Boni opened this issue on May 15, 2007 · 9 posts
Boni posted Tue, 15 May 2007 at 10:37 PM
I'm working on a challenge for CGsociety ... but I'm doing it in Vue 5 Esprit. I was wandering if there is a way to soften the shadows without losing detail in the image or the darkness of the image. It's an interier vue for a dark hallway. I can add a pic later (It's still rendering as I type).
CGsociety is a great site, but they are so stuck on Maya, Cinema 4d, Max 3d and the other big guys that It's hard to be taken seriously as a Poser/Vue user. I decided to do my best anyway.
Any help would be appreciated. :mconfused2:
Sincerely
~ Boni ~
Boni
"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork
Victoria_Lee posted Tue, 15 May 2007 at 11:25 PM
If you are using a volumetric light for the interior you can adjust the shadows in the volumetric settings.
Hugz from Phoenix, USA
Victoria
Remember, sometimes the dragon wins. Correction: MOST times.
bruno021 posted Wed, 16 May 2007 at 4:11 AM
Shadow softness can be achieved in Esprit, by applying a softness % to any light, in the object attribute manager ( right above the camera preview). What I usually do is reduce the shadow % to about 75% (right click the shadow button in the manager and reduce in the pop up window), and give the light 5% softness.
You will need more antialiasing with softness on, because soft raytraced shadows produce noise artifacts in the shadow edge.
But it is absolutely possible to get this effect right with Esprit.
Boni posted Wed, 16 May 2007 at 3:02 PM
Cool. Thank you so much for the info. I'll post the image here when I'm done, see if I can get a critique if that's okay.
Sincerely
~ Boni ~
Boni
"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork
Boni posted Wed, 16 May 2007 at 5:29 PM
Okay, here is the original. With the harsh shadows. It's more detailed at this time.
And this one is the one with the soft shadows, although it's much smaller and less detailed at this time. I just need to know if it's ready for the final render. Also added the skelleton.
Thanks folks.
Boni
Boni
"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork
bruno021 posted Wed, 16 May 2007 at 5:38 PM
What render settings did you use? The soft shadows render is quite grainy, you need more anialiasing. but it will look better.
How about adding a negative point light where the lady sits for more dramatic effect?
Boni posted Wed, 16 May 2007 at 6:41 PM
Thanks for the comments. The graininess is from trying to bring out details in Photoshop.
What effect would the negative point light create? Also ... where would be the best place to place it? Thanks so much.
Boni
Boni
"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork
bruno021 posted Wed, 16 May 2007 at 7:00 PM
I would place the negative light mid point between where she is sittng and the opposite corner. This would darken the area, basically creating shadows, so we would know there is something down there, but we couldn't really see what it is, indroducing a nice fear effect...
haegerst posted Wed, 16 May 2007 at 7:25 PM
Good idea, havent used negative point lights since vue 4. =)
If you generally want all background a bit darker for mysticism, then i can always recommend playing around with a bit of black haze (sometimes i also use blue haze for dark areas).
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