Semi-transparent Shadows

[Jozvex]

Add some more lights to your scene! Like a point or ambient light!

If something is completely in shadow it'd have to be black!

[svenip]

or render in passes. then you could adjust the transparency of the shadow layer later in a compositing program.

unfortunatly maya produces very very rough shadow passes.

[spoondesigns]

Thanks for the ideas. - although it all sounds like a real limitation.

That's really too bad, and a real problem with Maya's lighting scheme. It's nice in C4D or LW to be able to throw a light in and then reduce the opacity of the shadow - it makes for a much more realistic look very quickly without having to add more lights (which then throw off the lighting balance, etc...). Unless you're in a really, really dark room, with only one light source and surfaces that don't bounce ANY light, shadows are rarely totally black. You can always see the surface beneath the shadow.

Thanks for the tips. If someone finds out another way, please post it. I'll praise your name forever.


Thanks,
Spoon

[beaker]

Changing the shadow color to a lighter grey works fine here. Not sure why it glows on you. What version of maya are you using?

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