I’m using 2.31 and am having a strange issue trying to render a glass table.
I’ve got the table-top material where I want it. It has an Alpha of .15 and has an environment map on it with Color=.06 and Alpha=.1. Z-trans is ON.
In other words, the surface is barely there.
It’s enabled for shadows, and has a spot lamp pointed at it throwing shadows.
Here’s the problem: The glass table surface is throwing a HARD, dark black shadow on the floor, obscuring all the details of the table frame (which is supposed to be the star of the scene).
I’ve thought of back-filling the shadow with another lamp, but I want to figure out where it’s coming from.
Thanks. Somehow, I had never encountered that affect before, and it had me stumped.
EDIT:
There is a Lamp control that only shines on objects on the same Layer.
Is there an analog for Objects?
IOW: I want to fake a very subtle shadow by duplicating the glass top onto another layer, with a duplicate of the primary light. If I turn the Light energy WAY down, then I get the shadow affect I want, but now the other lights in the scene throw the hard shadow off of the dummy table-top. Can I make that table top only respond to a specific light?
yep scanline it is, the shadow you want to asheive is a raytracer job you can even call it caustic cause you want the table to cast some littile shadow like a true glass. Note this, scanline render is all about fake,fake,fake. if you want that sort of shadow you’ll have to fake it.for example you can give some texture to a spot who will cast negativ light or keep the spot over the table and add some light under it with a energy 1/2 time less high then your spot.
Am I to assume that shadow color is not an option for lights then? That is without the trick theeth was so nice to share.
Along those same lines, just a quick tip. To add a little “realism” to a scene, try adding a little color to your shadows. It works especially well on an outdoor scene to add just a hint of blue.
Sorry for the confusion. I just piggy backed the colored shadow question on the back of the caustics question. You’re right, definitely 2 different issues.
I guess my question/comment has more to do with colored shadows than caustics. I’ll ask it then start a new thread if people would prefer.
With reguards to using the Hemi, in other programs using an ambient type light tends (in my opinion, that is) to wash/gray out an image if used too heavily. Usually,I’ll only use them to bring out some detail in darker scenes rather than lighting every single corner. Generally, I try to avoid them though.
A technique that worked well with Maya* (especially for outdoors scenes) was to add a tint to the shadow color. It added a bit of realism and detail, quickly and with no additional render time. It also allowed for cheap caustic tricks and some funky special effects (like white or patterened shadows).
On the plus side, Theeth’s work-around seems like a pretty nice trick. I have to try Bischofftep’s too (2 lights instead of 3 would be even better). I’m considering taking up some Python just so I can write a plugin that creates the three (two?) lights necessary to pull it off with one button click. Any suggestions on whether this would be worthwhile or how to start this would definitly be appreciated. Maybe if people like it enough, colored shadows could become part of a future build?
Thanks again,
Kdiddy13
Please don’t be upset at me for mentioning Maya, I only mention it because we would all be foolish to ignore the successes of others while we try to develop our own processes. Please don’t read that I’m hoping that this becomes Maya, I like Blender more and more every day.
2.31 that is.
