I'm used to the lighting lab in Bryce, which has a great deal of controls and shadow settings. In Poser, I can't get shadows to work for me. For example, the shadows under the right hand on the leg are postwork, so are the shadows around the bottom of the dress and the chest line as well as the armpits. And the smoothing of the paint does a good job with the skin, but ruins the dress hem. No matter what I do, convert the lights to spots, change position or intensity, or even deleting lights and keeping a single angle, the shadows in poser suck. Anyone got a suggestion? I've been exporting from Poser to Bryce just for the light lab and terrain labs, but transmaps are a pain and no matter how hard I try, they still don't come out right. So, what's the solution? Lightwave? Universe? Cinema? Something as simple as this should be doable in Poser / Bryce.

Well, I'm certainly not an authority, but I read somewhere that you should change the shadow map to 2000 - 4000 on the spots. I don't think the infinite ones go past 1024. Not sure if that will help, but maybe something to look at. It sure makes then "better".

Try selecting the properties for each light and turning the "Cast shadow" option on/off fo each one until you get the desired effect. Poser usually uses 4 lights and unless you're going for a multi shadow effect you could turn off all "cast shadows" except for one and get single shadows, then position that light so you get the shadows where you need them.

You have to manually type in values higher than 1024 (limits) then the map should use values higher than 1024. As DEL says you have to turn off cast shadow for all but one light. smerc has the link to a good tutorial on lighting in Poser. or you could check the archives under keyword "abby" I think he listed it in a thread a month or two ago.

Ok, I revisited the pz3 and tried the deal about turning off the shadows on all but one light (and tried that for all three lights) but no go. I'll check 'abby' thanks.

I checked on abby just to make sure. There are some good tips on the thread smerc suguested but none seemed to be talking about shadows. Sorry about that. I'm sure I had a conversation about this with someone. I'll look and let you know when I find it or get back to you tommorrow if it was a tutorial I read somewhere.

Eric, These oughta be sufficient - if not let me know and I'll check my personal archives for tutorials. in Archives search under keyword "shadow": 1) groundshadows(again) 7/28 2) help with shadows please 7/09 3) is there another trick to getting rid of shadow distortions 6/17

biker, maybe something is wrong with my Poser setup, but when it's an infinite light, and I click and type, say, 2000, in the value, press enter, it reverts to 1024. But not the same with spots. Per blackhearted's or hmann's suggestion, I can pump the spots to 4000. Am I missing something?

No, that sounds right. The infinite lights are more limited in mapping. The spots have limits as to angle. Finding the right combination and getting the dial settings to work FOR you is the hard part. I heard that you can change a lights max values in the .lt2(?) file (the light file for your lights), but I'd make a duplicate light to play around with if you wanna do this. (I don't remember trying this, so I can't tell you much more about it or if it works.)

LOL...what do I know anyway!?!? Can't light ANYTHING the way I want to...hehe. I just remembered the shadow map setting and the limits I ran into...grin. Worked on a "lighting special" yesterday for several hours and deleted it in frustration. I guess that's why my gallery is 3 images long...LOL. Tks for the help, mousey one!

Chuck: Perhaps in the light of a new day the answer will dawn on you. Put that idea away and come back to it later or keep trying until you get it.(either way persistance and experimentation is the key.) Perhaps one more "mousey" than I will come to your aid. - sorry I couldn't help, bikermouse

ok heres a couple to keep you busy til I get back try Snowsultan's homepage. Not what you want but interesting. silver people 7/15 archive Sharen of SAMS3D "Heins Lights" at url below ? http://www.thewizzs.com

ok here's some more all in the tuorials section in renderosity 1) volume light cheat 2) lucifer quick tutorial in negative light 3) light and magic (a 2.2 meg download - this one's a mystery to me but it looks interesting on the face of it.) 4) lighting a lamp with poser (and Heins Light) 5) T. Allen's new volume lights tutorial. 6) poser and photographic lighting. "Tha..Tha..THat's all folks". If it ain't in here somewhere I don' know what else to tell you.

I've had some luck with the lighting & shadows in poser recently, what I did was have 12 lights all infinite. I change the colours to blues greens and reds for all but 1 light & kept that as plain white, the 11 coloured light I moved round so they pretty much cover all angles then change intensity on them to 10% & turn off their shadows. with the white light I made that's intensity roughly about 40% and made the shadow map 1024, using the dials I get that one into a position where the shadow goes where I want it and render for a nice sharp shadow. check out my gallery for the pic called shadow map test to see what I did. Rob

it gets even more interesting when you add a small amount of blue or green to the white light as well. Rob

Interesting study. The shadows look pretty darn good (for Poser) except for the one on her (HER) right upper arm. Shadows like that, meaning a bit jaggedy, seem to go away with a good shadow map depth setting. Of course, it could just be the lattice you spoke of.

I think it was the lattice I set the shadow at 1024 so it should have been nice & sharp but that's poser for you :) Rob