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View Full Version : another stupid shadow pass question/mib_light_point

edtheknife
01-06-2007, 01:51 PM
Hi there,


My topic:
I just set up a huge scene lit by a number of mib_light_points. Looks beautiful, renders fast.
Since the shadow is a bit sharp I am trying to produce a shadow pass out of the mib_pointlights, to soften it up a bit in the post.
Strangely, the usual way (use bg_shader, turn everything black ...) does not work here.

I like the mib_light-way to controll the attenuation of the light and the shadow in an easy and FAST way. Rendering a usual shadow-Pass with, let us say, normal point lights, using dacay and raytraced shadows gives similar results but renders so awfully SLOWLY.

any suggestions ?

Ah yes, I may not forget:
I love this forum. SO useful. My appreciation :thumbsup:
edtheknife
01-07-2007, 09:28 PM
All right, here are two workarounds I tested today.

(from now on I will call mib_point_lights == mib's)

a. the long and winding road

1. render your colour or whatever pass you need from the mib's
2. Write down the attenuation (start and) stop of each light
3. Delete mental rays mibs but not the lightshape
4. Turn the lights into maya volume lights and scale them to exact the amount of you mib-attenuation-stop value. (If you used attenuation start: have fun while playing around with all the ramps of the volumes...)
5. render your shadow pass.


b. the short cut

1. install puppet's p_Mega_TK, read the manual and follow instructions.
2. Spare alot of time


But nonetheless:
I am still really really irritated by the fact that it is such a damn hard thing to render a shadow pass from mentals standard lights. I mean, imagine puppet chose 5 years ago to become a plumber ? :shrug:
So if anyone knows a good and easy way out of mayas and mr standard shader to get a shadow pass with mib's , I really would like to know the way.

edtheknife
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01-07-2007, 09:29 PM
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