Kixum has asked me in another thread how to use the Environment Lighting function to simulate soft shadows . So here is an example : For this image, here is how i did the light : - i've created a sphere of 512 triangles in the vertex modeler, cut it in half to lessen the number of lights . Of course, it has to be re-oriented to face the area it will light . - i've shaded it with a glow (you can use the color channel just the same) - i've selected it and added an Environment Lighting to it (Edit menu) . For the EL options, i've set the light color source to glow and pushed all the sliders at max to be sure the number of lights it will create will be the same as the number of facets in the half-sphere . And voila, the light is done . It will create soft shadows that can go through transparency with no problem, except maybe the rendering time . In fact, the shadows are sharp, but because the Environment lighting creates a lot of light sources in different locations, it gives the illusion of soft shadows . To change the EL setting, you'll have to select the EL in the sequencer and use the Master Light function (Edit menu) . I'd suggest to enable "Smart Sampling" and "Light Smart Sampling" in the render options when you work on the scene, but there will be some kind of stairs steps on the image . So disable them for your final render : it will be slower but the render will be much better . And if you want to get rid of the unesthetic lines that you will see on clean surfaces, then just use a more detailled sphere for your light caster object . Happy experiments ! litst litst@chez.com http://www.chez.com/litst

...... amazing!!! ;=]

Thanks. I'll give this some chewing on. It's so unfortunate that the soft shadows option in C is so Crummy and has such a limited scope of application. The only time I've gotten it to do something that I really liked was the shark shadows in my contest Jelly Fish entry. I tried to do something with my pod racer but no dice so I'll give this a shot and see what I can get. Thanks a lot! -Kix