i have tried every combination and setting i could think of. here is what i am talking about:

www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/dwc-51-lg.png
www.bestlogic.com/collage/pics/2008-01-31-00-15-29-PST.jpg

the light overhead is infinite. the artifact occurs when the shadow is reduced in intensity and that has been done using several methods. the render window is 1000x625 and i have reduced the cooresponding size of the figure by reducing its size, zooming the camera out or moving the camera back. if there is other information needed, let me know.

this doesn't occur without changing the size. i also generate large images of animals and so far i haven't noticed the same thing occurring yet.

hopefully someone has seen this before. if it can't be fixed, it would be good to at least diminish it. i am trying to render a good size collection of vehicles as clip art.

thanks in advance for any assistance.

This may be an instance of Poser not rendering shadows correctly when an object uses a transparency map, do any of the materials have one ?

hi nruddock. thanks for stopping by.

there is glass in the model. i removed all the materials and i still get the same result. then i closed poser, removed the texture cache files and rebooted to insure nothing was hanging around. i still get the same thing but the truck looks pretty cool being all white with opaque windows.

the only thing that is different from my previous renders is that i changed the shadow parameter on the light that has shadow to .67. i have the same settings on a horse and it did not have the problem.

what can i try? can i minimize the effect in some way.

 

Sometimes, if there is an object (any object) behind the camera Poser 7 will superimpose its artifacts on to the image in front of the camera. There is no fix for this problem and there are no plans to fix it. I hope that this problem you are having is not the one I mentioned. If it is then contact Smith Micro and let them know about it. Sooner or later they will get tired of complaints about this issue and fix it, along with a few other problems, I hope.

I hope you mean the line in the shadow under the car :) If you do, are you using ray-traced shadows? If so, try using shadow mapped shadows. I Firefly rendered a picture using the sedan you have in your picture with my infinite light set to ray traced shadows, and had the problem you show. I then switched the shadow to shadow mapped and rendered again, and this time the shadow was solid underneath the sedan. My shadow intensity was set to .6 in both of my renders .

thanks for sharing your experience, raven.

i am using shadow mapped shadows. (???)

your home page says: "it's all paid for (3d software), and better than blowing it down the pub".

that gives me an idea. i am generating clip art for a kids' graphics program and they probably won't notice. maybe i should just accept it and go down to the pub instead of fretting about it.

the amiga was really awesome. i nearly bought one but i was writing software for pc's.

Have you tried increasing the shadow map size to 512 or 1024?

I like to use 1024 with two lights having a .35 shadow and one having a .65 shadow. Tends to make the shadows softer and removes some artifacts created when the maps hit low poly areas.

Have you tried using ray traced shadows to see if that improves things?

The Amiga rocked. Loved and miss mine. (I hear Commodore's back but their Amiga's are more PC than Amiga now).

Teyon, thanks for your interest and thoughts.

i did in fact increase the shadow map size and even increased the ground size. i am not very experienced using poser, so i have modified everything that might possibly have an effect. that has led me to explore new things and so there has been benefits to the situation.

i have been trying to master the basic layout of poser and the 3d space and have yet to fully ring out things like lights and cameras. other than reading, i haven't even begun to consider shaders or actually creating a mesh. lighting is probably my next intense exploration. i do have one strong weapon and that is what i have learned about using python. it allows me to try more combinations and see the results more easily.

your suggestion of using 2 lights for shadows seems worth exploring. i do have 2 lights for filling in that don't render shadows. i purchased a couple of light sets but they didn't please me, so i made some modifications to the one that was closest to what i think i need.

i am making clip art to be combined outside of poser and really need only one effective lighting scheme at this point. i want all my clipart to share a consistent lighting for now. i have many single characters and props in my library and as i learn more, i can re-render everything to reflect that. my main goal right now is to enlarge the library of pz3's.

i took a peak at your bio. it is interesting as are your creations. i think that you follow your heart and that is a good thing. most people are bound to their conceived obligations and the expectations of others.