**Seriously, how do I get good ground shadows? **

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I'd like to know the same thing..  :D

 

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I'm still learning shadows but what I've come to find is having the lights in my scene parented to a null on the floor.  Also for me the light that creates the shadow is a spotlight and is set at a higher value then the other lights.  I don't know if I explained this right or if it anwsers your question as I said I'm still working on shadows myself :0)

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In general, when lighting a scene, I find Distant Lights more efficient and work better than spotlights.  Another tip.....Play with your shadow softness and bias.  In nature, rarely is your shadow hard on the edge.  Never is your shadow the same from one light to another...for instance, right now, there's a light on in my living room, uncovered lightbulb, and there's a light on in the stairwell, covered lightbulb.  The shadows in my living room are harsh and ugly.  The shadows in the stairwell are soft and subdued. 

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Thanks everyone.  I am using distant lights, but find I either have my floor totally shadowed or none at all.  I guess I will work with it some more.

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Are you changing the angle of the lights, Dan?  The easiest ways to do that is to use the light as a "camera", and rotate it and move it to where you want.  Well, that's what I do.  ;)

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**Thanks everybody.

  Yes I definitely am changing the angle of the lights.  I am trying out DS because of the  Puppetmaster feature.   I have never seen such a fun way to animate.  I wish Carrara 6 could open up a DS file and preserve the animation though.

What is this using a light like a camera?  Can I look through the light?  I can watch the scene while I rotate the light around to see where it goes.  Is that what you mean?  I wish the lights were selectable from the scene tree  when I am in lighting and render mode.**

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I have to run, but when I get home this afternoon, I'll post some screenshots of what I mean, ok, Dan ;)  Sitemail me if I forget, LOL.

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.

Quote - What is this using a light like a camera?  Can I look through the light?  I can watch the scene while I rotate the light around to see where it goes.  Is that what you mean?  I wish the lights were selectable from the scene tree  when I am in lighting and render mode.

Yeah, you can switch your viewport to see the scene from the view of a light. As you move around the viewport, the light moves w/ the view, just as if it were a camera. It's really nice when you have a spot w/ 'point at' turned on. Makes it easy to place spotlights.

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I guess if your wanting your shadow to on the "whole" ground surface  having a distance light as your shadow caster is good.  If it just your characters then the spotlight is better, at least for me.  Using the light as a camra is an excellent way to postion the light to where you need.  You need to be patcient though as I've found sometime finding just the right spot is not always easy and it takes time. 

Hope you get it, have fun! ;0) Heztia

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The problem with distant lights is they have no point of origin.  They are infinite light that illuminate the scene completely at a specific angle.  If your scene is the interior of a building the walls, floor and ceiling will cast shadow unless you turn cast shadow off for them.

What you might be missing is the Ambient setting on your floor material. Ambient is the colour of something when there is no direct light shining on it. i.e. the colour of the shadow. So you can get stronger shadows by setting ambient to black.

regards
prixat

Ok, here's how I start out, Dan.  I set up my scene, no lights.  I prefer Distance Lights, so that's what I use.

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I add my first light, and I want to set it up where I want it, without using the dials, because they're not as accurate....so, I go to the display drop-down menu to select the light to use it as a camera (Note: You can't render with a light as your camera).

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.

I select my distance light from the drop down menu...

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.

The distance light will encase your whole scene, and the spotlight will start at the exact zero on the X, Y, and Z axes in DS. 

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.

I rotate it to where I want it to be...

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.

And, I go back to my main view.  It's a little dark, I need another light.

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.

Ok, added the new light.....

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.

Now, to select it from the drop-down again, so I can move it to the angle I want it at.

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I want this one in front, so I want to rotate it to where I want it.

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.

Now, Back to the main camera.

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.

Now, select the light you want to have shadow (you can do this for all of your lights, but I prefer to do it for just one) in the Scene palette.

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.

Now, select the kind of shadow you want (Mapped or Raytraced...I prefer Raytraced, myself), and the softness of the shadow, as well as the bias.  I chose a softness of 50% and a bias of 2.50.

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.

And, after 3 1/2 hours of rendering (hey, I"m cleaning my house, so patience has nothing to do with it!), here's the finished image. I prefer the softer shadow.  It mimics, but doesn't exactly replicate, AO, and that's good enough for what I'm doing in D|S.

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.

Thanks to everyone and especially to JenX for the fine tut.  I hope this works on ground shadows like it does on figure shadows.  Your ground is so dark, I cannot tell  how the shadows  are there.

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