactly what I'd expect for that lighting situation.  You have absolutely lo light on the character's face.  All the light appears to be coming from the lamp at the back of the room.

You seriously need to alter the light setup.  Poser lights and surfaces do not behave like the real world.

Not really.  I, personally, do'nt like shadows; and was tickled pink to find a Cast Shadows option(for the whole scene) in the Render Settings.  With it off I got the attached image.

On the root node of your mirror, near the bottom, uncheck Reflection Lite Mult.

I gotta remember that one!  This is, specifically, what that is there for?

Quote - I have a mirror in my scene that works great but it is taking shadows unfortunately.  I selected the mirror and checked off "Cast shadows" but it still receives them.  What I mean by receive them is that shadows get cast on the reflective surface of the mirror ... Anyone know how to fix this?

Thanks

Try changing where the light is would be something you can try.

ReflectionLiteMult:

"...multiplies the total color through the amount of diffuse lighting hitting each point on the surface. This automatically darkens reflections in areas not seen by lights. On by default" (Poser Manual).

Actually its a totally artificial effect, not related to any physical phenomena, there to confuse the f*ck out of everybody and ruin your renders. Which, of course, is why its on by default....

Cheers,
Diolma

Quote - Go ahead; select the Body of the figure, open the Properties palette, turn off Cast Shadows, render a small image, and let us know what you think?

"You will HAVE to change lighting. "*

Not really.  I, personally, do'nt like shadows; and was tickled pink to find a Cast Shadows option(for the whole scene) in the Render Settings.  With it off I got the attached image.

I don't have the option to turn off "Cast shadows" when I select the body of the figure. But I could go to each individual body part and check off the option. Kind of annoying but I think this is the quickest way and a lot better than re-rendering over & over again trying to get another lightset working  just for the mirrors.

Update: This did not work. Instead of a shadow I get a brighter light where the shadow would be and strange artifacts.

Quote - On the root node of your mirror, near the bottom, uncheck Reflection Lite Mult.

This seemed to work quite well, but now the mirror is A LOT brighter.  I probably have to lower the reflection value.

Update: So far from what I've tried the two best options have been checking off "Reflection Lite Multi" OR using an infinite light to overpower the shadow that was getting rendered on to the surface.

Actually its a totally artificial effect, not related to any physical phenomena, there to confuse the f*ck out of everybody and ruin your renders. Which, of course, is why its on by default....

yeah,why would they make life easy for us!

What you have to remember is this...

In the real world, a mirror is not only something that shows a reflected image, it also reflects the light hitting it and will therefore illuminate the things in front of it.  Flashlight manufacturers take advantage of this by placing a mirror behind the bulb, thereby increasing the amount of light cast by such a tiny source.  Actually, almost everything in the real world throws back a certain amount of light, all of which, when combined with atmospheric scattering, adds up to quite a lot of "ambient light". 

In Poser, unfortunately, this doesn't happen, so anything directly in front of a mirror without additional lights will be dark. 

Shadows, like them or not (Hi Angelouscuitry) are part and parcel of realism but the trick is to make them work properly.  Shadows are seldom 100% dense black and their effects will be muted by the amount of light hitting them from sources away from the main light source (the "ambient light" thing again).

Now, you could go down the road of using AO and GI but it's probably simpler at this point to do the following:

a) Reduce the shadow intensity to around 50%.

b) Add several low intensity spotlights or point lights in and around the front of the face.  No shadows from these lights, btw.

c) Maybe throw in a couple more low lights without shadows to the lett and right of the face, just behind.

i would advise against turning off  "cast shadows" for poser figures, as that's one of
the reasons why poser renders are ridiculed by users of more expensive 3d packages.
1997-style P3 no shadow/nostril-glow stuff has no place in this century IMVHO.

Yep, Fooey on Shadows, ...actually ;  )

As a Photographer I've spent countless time setting up light after light in order to remove them; then, in doing so, show more of the actual surface of the model/object being recorded. 

Last month I actually spent about a week exploring Depth, and Raytraced Shadows.  After all that I went with my instinct; and decided that shadows just made my renders look dirtyer.

For what it is worth I liked Raytraced better; even though there did'nt seem to be any control?

Quote - i would advise against turning off  "cast shadows" for poser figures, as that's one of
the reasons why poser renders are ridiculed by users of more expensive 3d packages.
1997-style P3 no shadow/nostril-glow stuff has no place in this century IMVHO.

Agreed.

Quote - a) Reduce the shadow intensity to around 50%.

b) Add several low intensity spotlights or point lights in and around the front of the face.  No shadows from these lights, btw.

c) Maybe throw in a couple more low lights without shadows to the lett and right of the face, just behind.

I'm going to try this next. This seems like another proper way of doing it but also adds some nice finishing touches as well.

Quote - Yep, Fooey on Shadows, ...actually ;  )

As a Photographer I've spent countless time setting up light after light in order to remove them; then, in doing so, show more of the actual surface of the model/object being recorded. 

Last month I actually spent about a week exploring Depth, and Raytraced Shadows.  After all that I went with my instinct; and decided that shadows just made my renders look dirtyer.

For what it is worth I liked Raytraced better; even though there did'nt seem to be any control?

Yeah, but photography is generally an artificial setting anyhow.  If you're trying to capture a realistic picture in a realistic setting - or a semblance thereof - ya gots ta have yer shadows.

Controlling Raytraced shadows is pretty simple once you get the hang of it.  "Shadow" on the parameter dials will control the overall density.  I usually have this set to 0.400, which is (obviously) 40%.  Exceptions are sunny outdoor scenes, where the density would be much higher. 

Flip to the Properties tab and you'll be able to control Shadow Blur Radius (useful for getting rid of the uniform hard edge) and Shadow Min Bias, which helps control the artefacting, ie the grainy horrible bits you can sometimes get when two objects are close.  Generally, Shadow Min Bias should be set to around 0.25 - 0,28.  If you start to get weird looking polygons at those settings, you have to increase Shadow Min Bias until they go.  Sometimes, this means you may have to render twice (once for the scenery, once for the figures) in order for the shadows to look right.  But, since most of my images are multiple renders anyhow, it's not that much of a chore for me.

" Yeah, but photography is generally an artificial setting anyhow. "

Coming from a Poser forum...:woot: I do'nt know...:lol:

:tt1: Thanks, Sam, for the tip on Raytraced Shadows :tt2:!  What needs to be selected, to have a "Shadow" parameter dial show?  I selected a light, and I see a Shadow parameter, but it is currently set to 1.00.  I think this is the light set model I did my testing with, and I remember the shadows were very dark?

With the light selected, I also noticed an Intensity parameter, what does that do?

Ehrm, you should have quoted the next line, too.  :tongue2:

Shadow Parameter dial is the one that says, er... "Shadow" :biggrin:  If it's set to 1.00, it's too dense for most purposes.  Realistically speaking, the most it should be - even in a very high contrast lighting situation - is 0.8.  Maybe 0.9 if you're really pushing it.  General lighting situations call for somewhere more or less halfway.  I tend to use 0.4 for most things.

Intensity is the brightness of the light.

Hope that's some help.

Thank you SamTherapy; I'd thought I was done testing shadows, but now I see there is more to explore! :tongue1:

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1606797

BTW, here is an example of very high contrast shadows, used in my last gallery pic.  Notice they're not completely black.

This is a single pass render without postwork.

:thumbupboth: Wow, sweet pick, thanks again!