These types of shadows are natural. If you notice
a telephone pole??™s shadow, the farther the shadow is from the pole, the softer the shadow
becomes. Adding such a shadow to a render can greatly increase the realism of the scene.
To enable a soft shadow such as this, select Area Shadows as your shadow type. By
default, the Area Shadow will work for you. Figure 10.72 shows a regular Raytraced shadow.
Figure 10.73 shows an Area shadow at the default settings.
Figure 10.73
An Area shadow begins to soften at the ends.
Figure 10.72
A Raytraced shadow is too hard-edged.
Shadow Map Shadows Raytraced Shadows
Figure 10.71
Raytraced shadows
react to transparencies,
and Shadow
maps do not
492 ?– chapter 10: 3ds Max Lighting
Go to the Area Shadows rollout shown in Figure 10.74. To adjust the softness of the
shadows, you will not want to increase the Sample Spread because that parameter, just like
the Sample Range of the Shadow Map shadow, softens the entire shadow. A true shadow is
crisp where it meets the casting object and softens as it casts away.
To further soften the ends of the shadows, in the Area Light rollout, set the Length to
80 and the Width to 60. This will increase the softness of the shadow in a realistic way,
while keeping the contact shadow crisp.
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