Soft Shadows/ Hotspots

#1

I am trying to render a face and have it as photorealistic as possible.
I am using Skycast ( buy it - you’ll love it. ) and would like the shadows that are cast to have soft edges.
How do I do this ?
Also, I notice that I keep having my specular hi lights become too bright and washed out.
I am using both a specular size and specular intensity map, but can’t find the perfect balance.
Is there any plug ins that have been written to control the specular hot spot ?

#2

I don’t use skycast, but in general, you should be able to get soft shadows by either switching to Z-buffered shadows, or by raytracing with multiple rays (in which case, you’ll want to adjust both the width and width softness. I’m not really sure what you’re trying to do with the specular, perhaps an image would help?? You might also want to check out this: http://www.ypoart.com/tutorials/skylights-intro.htm as it has some interesting information regarding setting up skylights. Hope this helps!

#3

Try increasing the light width. When using multi-pass A:M will jitter the light location within the width on each pass which will give you softer shadows and better speculars.

I find that this feature lets you get away with a lot fewer lights in a skylight, which speeds things up and still gives you a nice look. I’m getting nice soft shadows using an (8) light skylight!

#4

Hey Will, do you use Kliegs or Bulbs in your skylights?

#5

I use bulbs–It is one of Yves Poissant’s skylights that he has on his website.

#6

Those are the ones I use, but I was just wondering if you tried them as Kliegs or not. I might try it, just to see what kind of lighting I get.

#7

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